CQUniversity Unit Profile.

The principles of pedagogy refer to the lens through which teachers make professional, evidence-informed decisions to ensure all students experience success and improved student learning and achievement. They are used to determine the pedagogical approaches, practices and teaching strategies that are most appropriate. There are three broad principles underpinning these decisions about effective pedagogy:

• Pedagogy reflects the disciplinary and inter disciplinary nature of the curriculum content.
• Pedagogy recognises how learning occurs as a process based on evidence and the nature of learning
• Pedagogy is appropriate to the age, nature and diversity of the learner and the context in which they are learning.

The alignment of curriculum, teaching, assessing and reporting is informed by the three dimensions of the Australian Curriculum.

Teachers have a repertoire of effective approaches, practices and strategies and use them to implement well designed teaching programs and lessons.        

• Approaches: the process undertaken in response to beliefs or philosophies or teaching and learning, based on various theories.
• Practices: how teachers teach the curriculum and move students through the learning process, responding to the diverse needs of all learners.
• Teaching strategies: methods or techniques of instruction for teaching employed to maximise student learning. 

They regularly evaluate all aspects of their teaching practice to ensure they are meeting the learning needs of their students. They interpret and use student assessment data to diagnose barriers to learning and to challenge students to improve their performance. 

When monitoring and measuring the evidence of teacher impact, key questions include:

1. Did learners achieve growth in the learning that was taught? How do you know?
2. Did students achieve at the expected level (as described by the Australian Curriculum Achievement Standard for the subject and year level)? How do you know?
3. Were students engaged? How do you know?

Through collaborative practices such as moderation, the success or otherwise of the pedagogies employed determine future actions. Teachers use available data sets associated with teaching and learning to inform teaching and learning.

Commence the process of creating an assessment package for a unit of work (HASS). Use knowledge of the Australian Curriculum Learning Area (HASS), the General Capabilities (NB Literacy and Personal and Social Capability) dimensions and the Principles of Assessment to inform your work.

In preparing the task response you are to begin the process of developing a unit of work, using the planning process described in the Moodle, to align Curriculum, Teaching and Assessing.

You will: 

1. Create a summative assessment task, marking guide and formative assessment tools for the HASS Learning Area, informed by the General Capabilities (NB Literacy Proficiencies and Personal and Social Capability).
2. Your assessment task must be contextualised to a school setting with the characteristics of that school apparent in the task requirements, appropriate to and informed by the curriculum selections made.
3. The marking guide is to be written as task specific standards (Learning Area and Year Level Achievement Standard: knowledge and inquiry skills) and informed by the General Capabilities (NB Literacy).   
4. Examples of the work that students are expected to create (as per the task description and task specific standards) to be ‘at’ and ‘above’ year level expectations, with annotations of the observable features, will be included. Student work samples are moderated (compared to the Year level Achievement Standard) to ensure consistency of reporting.
5. You will create formative assessment tools to that could be used to as evidence of targeted subject knowledge and skills, literacy and/or social capability development within the context of the HASS unit. Data from these tasks would inform feedback conversations between the teacher and students.

**Ensure that you understand the full range of requirements of both Assessment Tasks for this unit before selecting the Year Level and (subject) knowledge component.

Your submission is in the form of a report that is structured as follows. Your report reflects your application of the theory in the design of summative and formative assessment tools.

• An introductory statement that shows your understanding of the purposes of assessment and the broad pedagogical principles that are used to determine the pedagogical approaches, practices and teaching strategies that are most appropriate in particular classrooms. Discuss how you would align curriculum, pedagogy and assessment with a focus on learning in the delivery of this unit. (500 – 1000 words)
• Describe the organisational and structural elements of the Australian Curriculum and explain how they shape teaching practices (Planning, Teaching, Assessing and Recording Learning and Managing the learning environment). (500 words)
• Discuss the process of front-ending assessment. Draw on specific aspects of key documents that informed your work. (500 words)
• Commentate on the knowledge and sources that informed the development of key aspects of the assessment tools that you have prepared. Your commentary will be in the form of annotations linked to the features of the tools. The tools are:
  • a summative task (that may have multiple parts) that articulates the context considerations (technique, mode and conditions),
  • the marking guide (task specific standards) and
  • formative tasks (which may take a range of forms NB Questions to reveal information to inform teaching).   

