Teachers' perceptions of the national board certification process: Developing a sense of professionalism

This study describes and explains the experiences and perceptions of six public school teachers who had undergone the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards national certification process as a vehicle for promoting a teacher's sense of professionalism. Of these six participants, two achieved National Board certification, two did not achieve National Board certification, and two are awaiting results of their certification status. The study took place over a period of eleven months and focused on the participants' perceptions regarding the National Board certification process as it affected their sense of (a) efficacy and (b) professionalism. Data for this collective case study were gathered from interviews, portfolios and videotapes, and artifacts. Using case analysis, this study's participants' responses gathered through the interview process were examined. ^ The findings indicated that participants had concerns about the National Board certification process in the following areas: process, sense of efficacy, and sense of professionalism. All participants reported the process to be overwhelmingly demanding. Analysis of the data also reveals that those who were successful in achieving National Board certification had a greater sense of efficacy than those who did not. A disappointing finding was that the National Board process impacting participants' sense of professionalism could not be sustained; however, the participants in this study suggested the process was a step towards providing opportunities for collaboration, collegiality, and reflective practice. This study raises the question as to whether or not the espoused purposes of National Board certification are achieved via the certification process. ^

Professionalism and Ethics in Hospitality

In their discussion - Professionalism and Ethics in Hospitality - by James R. Keiser, Associate Professor and John Swinton, Instructor, Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management, The Pennsylvania State University, Keiser and Swinton initially offer: “Referring to “the hospitality profession” necessitates thinking of the ethics of that profession and how ethics can be taught. The authors discuss what it means for the hospitality industry to be a profession.” The authors will have you know, a cursory nod to the term or description, profession and/or professional, is awarded to the hospitality industry at large; at least in an academic sense. Keiser and Swinton also want you to know that ethics, and professionalism are distinctly unique concepts, however, they are related. Their intangible nature does make them difficult, at best, to define, but ethics in contemporary hospitality has, to some degree, been charted and quantified. “We have left the caveat emptor era, and the common law, the Uniform Commercial Code, and a variety of local ordinances now dictate that the goods and services hospitality offers carry an implied warranty of merchantability,” the authors inform you. About the symbiotic relationship between ethics and professionalism, the authors say this: The less precise a code of ethics goes, the general rule, the fewer claims the group has to professional status.” The statement above may be considered a cornerstone principle. “However, the mere existence of an ethical code (or of professional status, for that matter) does not ensure ethical behavior in any group,” caution Keiser and Swinton. “Codes of ethics do not really define professionalism except as they adopt a group's special, arcane, exclusionary jargon. Worse, they can define the minimum, agreed-upon standards of conduct and thereby encourage ethical corner-cutting,” they further qualify the thought. And, in bridging academia, Keiser and Swinton say, “Equipped now with a sense of the ironies and ambiguities inherent in labeling any work "professional," we can turn to the problem of instilling in students a sense of what is professionally ethical. Students appear to welcome this kind of instruction, and while we would like to think their interest comes welling up from altruism and intellectual curiosity rather than drifting down as Watergate and malpractice fallout, our job is to teach, not to weigh the motives that bring us our students, and to provide a climate conducive to ethical behavior, not supply a separate answer for every contingency.” Keiser and Swinton illustrate their treatise on ethics via the hypothetical tale [stylized case study] of Cosmo Cuisiner, who manages the Phoenix, a large suburban restaurant. Cosmo is “…a typical restaurant manager faced with a series of stylized, over-simplified, but illustrative decisions, each with its own ethical skew for the students to analyze.” A shortened version of that case study is presented. Figure 1 outlines the State Restaurant Association Code of Ethics.

