Overview
In this unit, you will develop knowledge and understanding of approaches to differentiation that support engagement and learning for students across a full range of ability levels. You will examine the relationship between formative assessment and differentiated instruction and use data on students’ current knowledge and skills in relation to planned summative assessment to foster curriculum relevance and support the success and achievement of all students. You will demonstrate expert content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in your area of specialisation as you design learning sequences and select resources and teaching strategies that make the key concepts and substance of the curriculum accessible to learners across the full range of abilities. You will apply this knowledge to demonstrate effective classroom practice in your area of specialisation and other relevant curriculum areas during a 20-day continuous block placement in a school setting. You will complete the placement under the mentorship of a supervising teacher in your teaching practice setting and demonstrate your teaching practice through set tasks outlined in the Information and Guidelines for the Supervision of Pre-service Teachers booklet for this placement. Following the placement, you will evaluate the impact of your planning, teaching and assessment practices on student learning through the analysis of selected artefacts from your coursework and/or placement with a particular emphasis on how your content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge contribute to your ability to respond to the needs, characteristics and backgrounds of diverse groups of students including students with disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisites: For CL05 Master of Teaching (Secondary) students: EDFE20035 Professional Praxis 2: Supportive Learning Environments and EDSE20021 Senior Secondary Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment For CC45 Master of Teaching (Primary) students: EDFE20035 Professional Praxis 2: Supportive Learning Environments For CM43 Master of Teaching (Early Childhood) students: EDFE20035 Professional Praxis 2: Supportive Learning Environments
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 3 - 2024
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a pass/fail (non-graded) unit. To pass the unit, you must pass all of the individual assessment tasks shown in the table above.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Evaluation
Session before placement commencement.
Session to be conducted with students prior to placement commencement.
- Plan and teach learning sequences using curriculum, content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge to make learning accessible to students across the full range of abilities
- Plan for, collect and interpret student data using assessment strategies and recording formats that provide a focus for giving feedback and monitoring and reporting on students’ progress and achievement
- Identify differentiation strategies and teaching approaches that cater for the learning needs and characteristics of diverse groups of students including students with disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds
- Apply preventative, supportive and corrective management strategies to create and maintain a safe, supportive learning environment
- Apply the relevant ethical and legislative requirements and applicable codes of ethics to teaching practice
- Evaluate the impact of planned and enacted teaching on the learning and participation of students across the full range of abilities
- Use the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers to monitor professional learning, identify appropriate sources of further learning, and improve professional practice in response to feedback, self-evaluation and reflection.
Successful completion of this unit provides opportunities for students to demonstrate the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers focus areas of:
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students*
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability*
2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
2.2 Content selection and organisation
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies
2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
3.1 Establish challenging learning goals
3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs
3.3 Use teaching strategies
3.4 Select and use resources
3.5 Use effective classroom communication
3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs
4.1 Support student participation
4.2 Manage classroom activities
4.3 Manage challenging behaviour
4.4 Maintain student safety
4.5 Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically
5.1 Assess student learning
5.2 Provide feedback to students on their learning
5.3 Make consistent and comparable judgements
5.4 Interpret student data
5.5 Report on student achievement
6.1 Identify and plan professional learning needs
6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice
6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning
7.1 Meet professional ethics and responsibilities
7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements
7.4 Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 0% | |||||||
| 2 - Professional Practice Placement - 0% | |||||||
| 3 - Portfolio - 0% | |||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | |||||||
| 2 - Communication | |||||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||||||
| 4 - Research | |||||||
| 5 - Self-management | |||||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||||||
| 7 - Leadership | |||||||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 7th Edition (APA 7th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
e.killion@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Topic 1 - Planning, Teaching and Pedagogy
Chapter
See Moodle site for readings and learning activities
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 2 - Knowledge and its application to classroom practice
Chapter
See Moodle site for readings and learning activities
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 3 - Effective pedagogy
Chapter
See Moodle site for readings and learning activities
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 4 - Differentiation in Planning, Teaching and Assessment
Chapter
See Moodle site for readings and learning activities
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 5 - Effective Teaching Practice: Methods and Strategies
Chapter
See Moodle site for readings and learning activities
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 6 - Reflecting Critically
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Important note about the structure of this unit:
Please note that the content of Term 3 units is delivered in various ways (some in intensive mode over the first 6 weeks of the Term). Each unit’s timetable was created to deliver its unique content best and prepare you to complete assessment tasks effectively, as well as allow some ‘downtime’ prior to the commencement of the placement for Professional Praxis 3 and the commencement of university Term 1 2025.
