Chulapol Thanomsing
EDTL 606: Unit 4 Assignment
Discussing and Analyzing
Career and Technical Education

Standards to assess students’ performance are a statement of the skills and knowledge that one should know and be able to do in a given subject, so are the professional teaching standards.  Advancing the quality of teaching and students’ learning requires maintenance of high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.  They are committed to students and their learning, know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students, are responsible for managing and monitoring students learning, think systematically about their practice and learn from experience, and are members of communities learning (the NBPTS – Five Core Propositions).  Additionally, the goals of the NBPTS is an assessment based on teachers’ performance, and the purpose is to evaluate the complex knowledge and skills of teaching that teachers will be able to meet or exceed those five core propositions.

The NBPTS and the National Board Certification processes have affected the profession of teaching by supporting new concepts of teaching and learning.  According to the new concept of teaching and learning, students’ learning must be active rather than passive.  Teachers must be facilitators who provide opportunities for more interactive student discussions, challenge students to think critically, and use standards to assess what students should know and be able to do.  Therefore, the expectations that teachers have of students will improve their teaching practices, and teachers will be able to transfer these practices to classrooms and to teaching peers.  The two significant positive impacts are an interaction with other teachers to develop their teaching and to improve students’ positive attitudes about learning.
“The Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood/Career and Technical Education” certificate is an opportunity for the career and technical educators to complete an optional national certification administered by NBPTS.  To get this certification, educators must show their knowledge of teaching and learning, and they must be evaluated by standards for “Career and Technical Education Clusters.”  Each standard is expressed in terms of observable teacher actions that have an impact on students. (NBPTS, Career and Technical Education in Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood Certificate)  This type of certification helps ensure that educators have teaching and learning skills considered necessary to be a master teacher in career and technical education.

The purpose of these standards is to develop career and technical educators in terms of both teaching and learning, and technical areas.  The teaching and learning standards are to create a productive learning environment, advance student learning, help students transition to work and adult roles, and improve education through professional development and outreach.  The technical area standard is to develop with each profession in the career clusters areas: Agriculture and Environmental Sciences; Arts and Communications; Business, Marketing, Information Management, and Entrepreneurship; Family and Consumers Sciences; Health Services; Human Services; Manufacturing and Engineering Technology; and Technology Education.

As I have never been a teacher in any area, I could not discuss this standard.  However, I do believe that educators who are interested in getting any certification would have to have a clear understanding of development of curriculum and instruction, delivery of instruction, assessment of students, and evaluation of programs.