Guiding Principles for Educators
The School of Education at the College of New Jersey established guiding principles for future teachers, outlining the efforts that should be made by potential teacher candidates within any of the Education programs offered. These guidelines offer teachers an insight into what is expected of them while within the program, as well as once they are ready to enter the field of Education.
Guiding Principle #1: Teachers must demonstrate subject matter expertise.
Educators must: demonstrate highly advanced oral and written communication skills and ethical decision-making skills in their interactions with others, including students, colleagues, families and community members; apply and transform the growing knowledge bases in the content and practice of their professions; and value inquiry, critical thinking, connected knowledge, creativity, independent thinking, and interdisciplinary conversation.
Guiding Principle #2: Teachers must demonstrate excellence in planning and practice.
Educators must: work to maintain excellence across the continuum of practice through ongoing inquiry and learning; use defensible, appropriate instructional strategies, based on a solid knowledge-base of their profession and and on the assumption of personal responsibility for effective practice; use technology effectively as a tool to support and enhance learning and understand how technology changes teaching and learning, including the contexts in which learning may occur; attain and demonstrate efficacy as reflective, effective educational decision makers; and possess in-depth understanding of human growth and development to enable them to make developmentally appropriate decisions.
Guiding Principle #3: Teachers must demonstrate a commitment to all learners.
Educators must: work successfully with learners and clients of increasingly diverse backgrounds and be knowledgeable about how universal characteristics of human development interact with individual and cultural differences to influence learners and are competent in using that information to promote development in all populations and with all persons they serve.
Guiding Principle #4: Teachers must demonstrate a strong, positive effect on student growth.
Educators must: make connections among theory, research, and practice; see their success in terms of the progress made by their students and how to accurately assess their learners' strengths and needs; be professional in their interactions and competent in collaborating with others in a community of learners to create positive educational environments; and demonstrate success in multiple contexts.
Guiding Principle #5: Teachers must demonstrate professionalism, advocacy, and leadership.
Educators must: act as leaders in the enhancement of practice in their professions and be active advocates for their students and clients.
Guiding Principle #1: Teachers must demonstrate subject matter expertise.
Educators must: demonstrate highly advanced oral and written communication skills and ethical decision-making skills in their interactions with others, including students, colleagues, families and community members; apply and transform the growing knowledge bases in the content and practice of their professions; and value inquiry, critical thinking, connected knowledge, creativity, independent thinking, and interdisciplinary conversation.
Guiding Principle #2: Teachers must demonstrate excellence in planning and practice.
Educators must: work to maintain excellence across the continuum of practice through ongoing inquiry and learning; use defensible, appropriate instructional strategies, based on a solid knowledge-base of their profession and and on the assumption of personal responsibility for effective practice; use technology effectively as a tool to support and enhance learning and understand how technology changes teaching and learning, including the contexts in which learning may occur; attain and demonstrate efficacy as reflective, effective educational decision makers; and possess in-depth understanding of human growth and development to enable them to make developmentally appropriate decisions.
Guiding Principle #3: Teachers must demonstrate a commitment to all learners.
Educators must: work successfully with learners and clients of increasingly diverse backgrounds and be knowledgeable about how universal characteristics of human development interact with individual and cultural differences to influence learners and are competent in using that information to promote development in all populations and with all persons they serve.
Guiding Principle #4: Teachers must demonstrate a strong, positive effect on student growth.
Educators must: make connections among theory, research, and practice; see their success in terms of the progress made by their students and how to accurately assess their learners' strengths and needs; be professional in their interactions and competent in collaborating with others in a community of learners to create positive educational environments; and demonstrate success in multiple contexts.
Guiding Principle #5: Teachers must demonstrate professionalism, advocacy, and leadership.
Educators must: act as leaders in the enhancement of practice in their professions and be active advocates for their students and clients.