Introduction

In a vital and rapidly evolving society the words “profession” and “professional” elude precise definition. For a long period in the West there were three recognized learned professions, theology, law and medicine. These had a prestige which was highly prized and zealously guarded.

Then architecture, and later engineering, came to be accepted as professions. With the recognition that there are numerous callings which demand disciplined and scholarly training, the designation “Profession” has come to be claimed by still other occupations. Dentistry, teaching, journalism, librarianship, forestry and nursing are some callings to which the status of profession is generally conceded in mature societies, and the list is by no means complete. It may be that the words “profession” and "professional" will cease to be associated with specific callings, and will relate instead to, standards and attitudes.

Any man or woman, who has prepared for exacting service by thorough and disciplined scholarship and training, and who lives and works in the spirit of professional standard, may well be recognized as a member of a profession. Also, the day probably is approaching when, no private business or any other exacting calling can claim the respect and protection of society except in so far as it lives and operates by professional standards.

Professional education is the process by which men and women prepare for exacting, responsible service in the professional spirit. The term may be restricted to preparation for fields requiring well- informed and disciplined insight and skill of a high order.

Text 1

What is ateacher?

—Vocabulary

Conversation – разговор

pace – темп

tone – тон, настроение

to indicate – отмечать

quoting – цитируя

the prophet – пророк

to bid – позволять

affairs – дела

framework – рамка

to ascribe – приписывать

threshold – порог

trainee – стажер, практикант

maturity – зрелость

Teachers use many metaphors to describe what they do. Sometimes they say they are like actors because ‘we are always on the stage’. Others think they are like orchestral conductors, ‘because I direct conversation and set the pace and tone’. Yet others feel like gardeners, ‘because we plant the seeds and then watch them grow’. The range of images - these and others - that teachers use about themselves indicate the range of views that they have about their profession.

Dictionaries also give a variety of messages about teaching. According to the Cambridge International Dictionary of English, ‘teaching’ means ‘to give (someone) knowledge orto instruct or train (someone)’, whereas the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English suggests that it means to ‘show somebody how to do something’ or to ‘change somebody’s ideas’.

It is because views are somewhat mixed as to what teachers are, and because different functions are ascribed to teaching, that we need to examine the teacher’s role not only in education generally, but in the classroom itself.