II.

The Importance of Teacher’s Participation in Decision-Making

Decision making involves giving consideration to a matter, identifying the desired end
result, determining the options to get to the end result, and then selecting the most suitable option
to achieve the desired purpose. Teacher decisions about the issues just mentioned ultimately will
influence student learning.

Teachers make countless decisions all day long in an effort to promote student learning.
When you break the decisions down, they fall into three categories: planning, implementing, and
assessing. Some decisions are made at the desk when preparing lesson or unit plans, designing an
instructional activity, or grading papers. Other decisions are made on the spot during the
dynamic interactions with students when delivering a lesson.

Teacher’s decisions about planning, implementing, and assessing matter a great deal. As
attempts are made to improve schools and increase student achievement, one constant has
remained: Teachers are the most important factor in improving schools. Attempts to reform or
improve education depend on the knowledge, skills, and commitment of teachers. This point is
made emphatically by Darling‐Hammond and Baratz‐Snowden (2007) in “A Good Teacher in
Every Classroom: Preparing the Highly Qualified Teachers Our Children Deserve.” Teachers
need to know how to implement new practices concerning the basic teaching functions, but they
must also take ownership or the innovation will not succeed.

Thus, teacher’s commitment continues to be a crucial issue for improving schools and
student learning. It means that teachers ought to be more involved in decision-making in their
schools as an opportunity for them to gain more experience, more confidence as they execute
their duties, and increase their level of satisfaction, which in turn promises to increase their
commitment to teaching as a profession, and to their organization as a place of employment.

III. Teacher’s Roles and Responsibilities

1. Teaching Role

Teachers play vital roles in the lives of the students in their classrooms. Teachers are best known
for the role of educating the students that are placed in their care. Beyond that, teachers serve
many other roles in the classroom. Teachers set the tone of their classrooms, build a warm
environment, mentor and nurture students, become role models, and listen and look for signs of
trouble. Teachers are given a curriculum they must follow that meets state guidelines. This
curriculum is followed by the teacher so that throughout the year, all pertinent knowledge is
dispensed to the students.

Teachers also play an important role in the classroom when it comes to the environment.
Students often mimic a teacher’s actions. If the teacher prepares a warm, happy environment,
students are more likely to be happy. An environment set by the teacher can be either positive or
negative. If students sense the teacher is angry, students may react negatively to that and
therefore learning can be impaired. Teachers are responsible for the social behavior in their
classrooms. This behavior is primarily a reflection of the teacher’s actions and the environment
she sets. Teachers are there not only to teach the children, but also to love and care for them.
Teachers are typically highly respected by people in the community and therefore become a role
model to students and parents. . Teachers are taught to look for signs of trouble in the students.
When students’ behaviors change or physical signs of abuse are noticed, teachers are required to
look into the problem.

2. Research Role

Periodically, there are calls for the schools, and especially for their teachers to involve
themselves in doing research. More interestingly, it may be challenging for teachers as well. This
is because the classroom is, if anything, a dynamic place. With so much going on at any given
time, how can teachers be sure that what they’re doing is making positive impact on students’
learning? Every classroom is different. It is this complexity in which they operate in that
provides a compelling reason for teachers to look more closely into their own teaching practice.
One way for them to do so is to conduct research, right in their own classroom.

Increasingly, teachers find themselves faced with new and novel demands, with no right
or existing models to guide them. Instead of reusing the same old teaching strategies that have
worked in the past, they may have to come up with innovative ways of teaching. Not only that,
teachers are also encouraged to come up with their own curriculum initiatives.

The objective in academic research is to produce new knowledge but for most teachers
doing research, the purpose is to improve practice while being informed by theory at the same
time. When they do literature review, they don’t have to be exhaustive. The purpose is to look
for literature that pertains specifically to the classroom teaching strategy that they wish to try or
explore.

3. Service Role

A teacher’s job is to educate children, youngsters, teens, and other people that seeks to
expand upon their knowledge. A teacher’s role in society is to transfer knowledge that is
important for the future of individuals and the society so that we can continue to lived civilized
in an age where so many people are depending on each other. We're not really talking
community anymore since we've moved on to become much larger today than before. We'll find
communities within the greater context of society and a teacher’s role is to serve society as a
whole, not individual communities, and a teachers job is important.

Moreover, teachers who are in service expected to educate young peoples about topics
important to future careers that students may get involved in while making sure their content is
non-biased so that students can form their own opinions about them and the world. Teachers are
helpful in keeping our future generations from being naive to the world and their surroundings.
They also help students develop life/career skills that will be useful in the future. Basically,
teachers’ roles are to prepare young peoples for the future.
 Effective teams do not just happen, they are meticulously put together consisting of a
group of highly skilled, highly motivated individuals who have a clear picture of their goals and
can receive clear and tangible evidence of their achievements. A highly charged environment
will attract high performers who are looking for success. Success builds on success, therefore, a
group’s reputation is also a major selling point. There must be an opportunity for individual
success within the framework of the group’s goals.

In the topic, Group Dynamic Theory