Ontario Certified Teacher

Last updated

Ontario Certified Teacher (OCT) is the designation of professionals which is granted by the Council of the Ontario College of Teachers to qualified, registered members in good standing. OCT is the designation required of all teachers who teach in publicly funded schools in Ontario. There are over 200,000 OCTs in Ontario.

Contents

Support for a professional designation for Ontario teachers

In its 2007 annual survey of members, [1] the Ontario College of Teachers learned that teachers didn't feel entirely appreciated as professionals. Respondents said that teaching as a profession stood behind doctors, accountants and lawyers in terms of public respect. Only 56 per cent thought licensed teachers received professional recognition in the community commensurate with their education and contributions.

In July 2008, the college hosted focus groups with college members and the public and, in August, conducted an online survey of members. More than 5,000 college members responded, 4201 to the electronic survey. Most voiced strong support for professional designation. Eighty-seven per cent of those in focus groups supported the idea. Eighty per cent of those who answered the electronic survey endorsed the notion. Sixty-six per cent of those reached by telephone also approved. As well, the majority of responding stakeholder groups supported the idea and the rationale behind it. Only one expressed strong reservations against.

National market research and public consultation firm Angus Reid Strategies was engaged to provide independent oversight to the focus groups and online survey of members.

The college's council approved use of the designation in September 2008 by certified, qualified college members in good standing. [2]

Criteria

An OCT is a teaching professional with specific knowledge and skills in the areas of child development, curriculum, assessment, teaching methods, and classroom management. OCTs must meet the education, experience, and other requirements established by the Ontario College of Teachers. As part of their commitment to career-long professional learning, OCTs may enhance their qualifications through Additional Qualification (AQ) courses established by the Ontario College of Teachers.

Only Ontario College of Teachers members in good standing can use the designation. College members who fail to pay their fees and are therefore ineligible to teach in Ontario’s publicly funded schools cannot use it. College members whose teaching certificates have been revoked or suspended as a result of disciplinary measures are also ineligible to use the OCT designation.

Certified college members in good standing have the right to use OCT on letterhead, business cards and professional materials.

The qualifications of every OCT holder can be seen on the college's web site, www.oct.ca, in the ‘Find a Teacher’ section.

Controversy

The designation is controversial with varied support from Ontario's teachers federations. The Ontario Teachers Federation stated in 2009 Should teachers wish to use a designation to indicate their profession, they are entitled to use B.Ed. or Dip. Ed. after their names.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teacher</span> Person who helps others learn

A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paralegal</span> Paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work

A paralegal, also known as a legal assistant, or paralegal specialist is a legal professional who performs tasks that require knowledge of legal concepts but not the full expertise of a lawyer with an admission to practice law. The market for paralegals is broad, including consultancies, companies that have legal departments or that perform legislative and regulatory compliance activities in areas such as environment, labor, intellectual property, zoning, and tax. Legal offices and public bodies also have many paralegals in support activities using other titles outside of the standard titles used in the profession. There is a diverse array of work experiences attainable within the paralegal field, ranging between internship, entry-level, associate, junior, mid-senior, and senior level positions.

Regulation and licensure in engineering is established by various jurisdictions of the world to encourage life, public welfare, safety, well-being, then environment and other interests of the general public and to define the licensure process through which an engineer becomes licensed to practice engineering and to provide professional services and products to the public.

A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of cancer cachexia. Many dietitians work in hospitals and usually see specific patients where a nutritional assessment and intervention has been requested by a doctor or nurse, for example if a patient has lost their ability to swallow or requires artificial nutrition due to intestinal failure. Dietitians are regulated healthcare professionals licensed to assess, diagnose, and treat such problems. In the United Kingdom, dietitian is a 'protected title', meaning identifying yourself as a dietitian without appropriate education and registration is prohibited by law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association of Chartered Certified Accountants</span> Global professional organization

Founded in 1904, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the global professional accounting body offering the Chartered Certified Accountant qualification (ACCA). It has 240,952 members and 541,930 future members worldwide. ACCA's headquarters are in London with principal administrative office in Glasgow. ACCA works through a network of over 110 offices and centres in 51 countries - with 346 Approved Learning Partners (ALP) and more than 7,600 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide employee development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy</span> UK-based professional association

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) is a UK based organisation for accountants who work in the public sector, accounting firms and other professional bodies where management of public funds are required. CIPFA are the only UK professional accountancy organisation who are dedicated to public financial management and they currently have approximately 14,000 members. They offer qualifications including a professional qualification for public sector accountants as well as a postgraduate diploma for people already working in management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teacher education</span> Training teachers to develop teaching skills

Teacher education or teacher training refers to programs, policies, procedures, and provision designed to equip (prospective) teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, approaches, methodologies and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school, and wider community. The professionals who engage in training the prospective teachers are called teacher educators.

