Unit 332 Engage in Personal Development

Unit 332 – Engage in personal development in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings. OUTCOME 1 1. 1 My responsibilities and duties include • Helping pupils individually and in groups • Support literacy • Support numeracy • Support science • Supervising art activities • Listening pupils read • Support PE lessons • Support the use of ICT in learning activities • Supervising role play activities • Supporting other members of staff • Feedback teacher Going on school trips • Providing resources for lessons • Providing clerical support 1. 2 Since National Occupational Standards were introduced, the role of the TA becomes professional. It specifies the standard of performance we need to achieve in place of work together with knowledge and understanding that we need to meet standards consistently. What it means is that we need to develop all the time in order to keep in peace with ever changing demands of the education.

Also gaining Level 3 qualification gives us great opportunity to progress to the foundation degree. Teaching assistants should have qualities like: to be good communicators, use initiative, be a good listener, respect confidentiality, have emotional intelligence, be consistent, have sense of humour, will undertake CPD. OUTCOME 2 1. Practitioners should reflect on their practice in order to achieve good results in professional development. Being reflective: • Demonstrates that practitioners are actively concerned about the aims. Enables practitioners to monitor, evaluate and revise their own practice continuously • Requires an ability to look carefully at practice in order to develop new skills and understanding • Requires an open-minded attitude • Enhances professional learning and personal fulfilment through collaboration and dialogue between practitioners What does reflection involves? • Reflection ”in” action, or thinking on your feet • Reflection “on” action, or after the event • Our thoughts and ideas • Our colleagues ideas The views and knowledge gained from our own experiences and that of theoretical literature It might be hard to reflect on practice if we have negative feelings like anger or anxiety, lack of confidence, questions if my behaviour is consistent with model behaviour. Unrealistic, high expectations – I am a perfectionist, reluctance to accept help and admittance to weakness. 2. I reflected on my practice by completing PDP and answering 11 questions (see attachment 1 and 2). The aim was to spot where my strengths and weaknesses lie.

In what ways I have succeeded in classroom and in what ways can I improve? To ensure “best” practice. To see what training might be necessary. This gives me the chance to build on my strengths and develop strategies to minimise my weaknesses. I also did my SWOK analysis (attachment 3). 3. Everyone has different values, beliefs and preferences. We might get across people whose views we do not agree, our reaction to the differences and how they affect the way we work is a crucial part of personal and professional development.

We need to respect and promote people’s individual views and wishes. Everyone’s values and beliefs are affected to different degrees by the same range of factors, they might include: family values, psychical, social and emotional stages of development, national/regional, cultural background, education, employment, religious beliefs and values. They might affect how we relate to people. It is important that we are aware of how we might behave differently towards people because it could make a difference to the quality of our work.

Our beliefs and experiences can help us within our role. OUTCOME 3 4. 1 It is important to continuously engage in personal development to make sure that we are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge not only to perform our current role but also to prepare ourselves for future opportunities and changes required in order to support success of our work place. There are ways in which we can plan personal development. through many types of learning experiences.

We can attend training event or workshop, studying for a formal qualification, reading a newspaper, journal, even in discussion. In order to aid the continuous learning, we should keep personal development record. Is it important to identify priorities when agreeing to the plan because it contributes to stability and growth. It provides a basis for monitoring progress, and for assessing results and impact. It enables to look into future in orderly and systematic way, provides clear focus.