Your commentary (500 words) is to be embedded in the tools listed which are part of your submission.

• Describe the evidence found in the student work samples that are representative of the summative task that you have designed, being enacted. Draw focus to the differences between work ‘at’ and work ‘above’ year level expectations. Annotate the alignment to the year level achievement standard elements, supplemented by relevant text and language features (determined by technique and mode), identified for this task. (300 words)
• References (not counted in word limit)

You must submit:

• A report (Word document) including sections listed above
• Assessment tools embedded with annotations
• Work samples labelled “at” and “above” year level with observable feature annotations

WORD COUNT for written assignments: The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. It excludes the cover page, abstract, contents page, reference page and appendices. It includes in-text references and direct quotations.

Word count for AT1: 2000 words maximum 

Your task may be penalised for not adhering to the word count.

The use of Gen AI agents is as follows: 

AI too scale level: Level 2 - You may use AI for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas. Any misuse or lack of disclosure regarding the use of AI tools will be considered a breach of academic integrity.

Please note: The 72-Hour grace period applies to Assessment Task 1.

If you need longer than 72 hours, you will still need to use the normal Assessment Extension System process.

Assessment will be marked against the following criteria:

• Understanding of relevant current policy and initiatives in education and use of contemporary theory and research. (5.1)
• Ability to effectively select a range of evidence-based assessment practices to evaluate progress, adjust instruction, provide targeted feedback, and support learning. (1.1, 1.2)
• Skills in data gathering, analysis, interpretation and development of appropriate learning and assessment strategies. (1.2, 5.1, 5.4)
• Engagement in moderation processes, monitoring student progress and providing feedback, and reflective practice to improve student learning. (5.2, 5.3)
• Preparation to effectively communicate in the classroom, utilising appropriate technology/ICT and strategies to support student engagement. (3.5, 4.5)  
• Effective written communication skills are demonstrated in the assessment package report, using appropriate referencing.

Continue to develop an assessment package for a unit of work (HASS). Use knowledge of a ‘typical’ class (class profile) to make appropriate adjustments which reflect Universal Design , Understanding by Design Principles and Principles of Assessment.

The completed teaching sequence and assessment tools must include evidence of how formative and summative assessment tasks have been adjusted (differentiated) ensure all student are able to access the curriculum, whilst maintaining curriculum intent. 

Assessment design choices must be justified in terms of the attributes of effective assessment.

In preparing the task response you are to continue the development of a unit of work, using the planning process started in AT1, to align Curriculum, Teaching and Assessing. You will:

1. Develop the schedule of teaching. For each key lesson articulate the Learning Intent (described in curriculum documents) and Success Criteria (evidence to inform decision to progress or pause) and describe other learning (literacy) routines that would support learning.
2. Annotate on the planning sequences and associated tools, the planning considerations, relevant to the attributes of assessment (accessibility, reliability, validity). Describe key approaches, practices and teaching strategies, you will use to teach the knowledge and skills assessed in the culminating task.
3. Demonstrate how formative assessment practices are an integral and ongoing part of the learning process and used to provide informative feedback for both students and teachers. Describe how you have planned learning to maximise students’ engagement and scheduled feedback/feedforward conversations with students using evidence gathered at key junctures within the sequence and how you will management (collation and storage) of information.
4. Critically reflect on what your planning considerations: including 

• • the design of summative tasks that you have developed and adjusted,
  • the accompanying marking guide and
  • the design, scheduling and interrogation of formative tasks. 

