Professional Skills and Abilities

3.1 Curriculum and Pedagogy

3.1.1 Plan effectively to meet learners’ needs

Professional actions

As a registered teacher to demonstrate your professional skills and abilities you are required to:

• plan coherent, progressive and engaging teaching programmes which address the needs of every learner
• plan learning in accordance with current curriculum guidance, including in Gaelic medium education where appropriate
• identify the potential barriers to learning and plan differentiated and appropriately challenging learning experiences to ensure learning is accessible for every learner
• communicate appropriately with every learner, modelling and promoting competence and confidence in literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing and digital literacy
• ensure teaching builds confidence and promotes the progress of every learner and
• plan learning that is creative, sustainable and uses available resources

3.1.2 Effectively utilise pedagogical approaches and resources

Professional actions

As a registered teacher to demonstrate your professional skills and abilities you are required to:

• create meaningful contexts for learners through a range of different learning environments
• employ appropriate teaching strategies and resources, including digital approaches, to meet the needs and abilities of every learner
• use self-evaluation and professional learning to support and improve practice
• use a wide variety of questioning techniques and a wide range of digital and traditional approaches to enhance learning and teaching
• create opportunities for learning to be transformative in terms of challenging assumptions and expanding world views

3.1.3 Effectively utilise partnerships for learning and wellbeing

Professional actions

As a registered teacher to demonstrate your professional skills and abilities you are required to:

• contribute to a rights-respecting culture where learners meaningfully participate in decisions related to their learning, wellbeing, learning environment and their school
• create and sustain effective working relationships with colleagues, parents/carers, families, wider school community and partner agencies, to support learning and wellbeing across the school and taking a lead role when appropriate
• establish opportunities for parents/carers to participate in decisions about their child’s learning
• practise self-care and support the wellbeing of others seeking support where necessary
• develop partnerships which:
  
  • support decision-making that is compatible with a sustainable future in a just and equitable world  
  • connect learners to their dependence on the natural world and develop their sense of belonging to both the local and global community
  • connect relevance of learning to skills for life, learning and work

3.1.4 Effectively employ assessment, evaluate progress, recording and reporting as an integral part of the teaching process to support and enhance learning

Professional actions

As a registered teacher to demonstrate your professional skills and abilities you are required to:

• record, analyse and use assessment data effectively to evaluate learning and teaching
• use the results of assessment to identify development needs at class, group and individual level and as a basis for dialogue with learners about their progress and targets
• evaluate and use a range of differentiated assessment strategies that ensure support and challenge for all learners
• use appropriate formative and summative assessment strategies to provide opportunities for challenge and growth appropriate to the needs of every learner and to meet the requirements of the curriculum and awarding and accrediting bodies
• engage with moderation and verification processes to inform pedagogy, learners’ progress and school improvement
• produce clear, informative reports for parents/carers, the school and partner agencies which discuss both progress in learning and matters related to personal, social and emotional development in a sensitive and constructive way
• apply professional judgement to evidence gathered to inform summative assessment

3.2 The Learning Context

3.2.1 Effectively organise and manage learning

Professional actions

As a registered teacher to demonstrate your professional skills and abilities you are required to:

• create a safe, caring and purposeful learning environment which is welcoming and inclusive, well managed and well organised
• plan and organise effectively to facilitate whole-class lessons, group and individual work and promote independent learning
• take into account the additional support needs of learners to ensure meaningful learning experiences
• use a wide range of opportunities that stimulate and reflect ongoing learning in varied and dynamic learning environments
• enable every learner to make full use of well-chosen resources, including digital technologies, to enhance learning, teaching and assessment, as appropriate
• create opportunities for learning to be transformative in terms of challenging assumptions and expanding world views
• draw on a range of sources to evaluate the impact of the learning environment on every learner and learning and to challenge assumptions, surface bias and adapt provision, as appropriate.

3.2.2 Effectively engage learner participation

Professional actions

As a registered teacher to demonstrate your professional skills and abilities you are required to:

• value all learners and their participation, actively engaging children and young people in decision-making about their education
• demonstrate care and commitment to working with every learner, embracing diversity to ensure that every learner feels welcome, included and is ready to learn
• demonstrate a secure knowledge and understanding of wellbeing indicators, childhood development and the impact of additional support needs
• recognise that childhood experiences impact on the learning and wellbeing of children and young people and actively respond in appropriate ways, seeking advice and collaborating as required
• utilise and evaluate a variety of strategies to nurture caring and supportive and purposeful relationships with learners and celebrate success.

3.2.3 Build positive, rights respecting relationships for learning

Professional actions

As a registered teacher to demonstrate your professional skills and abilities you are required to:

• promote and develop positive and purposeful relationships with and between learners, colleagues, families and partners
• use a variety of research-informed approaches to relationship building in a consistent way to build and sustain all professional relationships
• communicate appropriately with every learner, modelling and promoting competence and confidence in literacy, numeracy, and health and wellbeing
• recognise where learners with additional support needs require alternative approaches and seek support as necessary
• commit to and demonstrate equity and inclusion to advance equality of opportunity between learners who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not and foster good relations
• encourage learners to respect and care for themselves, others and the natural world

3.3 Professional Learning

3.3.1 Engage critically with literature, research and policy

Professional actions

As a registered teacher to demonstrate your professional skills and abilities you are required to:

• identify and source appropriate literature, research and policy
• engage critically with research to challenge and inform professional practice and question and challenge educational assumptions, beliefs and values of self and system

3.3.2 Engage in reflective practice to develop and advance career-long professional learning and expertise

Professional actions

As a registered teacher to demonstrate your professional skills and abilities you are required to:

• commit to lifelong learning, through an ongoing process of professional review and development that impacts on the learning of children and young people
• reflect and engage critically in self-evaluation using the relevant professional standard
• adopt an enquiring, reflective and critical approach to professional practice
• enhance learning and teaching by taking account of feedback from others including children and young people and actively engage in professional learning to support school improvement
• work collaboratively to contribute to the professional learning and development of colleagues, including student teachers
• maintain a reflective record of evidence of impact of professional learning on self, colleagues and learners
• engage with the Professional Update process