Developing The Ladder To Professionalism

Developing The Ladder To Professionalism by Tom Baum, Manager, Curricula Development Unit and Patricia Reid, Training Advisor, Curricula Development Unit at the Council for Education, Recruitment and Training, State Agency for Hotels, Catering and Tourism in Dublin, Ireland: “Developments are currently in hand to promote increased professionalism in management within the hotel and catering industry in Ireland. The authors discuss the particular responsibility of educational agencies. Recent initiatives to provide a comprehensive and flexible career ladder encompassing craft training, in-service and “second-chance” education, as well as more conventional college-based initial management are reviewed, as are attempts by various industry associations to enhance the professionalism of members.” In this discussion, the authors have primarily devoted their attention to degree gaps in professionalism in the hospitality industry, and the measures that can be taken to mitigate these circumstances. “The hotel, catering, and tourism industry, in common with others involved in the service function, has been relatively slow to adopt modern approaches to management and technology at all levels,” Baum and Reid want you to know. The authors hail from Ireland and point to steps that the industry, in Ireland, is taking to address service problems. “Developments are taking place in Ireland toward professionalism in management in the context of the Irish hotel and catering industry; education and educationally related institutions have taken a role in contributing to the professionalization of work in this area,” say the authors. Baum and Reid point to CERT’s - The State Training Agency for Hotels, Catering and Tourism - involvement in promoting professionalism in the Irish hospitality industry, and provide a comprehensive graph to illustrate CERT’s paths to successful management. Worthy of note is, proprietor management is more common on that side of the Atlantic’, with most properties tending to be smaller than U.S. chain operations. That fact, by no means suggests that management style is indeed complete in the U.K, but it can be said that maybe such style is more congenial. “However, finding the balance between operationalism and the management and development functions seems to underpin perhaps the cardinal problems of professionalism in hotel and catering management in Ireland,” say the authors. “The dichotomy, clearly represented in the management of the industry, is equally evident within the educational and training system and also in the limited influence of associations…” Baum and Reid expand on that issue. The authors do concede that it is difficult to quantify what exactly constitutes good professionalism in the hospitality industry; it is, after all, a fairly subjective concept. They continue by describing some of the degree and sub-degree programs being offered in Ireland.

Recreational Foodservice management: A Delphi study of needed competencies

The purpose of this study was to identify the needed competencies of a Recreational Foodservice manager. A three round Delphi method of iteration was used. Delphi is a research method that utilizes iterating rounds to elicit the opinion of a panel of experts regarding a specific subject.^ A nominating committee of 22 industry leaders was consulted to establish a panel of 40 management experts, of which 35 (87.5%) completed all three rounds of the Delphi study.^ Round One of the study identified 17 specific job functions of a Recreational Foodservice manager. The researcher prepared an instrument detailing 60 competencies derived from an analysis of Round One results and distributed it as a Round Two instrument requesting the panel opinion regarding the relative importance of each listed competency on a five point Likert scale.^ The results of Round Two were tabulated and analyzed to ascertain areas of consensus. A Round Three instrument was prepared advising panelists of all areas of consensus, their dissenting opinions, if any, and a request for a revised opinion.^ A final report was prepared listing the 60 competencies and the panel opinion that eight were of highest priority, 29 of above average priority, and 23 of average priority. No item received two other available ratings, below average priority and lowest priority.^ The implications of these findings suggest necessary areas of curriculum development and industry management development to implement professionalism for Recreational Foodservice managers. ^

Analysis and comparison of the moral development of students required to graduate with an ethics course

Accounting students become practitioners facing ethical decision-making challenges that can be subject to various interpretations; hence, the profession is concerned with the appropriateness of their decisions. Moral development of these students has implications for a profession under legal challenges, negative publicity, and government scrutiny. Accounting students' moral development has been studied by examining their responses to moral questions in Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT), their professional attitudes on Hall's Professionalism Scale Dimensions, and their ethical orientation-based professional commitment and ethical sensitivity. This study extended research in accounting ethics and moral development by examining students in a college where an ethics course is a requirement for graduation. ^ Knowledge of differences in the moral development of accounting students may alert practitioners and educators to potential problems resulting from a lack of ethical understanding as measured by moral development levels. If student moral development levels differ by major, and accounting majors have lower levels than other students, the conclusion may be that this difference is a causative factor for the alleged acts of malfeasance in the profession that may result in malpractice suits. ^ The current study compared 205 accounting, business, and nonbusiness students from a private university. In addition to academic major and completion of an ethics course, the other independent variable was academic level. Gender and age were tested as control variables and Rest's DIT score was the dependent variable. The primary analysis was a 2 x 3 x 3 ANOVA with post hoc tests for results with significant p-value of less than 0.05. ^ The results of this study reveal that students who take an ethics course appear to have a higher level of moral development (p = 0.013), as measured by the (DIT), than students at the same academic level who have not taken an ethics course. In addition, a statistically significant difference (p = 0.034) exists between freshmen who took an ethics class and juniors who did not take an ethics class. For every analysis except one, the lower class year with an ethics class had a higher level of moral development than the higher class year without an ethics class. These results appear to show that ethics education in particular has a greater effect on the level of moral development than education in general. Findings based on the gender specific analyses appear to show that males and females respond differently to the effects of taking an ethics class. The male students do not appear to increase their moral development level after taking an ethics course (p = 0.693) but male levels of moral development differ significantly (p = 0.003) by major. Female levels of moral development appear to increase after taking an ethics course (p = 0.002). However, they do not differ according to major (p = 0.097). ^ These findings indicate that accounting students should be required to have a class in ethics as part of their college curriculum. Students with an ethics class have a significantly higher level of moral development. The challenges facing the profession at the current time indicate that public confidence in the reports of client corporations has eroded and one way to restore this confidence could be to require ethics training of future accountants. ^

