My primary role is as a lecturer in which my fundamental responsibility is to impart knowledge to my students. Along with this responsibility I also must assess student work within class to ensure students are learning and on the right track but also summative assessment that will go towards the student’s final mark.
“Being a teacher involves much more than the ‘core’ role” (Gould & Roffey-Barentsen, 2014, p. 3) with many of aspects that are essential often before the class even begins, health and safety is of the upmost importance when teaching a class. According to the Hierarchy of Needs Marslow (Maslow, 1954), safety and security are the second most important aspect that could prevent a person from achieving their goals. Other responsibilities include following equality and diversity, and safeguarding requirements. It is also essential that a selection of administration tasks is completed to ensure student safety and progress. The class register is an example of this and ensures that students are in class and can be accounted for in the event of a fire, this forms legal documentation and will be used as evidence for student funding.
While my primary role is as a teacher, “a good proportion of the working day is spent on other pursuits” (Gould & Roffey-Barentsen, 2014, p. 3) such as tutor which has many pastoral responsibilities, such as providing support, guidance, advice and mentoring, this could in the form of a 1-1 or group sessions. Tutors are an important role within any teaching establishment as they provide the first point of contact for students to discuss a variety of subjects beyond and including the taught material. Tutors are also responsible for providing guidance from the teaching establishment on many areas, such as safe guarding, funding etc. In addition to these pastoral responsibilities a tutor will also handle lateness and behaviour problems.
Another important role is the learning coordinator role, the learning coordinator responsibilities involve coordinating with all members of staff within the department to organise the timetable, assessment plans, assessments and many other administrative tasks. This is essential for any teaching establishment as without this role the organisation would not function efficiently, staff and students would not know which rooms were available at what times etc.
Gould, J. & Roffey-Barentsen, J., 2014. Achieving your diploma in education and training. 1st ed. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Maslow, A. H., 1954. Motivation and Personality. New York: s.n.