A substitute teacher is a person who teaches a school class when the regular teacher is absent or unavailable; e.g., because of illness, personal leave, maternal leave and so on. "Substitute teacher" is the most commonly used phrase in the United States, South Africa, Canada, India and Ireland, while supply teacher is the most commonly used term in Great Britain and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick. The term cover teacher is also used in Great Britain. Common synonyms for substitute teacher include relief teacher or casual relief teacher and "emergency teacher". Other terms, such as "guest teacher", are also used by some schools or districts. Regional variants in terminology are common, such as the use of the term teacher teaching on call (TTOC) in the Canadian province of British Columbia and occasional in Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certified General Accountants Association of Canada</span>

Founded in 1908, the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGA-Canada) serves Certified General Accountants and students in Canada and nearly 100 countries. CGA-Canada established the designation's certification requirements and professional standards, offers professional development, conducts research and advocacy, and represents CGAs nationally and internationally. CGA-Canada joined the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada to integrate operations under the CPA banner in 2015. CPA Canada is the new national accounting body formed by the merger of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) and the Society of Certified Management Accountants (CMA) in 2013, and now Certified General Accountants.

British qualified accountants are full voting members of United Kingdom professional bodies that evaluate individual experience and test competencies for accountants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Institute of Planners</span> Canadian organization

The Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) is a professional organization in Canada for those involved in land use planning. It is responsible for advocating at national and international levels for members, developing public policy positions, and providing services to members. The Institute has over 8,000 members from across Canada and around the world, and works closely with the eleven Provincial and Territorial Institutes and Associations (PTIAs). It was founded in 1919.

Following is a partial list of professional certifications in financial services, with an overview of the educational and continuing requirements for each; see Professional certification § Accountancy, auditing and finance and Category:Professional certification in finance for all articles. As the field of finance has increased in complexity in recent years, the number of available designations has grown, and, correspondingly, some will have more recognition than others. Note that in the US, many state securities and insurance regulators do not allow financial professionals to use a designation — in particular a "senior" designation — unless it has been accredited by either the American National Standards Institute or the National Commission for Certifying Agencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certified teacher</span>

A certified teacher is an educator who has earned credentials from an authoritative source, such as the government, a higher education institution or a private body or source. This teacher qualification gives a teacher authorization to teach and grade in pre-schools, primary or secondary education in countries, schools, content areas or curricula where authorization is required. While many authorizing entities require student teaching experience before earning teacher certification, routes vary from country to country.

Professors in the United States commonly occupy any of several positions of teaching and research within a college or university. In the U.S., the word "professor" is often used to refer to anyone who teaches at a college of university level at any academic rank. This usage differs from the predominant usage of the word professor in other countries, where the unqualified word "professor" only refers to "full professors". Other tenure-track faculty positions include assistant professor and associate professor (mid-level). Other teaching-focused positions that use the term "professor" include Clinical Professor, Professor of Practice, and Teaching Professor. Most faculty with titles of "Lecturer" and "Instructor" in the U.S. are not eligible for tenure, though they are still often referred to as "professors" in a general sense and as a courtesy form of address. Non-tenure-track positions may be full or part time, although the qualifier "adjunct" always denotes part-time.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers is a federation of independent associations and trade unions representing approximately 70,000 teachers, librarians, researchers, and other academic professionals and general staff at 120 universities and colleges across Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontario Teachers' Federation</span>

The Ontario Teachers' Federation is the professional body representing over 160,000 teachers in Ontario's publicly funded schools. It operates the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTTP), which in 2021, was Canada's largest single-profession pension plan, with around $200 billion in managed assets. OTF was established by the Teaching Profession Act of 1944. The four Ontario teacher federations are OTF affiliates: the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO), the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO); the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA); and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF). All teachers in Ontario's publicly funded schools belong to one of the affiliates and to OTF.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Society of Biology</span> British learned society

The Royal Society of Biology (RSB), previously called the Society of Biology, is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom created to advance the interests of biology in academia, industry, education, and research. Formed in 2009 by the merger of the Biosciences Federation and the Institute of Biology, the society has around 18,000 individual members, and more than 100 member organisations. In addition to engaging the public on matters related to the life sciences, the society seeks to develop the profession and to guide the development of related policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontario College of Teachers</span> Professional regulatory body

The Ontario College of Teachers is the regulatory college for the teaching profession in Ontario and is the largest self-regulatory body in Canada. It was established on 20 May 1997. The college's mandate is to license, govern and regulate the practice of teaching. It is also responsible for developing standards of teaching practice, regulating ongoing teacher certification and professional development, and accrediting teacher education programs. The College of Teachers also has the responsibility to investigate claims of misconduct made against teachers. The Ontario College of Teachers is also mandated to communicate with the public on behalf of the profession, which it does primarily through its website.

All professional employees of public schools must hold a license for the subject or grade level they teach or for the professional assignment they hold. Licenses are issued in administrative, supervisory, student service, and teaching areas. Teaching areas encompass birth through kindergarten, elementary (K-6), middle grades (6-9), secondary grades (9-12), special subjects (K-12), exceptional children (K-12), and vocational education. The standard basis for license is the completion of a National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) approved education program at an accredited college or university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chartered Professional Accountant</span> Canadian trade group of financial transactions trackers

Chartered Professional Accountant is the professional designation which united the three Canadian accounting designations that previously existed:

References

  1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-08-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Background: Professional Designation - The Ontario College of Teachers". www.oct.ca. Archived from the original on 2010-03-05.