A guide to the Professional Standards
Introduction
The Professional Standards for Scotland’s Teachers describe teacher professionalism in Scotland; teachers’ ‘way of being’.
The Professional Standards provide the framework for all teachers in Scotland to enhance their professionalism and ensure rigour and challenge that supports a resilient and enabled profession.
The Professional Standards support and promote partnership, leadership, enquiry and professional learning and have multiple purposes.
The purpose of the Professional Standards
- to create a shared language for teaching professionals
- as a benchmark for professional competency (Standard for Provisional Registration and Standard for Full Registration)
- to develop and enhance professionalism
- to support career-long professional growth
- to provide a framework for Initial Teacher Education, provisional registration and leadership pathways and professional learning programmes
- support for self-evaluation and reflection for teachers in, and aspiring to, formal leadership roles and contribution to dialogue about leadership and management
- to inform the process of recruitment and selection
- to ensure and enhance public trust and confidence in the teaching profession
The Standard for Headship is a requirement for teachers permanently employed in headteacher roles since August 2020.
Being a teacher in Scotland
The Professional Standards 2021 include a new section called ‘Being a teacher in Scotland’, which highlights the professional values of social justice, trust and respect and integrity as central to what it means to be a teacher in Scotland.
This roots the Professional Standards as a framework that supports what it means to become, to be and to grow as a teacher in Scotland.
The strong focus on professional values helps teachers develop their professional identity and underpins a deep commitment to all learners’ cognitive, social and emotional growth and wellbeing.
The Professional Standards are integral to, and demonstrated through, teachers’ professional relationships, thinking and actions in their professional practice.
Commitment to reflecting on the connections between values and actions and career-long professional learning is a critical part of developing teacher professionalism.
Explore the Professional Standards
Learn more about the Professional Standards:
The Standard for Provisional Registration
The Standard for Provisional Registration (college lecturers)
The Standard for Full Registration
The Standard for Full Registration (college lecturers)
The Standard for Career-Long Professional Learning
The Standard for Middle Leadership
Professional Standards comparison tool
Use this tool to compare professional knowledge and understanding, and professional skills and abilities across the Professional Standards.
Introduction
The Professional Standards for Scotland’s Teachers describe teacher professionalism in Scotland; teachers’ ‘way of being’.
The Professional Standards provide the framework for all teachers in Scotland to enhance their professionalism and ensure rigour and challenge that supports a resilient and enabled profession.
The Professional Standards support and promote partnership, leadership, enquiry and professional learning and have multiple purposes.
Teachers use the suite of Professional Standards individually and collaboratively, contributing to both their own professional growth and the professional growth of others. The Professional Standards are brought alive through professional practice. They are central to Professional Review and Development (PRD) and Professional Update (PU).
The purpose of the Professional Standards
- to create a shared language for teaching professionals
- as a benchmark for professional competency (Standard for Provisional Registration and Standard for Full Registration)
- to develop and enhance professionalism
- to support career-long professional growth
- to provide a framework for Initial Teacher Education, provisional registration and leadership pathways and professional learning programmes
- support for self-evaluation and reflection for teachers in, and aspiring to, formal leadership roles and contribution to dialogue about leadership and management
- to inform the process of recruitment and selection
- to ensure and enhance public trust and confidence in the teaching profession
The Standard for Headship is a requirement for teachers permanently employed in headteacher roles since August 2020.
Being a teacher in Scotland
The Professional Standards 2021 include a new section called ‘Being a teacher in Scotland’, which highlights the professional values of social justice, trust and respect and integrity as central to what it means to be a teacher in Scotland.
This roots the Professional Standards as a framework that supports what it means to become, to be and to grow as a teacher in Scotland.
The strong focus on professional values helps teachers develop their professional identity and underpins a deep commitment to all learners’ cognitive, social and emotional growth and wellbeing.
The Professional Standards are integral to, and demonstrated through, teachers’ professional relationships, thinking and actions in their professional practice.
Commitment to reflecting on the connections between values and actions and career-long professional learning is a critical part of developing teacher professionalism.