Teacher talk: A community of colleagues that values practical teacher knowledge through sharing experiences

The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of five educators participating in a teacher-initiated learning community that valued practical teacher knowledge. Connelly and Clandinin (2000) argued that practical teacher knowledge grew out of experience through interaction in the professional knowledge landscape. Collaboration that promoted teacher learning was the foundation to effective school change (Wood, 1997). This teacher-initiated learning community consisted of members who had equal status and collaborated by participating in discourse on curriculum and instruction. The collegiality of the community fostered teacher professionalism that improved practice and benefited the school. This study focused on the following research questions: (1) What was the experience of these five educators in this learning community? (2) What did these five individuals understand about the nature of practical teacher knowledge? (3) According to the participants, what was the relationship between teacher empowerment and effective school change? ^ The participants were chosen because each voluntarily attended this teacher-initiated learning community. Each participant answered questions regarding the experience during three semi-structured tape-recorded interviews. The interviews were transcribed, and significant statements of meaning were extracted. Using a triangulation of ideas that were common to at least three of the participants ensured the trustworthiness of the analysis. These statements were combined to describe what was experienced and how the participants described their experience. The emerging themes were the characteristics of and the relationships, methods, conditions, and environment for the teachers. The teachers described how a knowledge base of practical teacher knowledge was gained as a spirit of camaraderie developed. The freedom that the teachers experienced to collaborate and learn fostered new classroom practice that affected school change as student interaction and productivity increased. ^ The qualitative analysis of this study provided a description of a learning community that valued practical teacher knowledge and fostered professional development. This description was important to educational stakeholders because it demonstrated how practical teacher knowledge was gained during the teachers' daily work. By sharing every day experiences, the teacher talk generated collaboration and accountability that the participants felt improved practice and fostered a safe, productive learning environment for students. ^

Deeds and Consequences: Ethical Issues in a Welfare-to-Work Program

This paper explores the impact of a lack of sensitivity to the ethical issues that surfaced in a specific welfare-to-work program on participants’ perceptions, self-esteem, and motivation. Ethical issues in three areas were identified and discussed: (a) professionalism and accountability, (b) participant and provider relationships, and (c) shared responsibilities.

To CHAE or Not to CHAE

Many certifications are available in many professions. They represent a level of achievement and provide a dimension of professionalism to a resume. This article reveals the results of research covering the degree the extent of certification of members of the Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals. Further, obstacles and assists in taking the examination to become a Certified Hospitality Accountant Executive (CHAE) were determined. Thirty-seven percent of the respondents have earned their CHAE. The biggest obstacle to taking the exam according to 60% of the respondents who have not earned the CHAE was lack of time to prepare. The biggest assist according to this same group would be an on-line CHAE preparation course.

Ethics, Value Systems And The Professionalization Of Hoteliers

In the discussion - Ethics, Value Systems And The Professionalization Of Hoteliers by K. Michael Haywood, Associate Professor, School of Hotel and Food Administration, University of Guelph, Haywood initially presents: “Hoteliers and executives in other service industries should realize that the foundation of success in their businesses is based upon personal and corporate value systems and steady commitment to excellence. The author illustrates how ethical issues and manager morality are linked to, and shaped by the values of executives and the organization, and how improved professionalism can only be achieved through the adoption of a value system that rewards contributions rather than the mere attainment of results.” The bottom line of this discussion is, how does the hotel industry reconcile its behavior with that of public perception? “The time has come for hoteliers to examine their own standards of ethics, value systems, and professionalism,” Haywood says. And it is ethics that are at the center of this issue; Haywood holds that component in an estimable position. “Hoteliers must become value-driven,” advises Haywood. “They must be committed to excellence both in actualizing their best potentialities and in excelling in all they do. In other words, the professionalization of the hotelier can be achieved through a high degree of self-control, internalized values, codes of ethics, and related socialization processes,” he expands. “Serious ethical issues exist for hoteliers as well as for many business people and professionals in positions of responsibility,” Haywood alludes in defining some inter-industry problems. “The acceptance of kickbacks and gifts from suppliers, the hiding of income from taxation authorities, the lack of interest in installing and maintaining proper safety and security systems, and the raiding of competitors' staffs are common practices,” he offers, with the reasoning that if these problems can occur within ranks, then there is going to be a negative backlash in the public/client arena as well. Haywood divides the key principles of his thesis statement - ethics, value systems, and professionalism – into specific elements, and then continues to broaden the scope of each element. Promotion, product/service, and pricing are additional key components in Haywood’s discussion, and he addresses each with verve and vitality. Haywood references the four character types - craftsmen, jungle fighters, company men, and gamesmen – via a citation to Michael Maccoby, in the portion of the discussion dedicated to morality and success. Haywood closes with a series of questions derived from Lawrence Miller's American Spirit, Visions of a New Corporate Culture, each question designed to focus, shape, and organize management's attention to the values that Miller sets forth in his piece.

