Essential Guides for Early Career Teachers: Professional Behaviours

This title outlines the personal and professional skills and behaviours needed to be an effective early career teacher beyond that of your own subject knowledge and class-based practices.

It provides guidance on how to gain the most from mentoring conversations and how to develop good habits around workload and managing priorities. It helps you develop and understand the importance of engaging in self-reflection, professional development, building relationships and managing your well-being, encouraging you to consider your professional identity, values and motivators in order to become the best teacher you can be.

The Essential Guides for Early Career Teachers provide accessible, carefully researched, quick reads for early career teachers, covering the key topics you will encounter during your training year and first two years of teaching.  They complement and are fully in line with the new Early Career Framework and are intended to assist ongoing professional development by bringing together current information and thinking on each area in one convenient place.

Introduction

1. The professional self
2. The need for professional development
3. Who can help me become a better teacher?
4. How can others help me become a better teacher?
5. How can I look after myself?
6. Putting it all together

Emma’s absolute passion is teacher education. After gaining a First Class degree in Psychology and training as a primary teacher, she became Head of initial teacher education for a SCITT provider in Milton Keynes. She sees teacher education as a continuum and, whilst her heart will always be very close to the initial stages of a teacher’s development, she is also dedicated to ensuring teachers are given access to high quality professional development throughout their careers.  Emma took up the role of Executive Director Designate of NASBTT in April 2017 and has been in the post of Executive Director since September 2017.

Colin Howard is a senior lecturer in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) at the University of Worcester supporting outstanding training for trainee teachers and their class-based mentors. He has been involved in primary education for over 30 years of which 15 years were as a successful headteacher in both small village and large primary settings. His research and school experience links to primary science, mentoring trainees, school leadership, SEND and teacher professional identity. He has written publications linked to primary science, teachers and student’s mental health and well-being, British Values, mentoring in schools and school leadership and management. 

Rachael Paige is Head of Department for Primary Education at the University of Worcester, driven by a focus on ensuring that new and established teachers are supported in their own development and given opportunities to think in creative and critical ways. She has worked in primary education for over 20 years and was a headteacher before moving into teacher education and training. Her work in school focused on inclusion through a SENCo role and leading English and Music. Her key research area is teacher presence but she has also written about teacher identity, leadership approaches to enable the development of the ‘whole child’ and relational leadership to create positive climates for schools.