ID Competencies- Week 11

Given Table 27.3, which lists ID, training manager, and instructor competencies as was developed by Richey et al; I looked mainly at the competencies set forth for instructors in 2003.  Given this list of 18 competencies, I would say my strengths are:

1. Communicate Effectively

4. Establish and maintain professional credibility

7.  Stimulate and sustain learner motivation

8.  Demonstrate effective presentation skills

14.  Use media and technology to enhance learning and performance

Most of these strengths come from the environment I teach in and the curriculum I am expected to teach.  Since I am not in an ordinary school setting, I have media and technology expectations that exceed what is even possible in the public school setting, which is the reason that numbers 8 and 14, have become my strengths.  I would like to think number 7 is true, but again it could be impacted by the fact that I only see the kids for 5 days and not for an extended time.  Lastly, numbers 1 and 4 are things that I think are strengths of mine, however they are also the things that I work the hardest to maintain.  It has been tough to establish professional credibility, but it feels that I have effectively established it, and now the task is to work hard to keep it. 

As far as the competencies that I would like to develop better, I would like to start with number 4, establishing and maintaining professional credibility.  This is something that I think is very important to become a good teacher, and one that is looked up to by students and colleagues.  I also feel that if I want to improve myself as an educator, and move into a higher position, professional credibility is very necessary.  I feel as though I have a good start, but it’s definitely something that I will always attempt to improve upon.

Next, I would say number 6, Preparing for instruction and improving organization, is an area that I would like to improve on.  I used to be very unorganized, and over the last couple of years this has changed a bit, but I still need to improve even more.  I have always strived to be an organized person because there is a perception of success that comes from being organized.  Maybe it’s just me, but I perceive unorganized people to be less successful instructors.  I am not saying this is always the case, but there is something to be said that my top three favorite instructors in school were also the three most organized people. 

As reluctant as I am to admit the next competency weakness of mine, I would say that I need to improve on 17, managing an environment that fosters learning and performance.   I have improved over the last few years, and I feel as though as I get older and the age gap increases, this will be easier to do.   When I started teaching I was 22 and some of my students were 19.  This made it difficult to gain respect, but I managed.  (I think very well)  Now that I have been teaching for 5 years, it has gotten a lot easier to earn respect, but I still have some difficulties in the classroom management area.  Some of this has to do with my own personality in that I act a little crazy, tend to get off task occasionally to make things fun, and like to have an open and friendly environment in my classroom.  This is one of the reasons I feel that number 7 above is one of my strengths, but I would like to improve on the classroom management portion of things and still keep this as a strength. 

Lastly, I would like to improve on 9, demonstrate effective facilitation skills.  I think that I am pretty good at doing this, and with more practice it will become easier, but I have seen people that do this extremely well, and I would like to be more like them.   I am not sure anyone can truly master this task, but some people are much better than others, and I’m not quite in that group yet.  So, why not set my goals high and aspire to be one of those people that can facilitate discussions so well that others strive to be like me?  

With that, a lot of these competencies are things that come natural to many of us, but we all need improvement somewhere.   Overall, I would like to improve on them all, and hope that I will as time goes on.  However, there are definitely some places that need more improvement than others, so I’ll start there!