You can use the Professional Standards
- To ask critical questions and support enactment of Professional Values, Professional Commitment, Professional Knowledge, Understanding, Skills and Abilities
- As an aspirational and developmental framework
- To inform and plan professional learning
- To self-evaluate and challenge thinking
- To select development areas relevant to you and your learners
- As a reference and reflection point for professional dialogue
- To support professional judgement when adapting professional actions
- To support student teacher, provisionally registered teacher and colleagues professional learning and reflection
Embedding the Professional Standards in your practice
Teachers registered with GTC Scotland commit to making a real difference, as is recognised in each of the Professional Standards:
Making a professional commitment to learning and learners that is compatible with the aspiration of achieving a sustainable and equitable world embodies what it is to be a teacher in Scotland. This means teachers commit to living the professional values and engage in lifelong learning, reflection, enquiry, leadership of learning and collaborative practice as key aspects of their professionalism. This commitment to professional learning and growth, to the growth of learners, and to helping support that of colleagues, is demonstrated through engagement with all aspects of professional practice. - Professional Standards for Scotland’s Teachers
It is through this demonstration of engagement that the Professional Standards are brought to life.
Taking ownership of the Professional Standard(s) most relevant to you and to your professional development and bringing it to life, however, is a wholly active process that can only be enacted by you.
It is your own exploration, your own engagement and, ultimately, your own practice that brings the written word alive to embody, embed and further develop what it means to be a teacher in Scotland.
Professional Standards comparison tool
Use this tool to compare professional knowledge and understanding, and professional skills and abilities across the Professional Standards.
Introduction
The Professional Standards for Scotland’s Teachers describe teacher professionalism in Scotland; teachers’ ‘way of being’.
The Professional Standards provide the framework for all teachers in Scotland to enhance their professionalism and ensure rigour and challenge that supports a resilient and enabled profession.
The Professional Standards support and promote partnership, leadership, enquiry and professional learning and have multiple purposes.
Teachers use the suite of Professional Standards individually and collaboratively, contributing to both their own professional growth and the professional growth of others. The Professional Standards are brought alive through professional practice. They are central to Professional Review and Development (PRD) and Professional Update (PU).
The purpose of the Professional Standards
- to create a shared language for teaching professionals
- as a benchmark for professional competency (Standard for Provisional Registration and Standard for Full Registration)
- to develop and enhance professionalism
- to support career-long professional growth
- to provide a framework for Initial Teacher Education, provisional registration and leadership pathways and professional learning programmes
- support for self-evaluation and reflection for teachers in, and aspiring to, formal leadership roles and contribution to dialogue about leadership and management
- to inform the process of recruitment and selection
- to ensure and enhance public trust and confidence in the teaching profession
The Standard for Headship is a requirement for teachers permanently employed in headteacher roles since August 2020.
Being a teacher in Scotland
The Professional Standards 2021 include a new section called ‘Being a teacher in Scotland’, which highlights the professional values of social justice, trust and respect and integrity as central to what it means to be a teacher in Scotland.
This roots the Professional Standards as a framework that supports what it means to become, to be and to grow as a teacher in Scotland.
The strong focus on professional values helps teachers develop their professional identity and underpins a deep commitment to all learners’ cognitive, social and emotional growth and wellbeing.
The Professional Standards are integral to, and demonstrated through, teachers’ professional relationships, thinking and actions in their professional practice.
Commitment to reflecting on the connections between values and actions and career-long professional learning is a critical part of developing teacher professionalism.
You can use the Professional Standards
- To ask critical questions and support enactment of Professional Values, Professional Commitment, Professional Knowledge, Understanding, Skills and Abilities
- As an aspirational and developmental framework
- To inform and plan professional learning
- To self-evaluate and challenge thinking
- To select development areas relevant to you and your learners
- As a reference and reflection point for professional dialogue
- To support professional judgement when adapting professional actions
- To support student teacher, provisionally registered teacher and colleagues professional learning and reflection
Embedding the Professional Standards in your practice
Teachers registered with GTC Scotland commit to making a real difference, as is recognised in each of the Professional Standards:
Making a professional commitment to learning and learners that is compatible with the aspiration of achieving a sustainable and equitable world embodies what it is to be a teacher in Scotland. This means teachers commit to living the professional values and engage in lifelong learning, reflection, enquiry, leadership of learning and collaborative practice as key aspects of their professionalism. This commitment to professional learning and growth, to the growth of learners, and to helping support that of colleagues, is demonstrated through engagement with all aspects of professional practice. - Professional Standards for Scotland’s Teachers
It is through this demonstration of engagement that the Professional Standards are brought to life.
Taking ownership of the Professional Standard(s) most relevant to you and to your professional development and bringing it to life, however, is a wholly active process that can only be enacted by you.
It is your own exploration, your own engagement and, ultimately, your own practice that brings the written word alive to embody, embed and further develop what it means to be a teacher in Scotland.
Professional Standards comparison tool
Use this tool to compare professional knowledge and understanding, and professional skills and abilities across the Professional Standards.