DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS

Defining Professionalism

The term professionalism can be defined by enumerating some characteristics that a professional should possess. According to Banfi (1997, as cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010, p. 28 ) “a professional should provide a social service, trust in “their intellectual skills” in order to offer that service, have had a “long period of specialized training” and be autonomous and involved in decision- making issues.”

As regards teaching, the term professionalism involves being reflective. “Reflection relates, directs and confronts ideas” (Marcelo, 1996; Day, 1994, as cited in Elortegui Escartin, Perez & Fernandez, 2003, p. 102).  Professional teachers should be able to reflect on their practices and, what is more important, they should encourage students to analyse their learning. By doing that, teachers promote what Banfi (1997) calls “professional growth”. According to the mentioned author, collaboration, updating and autonomy are the keys to make progress in the field (Pintos & Crimi, 2010, p. 29).

Considering professional development, Wallace (1991) specifies that being a professional implies showing a basis of scientific knowledge as well as having the ability to perform tasks in a competent manner (as cited in Pintos & Crimi , 2010, p. 28). Furthermore, he suggests three different models to describe how professionals develop: The Craft Model ( characterized by a specialist and an apprentice), The Applied Model (considering Thinkers and Doers) and The Reflective Model ( identified by received and experiential knowledge).

On the whole, professionalism is a quality that a person acquires through a continuous and autonomous process of learning and updating. As Banfi (1997) states “ Professional development comprises those activities in which professionals are engaged for the purpose of achieving professional competence” (cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010, p. 28)

References

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 1: Building Up a Community of teachers and Prospective Researchers. Retrieved September 2010, from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=7214

Fernandez, Gonzalez, J., Elortegui Escartin, N., & Medina Perez, M. (2003). Los incidentes criticos en la formacion y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista Universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17-001. Zaragoza. España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrived September 2010, from http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/src/inicio/ArtPdfRed.jsp?iCve=27417107

Finding a definition of a discourse community

According to Swales (1990) “a discourse community can be defined in terms of specific requirements such as common goals, participatory mechanisms, information exchange, community-specific genres, highly specialized terminology and high general level of expertise” (cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010, p. 13).

Common goals refer to the objectives and interests that a group should share. This is related to the idea of membership. Swales (1990) considers that belonging to a discourse community implies giving testimony of such membership (as cited in Pintos and Crimi, 2010, p. 13).

As regards participatory mechanisms and information exhange, people in a discourse community should have the chance to participate and get feedback. Some members generally hold what Lave and Wenger (1991) call a peripheral participation because they are new members and acquire knowledge through their involvement in the group. (As cited in Pintos and Crimi, 2010, p. 14)

As far as specialized terminology and high general level of expertise are referred, a discourse community should achieve a certain level of knowledge and use proper language. According to Pintos and Crimi (2010) members should know about the genres and conventions of the discourse community they are part of.

As Flowerdew (2000) indicates, a discourse community is defined in terms of its members, who “function as scientists because they share language, beliefs, practices, education, goals, professional initiations and professional judgements” (as cited in Pintos and Crimi, 2010, p. 13).

 References

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 1: Building Up a Community of teachers and Prospective Researchers. Retrieved September 2010, from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=7214