To allow this to happen, some online Zoom Tutorial sessions will be conducted over 6 weeks straight - that is, Week 1 – 6.
Due to the nature of a diverse unit delivery, it is important that you organise your personal diary in order for you to keep up and realise that you should double the usual time allocation to a unit during the intensive mode period for those units.
Please take a look at the Moodle site for each unit for more information.
1 Written Assessment
A nexus is defined as a means of connection, a tie, link or series of connecting ideas. This concept describes the central focus of this assessment task which requires you to demonstrate a nexus between the five interrelated aspects of practice outlined below:
● the expert content knowledge in your area of specialisation that you bring into the course,
● the skills and strategies you have learnt within the course to apply expert content and pedagogical content knowledge to support student learning,
● the application of knowledge to effective classroom practice,
● an approach to learning design that includes motivation and engagement strategies to create a positive environment with a focus on learning for students across the full range of abilities,
● evaluation of the impact of your knowledge and teaching practice on student learning through a rationale that justifies the learning design.
Part 1: Planning for effective learning
Supported by a series of topics within the coursework for this unit on enhancing teaching practice through expert pedagogical knowledge and practice, this task requires you to demonstrate your expert content and pedagogical content knowledge within your curriculum learning area of specialisation (English for students in the Primary and Early Childhood course) or major teaching area (students in the Secondary course).
Specifically, you will plan a sequence of 3-4 lessons that include teaching strategies, resources and assessment strategies (formative and/or summative). Each lesson should be no more than 30 minutes each. The sequence should be back-to-back lessons and should be at a point within the unit of work to enable you to demonstrate explicit teaching of content.
The planning must demonstrate:
(a) Knowledge of the key concepts, substance and structure of the subject matter for a specific curriculum topic in your area of specialisation (content knowledge)
(b) Knowledge and understanding of instructional strategies and pedagogical content knowledge for making the content accessible to students and promoting engagement, motivation and self-regulation;
(c) Ability to apply pedagogical content knowledge to design and sequence lessons and differentiate learning activities and teaching and management strategies to cater for students with different abilities and characteristics;
(d) Ability to plan assessment strategies and interpret data to monitor student learning leading to a culminating (summative) task and modify teaching practice throughout the learning sequence
Part 2: Rationale for learning design
You are to provide a rationale to justify your planning. The rationale should be no more than 1000 words in length and must incorporate critical reflection on the ways in which your planning illustrates and responds to the following statement by Shulman (1986):
“Pedagogical content knowledge is a type of knowledge that is unique to teachers, and is based on the manner in which teachers relate their pedagogical knowledge (what they know about teaching) to their subject matter knowledge (what they know about what they teach).”
In your rationale, you need to explain your personal philosophy for teaching and creating positive and well-managed learning environments, and your personal approach to understanding the application of knowledge to a teachable context – that is:
● How did you approach the application of your content knowledge to become teachable knowledge for students with different abilities and characteristics in the learning sequence?
● What decisions did you make about the organisation of content and the design of teaching and learning activities based on acquired professional knowledge about the causes of, and antecedents of off-task behaviour?
