Page 8 - Foundations of Professional Practice, August 2016

ONTARIO COLLEGE OF TEACHERS
Self-regulation and the standards
A self-regulatory body must articulate the values, professional knowledge and skills inherent in the profession it regulates.
The Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession describe the professional beliefs and values that guide the decision-making and professional actions of College members in their professional roles and relationships. The four ethical standards — Care, Respect, Trust and Integrity — establish the core ethics of teaching and are implicit in the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession.
The five interdependent domains of the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession — Commitment to Students and Student Learning, Professional Knowledge, Professional Practice, Leadership in Learning Communities and Ongoing Professional Learning — describe the continuum of knowledge, skills and professional practices of College members.
The Professional Learning Framework for the Teaching Profession presents a variety of ways College members may pursue opportunities for ongoing professional learning. This framework identifies accredited pre-service and in-service programs of professional teacher education designed to reflect the ethical standards and standards of practice as well as a wide range of other opportunities for professional growth and development.
The standards are not intended to be the criteria for the ongoing performance appraisal of individual College members. Performance appraisal remains the responsibility of employers, who apply the criteria by which teaching performance is assessed. In publicly funded systems, this responsibility is outlined in the Education Act and Regulation 99/02, Teacher Performance Appraisal under this Act and in Regulation 234/10, Principal and Vice-Principal Performance Appraisal.
6 FOUNDATiONS OF PROFESSiONAL PRACTiCE