Hospitality Information Systems: Intuitive, Object-Oriented, and Wireless Technology

Automated information system design and implementation is one of the fastest changing aspects of the hospitality industry. During the past several years nothing has increased the professionalism or improved the productivity within the industry more than the application of computer technology. Intuitive software applications, deemed the first step toward making computers more people-literate, object-oriented programming, intended to more accurately model reality, and wireless communications are expected to play a significant role in future technological advancement.

To Chae or not to Chae

Many certifications are available in many professions. They represent a level of achievement and provide a dimension of professionalism to a resume. This article reveals the results of research covering the degree the extent of certification of members of the Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals. Further, obstacles and assists in taking the examination to become a Certified Hospitality Accountant Executive (CHAE) were determined. Thirty-seven percent of the respondents have earned their CHAE. The biggest obstacle to taking the exam according to 60% of the respondents who have not earned the CHAE was lack of time to prepare. The biggest assist according to this same group would be an on-line CHAE preparation course.

Icelandic occupational therapists' attitudes toward educational and professional issues

The entire population of Icelandic occupational therapists were surveyed concerning characteristics and attitudes toward professionalism and educational goals. There were 87 questionnaires sent out and 80 (92%) were returned and used for analysis. This data will have a positive impact upon the development of the first Icelandic occupational therapy curriculum. Icelandic occupational therapists, in general, value academic skills over technical skills, are active in their association, willing to take on duties for the advancement of the profession and are interested in conducting research. The attitudes of the Icelandic occupational therapists were generally quite uniform. T- tests and one-way ANOVAs (p < .05) revealed some significant differences in a number of attitudes by education level, length of professional experience and country of education. The results show the importance of providing Icelandic occupational therapy practitioners with the opportunity to take part in research. This study will serve as a foundation for future studies on Icelandic occupational therapists and provide reference data for later comparison.

Analysis and comparison of the moral development of students required to graduate with an ethics course

Accounting students become practitioners facing ethical decision-making challenges that can be subject to various interpretations; hence, the profession is concerned with the appropriateness of their decisions. Moral development of these students has implications for a profession under legal challenges, negative publicity, and government scrutiny. Accounting students moral development has been studied by examining their responses to moral questions in Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT), their professional attitudes on Hall's Professionalism Scale Dimensions, and their ethical orientation-based professional commitment and ethical sensitivity. This study extended research in accounting ethics and moral development by examining students in a college where an ethics course is a requirement for graduation. Knowledge of differences in the moral development of accounting students may alert practitioners and educators to potential problems resulting from a lack of ethical understanding as measured by moral development levels. If student moral development levels differ by major, and accounting majors have lower levels than other students, the conclusion may be that this difference is a causative factor for the alleged acts of malfeasance in the profession that may result in malpractice suits. The current study compared 205 accounting, business, and nonbusiness students from a private university. In addition to academic major and completion of an ethics course, the other independent variable was academic level. Gender and age were tested as control variables and Rest's DIT score was the dependent variable. The primary analysis was a 2x3x3 ANOVA with post hoc tests for results with significant p-value of less than 0.05. The results of this study reveal that students who take an ethics course appear to have a higher level of moral development (p=0.013), as measured by the (DIT), than students at the same academic level who have not taken an ethics course. In addition, a statistically significant difference (p=0.034) exists between freshmen who took an ethics class and juniors who did not take an ethics class. For every analysis except one, the lower class year with an ethics class had a higher level of moral development than the higher class year without an ethics class. These results appear to show that ethics education in particular has a greater effect on the level of moral development than education in general. Findings based on the gender specific analyses appear to show that males and females respond differently to the effects of taking an ethics class. The male students do not appear to increase their moral development level after taking an ethics course (p=0.693) but male levels of moral development differ significantly (p=0.003) by major. Female levels of moral development appear to increase after taking an ethics course (p=0.002). However, they do not differ according to major (p=0.0 97). These findings indicate that accounting students should be required to have a class in ethics as part of their college curriculum. Students with an ethics class have a significantly higher level of moral development. The challenges facing the profession at the current time indicate that public confidence in the reports of client corporations has eroded and one way to restore this confidence could be to require ethics training of future accountants.