Your rationale (and response to the statement provided) should clearly identify how you have engaged in professional learning to enhance your pedagogical content knowledge including any professional development workshops attended, or resources provided by or accessed through professional organisations or networks.
In a concluding statement to your rationale, you are to explain how the transfer of teachers’ content knowledge to teachable knowledge makes an impact on student learning – that is,
● How have you used your expert knowledge to plan for improved student learning and understanding of key concepts in the learning sequence?
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.
Week 6 Friday (13 Dec 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Feedback on this assessment response will be provided in sufficient time to allow for academic support and advice as necessary to inform student responses to the next assessment task.
Assessment will be marked against the following criteria:
● Rationale for an approach to planning, teaching and classroom management inclusive of a personal philosophy for teaching and sources of professional learning for teachers that enhance or improve pedagogical content knowledge
● Evaluation of the impact of teachers’ professional knowledge on student learning
● Knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
● Selection and organisation of content into a logical sequence for teaching and learning that aligns with curriculum intent and assessment
● Selection of resources, teaching strategies and differentiation practices that make content and key concepts accessible to students with different abilities and characteristics that impact on learning
● Knowledge of approaches to behaviour management that create positive learning environments and prevent challenging or off-task behaviours
● Design of assessment strategies that monitor and evaluate student learning, understanding and demonstration of knowledge and skills
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers addressed in this task
1.1, 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 3.2, 3.3. 3.4, 4.3, 5.1, 6.2, 6.4
- Plan and teach learning sequences using curriculum, content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge to make learning accessible to students across the full range of abilities
- Plan for, collect and interpret student data using assessment strategies and recording formats that provide a focus for giving feedback and monitoring and reporting on students’ progress and achievement
- Identify differentiation strategies and teaching approaches that cater for the learning needs and characteristics of diverse groups of students including students with disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds
- Apply preventative, supportive and corrective management strategies to create and maintain a safe, supportive learning environment
- Evaluate the impact of planned and enacted teaching on the learning and participation of students across the full range of abilities
2 Professional Practice Placement
You will complete a 20 day placement structured as a four-week continuous block in a school setting under the mentorship of a supervising teacher and complete set tasks for this placement as outlined in the Information and Guidelines for the Supervision and Assessment of Pre-Service Teachers booklet. You will also complete 1 contextual day prior to the commencement of the block placement as an orientation to the school site and class/classes you will be teaching.
The placement will be organised by the relevant WIL Placement Officer within the Professional Experience Office.
During the placement, you will participate in a wide range of planning and teaching activities including the application of content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in your area of specialisation. Your planning will include experience in implementing the full teaching and learning cycle leading to assessment of student learning in a summative or culminating task.
You will maintain an up-to-date working portfolio to record all planning, teaching, assessment, evaluation and reflection tasks undertaken throughout the placement.
Daily critical reflection will be framed by a series of self-devised questions that use direct links to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Career Stage) to evaluate your practice, synthesise feedback and identify professional learning needs.
Assessment for the placement will be completed by supervising teachers using an electronic summative report that uses the same standards and criteria as the sample report included in the Information and Guidelines for the Supervision and Assessment of Pre-Service Teachers booklet.
Full details of specific tasks for this placement are outlined in the Professional Praxis 3 Information and Guidelines for the Supervision and Assessment of Pre-Service Teachers booklet.
As per the approved Professional Praxis Calendar
The Final Summative Report will be made available to the student once signed by the University Coordinator via SoniaOnline
As per the Professional Praxis 3 Information and Guidelines for the Supervision and Assessment of Pre-Service Teachers booklet
No submission method provided.