Draw on key theories and provide examples from the unit, the task sheet and task specific standards criteria and formative tools in the justification section of the task response.

5.     Describe the characteristics of 2 contrasting groups of learners in the class and a student with accessibility considerations (class profile). Plan for and highlight evidence of adjustments made to assessment tools/practices that provided access whilst retaining curriculum intent. Explain how you would differentiate teaching of this unit (Tier 1). 

6.     Demonstrate how data is collected would be used inform teaching and reporting to parents and other parties

Your submission is in the form of a report that is structured as follows. Your report reflects your understanding of the employment of pedagogical practices for diverse learning needs and measuring the evidence of impact on achievement, engagement and motivation.

• An Introductory statement that shows your understanding of employing pedagogical considerations to meet diverse learning needs of students, incorporate references to relevant reading and policy documents. Links should be made to the (curriculum), student considerations (school and student data) and the way assessment attributes, principles and practices will be incorporated to maximise teaching efficacy and inform the evaluation of teaching programs (500-1000 words).
• Discussion about how the Understanding by Design principles and interrogation of student data interact with curriculum to influence design and delivery of learning sequences. Draw focus to how you would respond to student data and diverse learning needs to plan for differentiation (Tier 1 responses) specific to the curriculum identified. Describe routines for literacy learning considerations, embedded in your unit of work, to illustrate your points.  (500 words)
• An overview of curriculum focuses, relevant checks for learning, and learning experiences/pedagogy that scaffold the summative assessment with clear alignment (backwards design) demonstrated. The process of planning, as described in the task preparation process, will include annotations that draw attention to the application of the theory of EDED13433: Assessment and Reporting. Your work must be informed by the mapping of the Australian Curriculum. The sequence of your plan for teaching will be presented in tabular form with your commentary explaining you planning considerations expressed in a row below each step. For each formative task, prepare two ‘feedback to student’ statements. Explain planned differentiation for each stage of the learning sequence, in response to the class profile/data. 
• Justification which details how adjustments to the design of the authentic summative task demonstrates planning for student access specific to groups and individuals. Details about the modifications or considerations that were made to meet the specific needs of groups/ individuals profiled, specifically explained. (300 words)
• Description of how student data is collected, collated, interrogated and used to inform reporting. A written cognitive commentary, specific to the HASS learning area with the audience being parents/caregivers, relevant to students working ‘at’ and ‘above’ year level expectations is to be included. (300 words).
• References (not counted in word limit)

WORD COUNT for written assignments: The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. It excludes the cover page, abstract, contents page, reference page and appendices. It includes in-text references and direct quotations.

Word count for AT2: 2000 words maximum

Your task may be penalised for not adhering to the word count.

The use of Gen AI agents is as follows: 

AI tool scale level: Planning - You may use AI for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas. Any misuse or lack of disclosure regarding the use of AI tools will be considered a breach of academic integrity.

Please note: The 72-Hour grace period applies to Assessment Task 2.

If you need longer than 72 hours, you will still need to use the normal Assessment Extension System process.

Assessment will be marked against the following criteria:

• Knowledge and understanding of data informed practice in the alignment of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment evidenced by the creation of effective tools and tasks. (5.1, 5.2, 5.5)
• Knowledge of and skill in planning and sequencing content and tasks, using data generated to evaluate teaching programs. (2.3, 3.6) 
• Knowledge and theory of an MTSS framework, the direct relationship to evidence-based teaching practices (including but not limited by: developing language, engaging with feedback, metacognition and reflecting, making connections and questioning) and skill in how to practically implement tier 1 practices in the classroom. (1.1, 1.2, 3.5, 4.1)
• Communication with students (timely feedback) and parents (reporting) (5.2, 5.5)
• Engagement in moderation processes, including monitoring student progress in relation to standards, providing appropriate feedback, and reflective practice to improve student learning.  (5.2, 5.3)
• Effective written communication skills using appropriate referencing