- Plan and teach learning sequences using curriculum, content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge to make learning accessible to students across the full range of abilities
- Plan for, collect and interpret student data using assessment strategies and recording formats that provide a focus for giving feedback and monitoring and reporting on students’ progress and achievement
- Identify differentiation strategies and teaching approaches that cater for the learning needs and characteristics of diverse groups of students including students with disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds
- Apply preventative, supportive and corrective management strategies to create and maintain a safe, supportive learning environment
- Apply the relevant ethical and legislative requirements and applicable codes of ethics to teaching practice
- Evaluate the impact of planned and enacted teaching on the learning and participation of students across the full range of abilities
- Use the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers to monitor professional learning, identify appropriate sources of further learning, and improve professional practice in response to feedback, self-evaluation and reflection.
3 Portfolio
Your portfolio contains two (2) parts as outlined below in Part A and Part B. You must complete both parts of this assessment task.
Part A: Evidence and commentary on classroom practice in an area of specialisation (English – Primary and Early Childhood; Major Teaching Area – Secondary)
Select evidence from your Professional Praxis 3 placement that illustrates your application of expert content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge to effective classroom teaching. The evidence must include the following:
(a) an overview of a learning sequence (unit of work or series of lessons) taught in your area of specialisation. The length of units of work vary depending upon the teaching context. The length of the learning sequence is not important for the completion of this task, however, the choice of unit/series of lessons must allow you to complete all aspects of this task. The overview must identify curriculum content descriptions and achievement standards that were the focus for student learning and the learning goals, teaching strategies, resources, and assessment strategies that were used to organise and teach the content throughout the series of lessons;
(b) a copy of the summative or culminating task that students completed to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills;
(c) samples of student work including responses to formative and summative assessment;
(d) a copy of your classroom management plan outlining strategies to promote positive behaviour for learning and prevent and respond to off-task or challenging behaviour in a timely manner.
All evidence should be annotated to link the artefacts to the commentary and selected focus areas of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and must clearly show how specific features of the selected evidence illustrate the Standards and the way teaching, learning, preventative management and assessment were enacted during your placement.
You will embed the selected evidence in a commentary of 1000 words that explains and evaluates the impact of your practice on student learning throughout the full teaching-learning assessment cycle. The questions below are provided as a guide for constructing your commentary.
● What was the focus for student learning in the lesson sequence?
● How did you construct standards and criteria for making judgements on the quality of students’ work and how did you make these criteria visible to students?
● How did you structure the learning, differentiate learning activities and use teaching strategies to support students across the full range of ability levels in the class group?
● What strategies and learning activities did you embed in your learning sequence to engage and motivate students to learn the focus content and reduce the potential for off-task or disruptive behaviour? What profiling data or knowledge about student characteristics and stages of development prompted you to include these strategies and how successful were they in preventing or managing challenging behaviours during your lessons?
● How did you use formative assessment (checks for understanding) to monitor student learning and modify teaching practice throughout the learning sequence?
● With reference to student work samples, how did your planning and teaching decisions impact on student learning? What feedback did or would you give to students on their learning?
● With reference to moderation of student assessment with your supervising teacher, were your judgements on the quality of student work comparable to your supervising teacher’s judgement? Where judgements differed, what was the basis for this difference and how does this help you with future assessment and moderation practices?
● What practices would you continue to use with this class or what improvements would you make to your planning, teaching and assessment practices to improve student learning?
Part B: Critical Reflection - implications for diverse student needs and characteristics
You are to construct a written statement in the form of a personal critical reflection of no more than 1000 words. The reflection must analyse the nexus between your content knowledge (subject matter knowledge you have brought into the course), pedagogical content knowledge (what you have learnt through your discipline-specific curriculum and pedagogy units) and classroom practice (your demonstration of that teachable knowledge in the classroom whilst completing the in-school placement for Professional Praxis 3) to identify implications for your future practice.
Specifically, your statement must demonstrate deep critical reflection on, and analysis of, your professional knowledge, practice and engagement in relation to the following aspects:
(a) The ways in which your content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge support your understanding of the learning progression in your area of curriculum specialisation and your subsequent ability to differentiate instruction, organise learning sequences, design activities and tasks to engage and motivate students, and explain core concepts to students across the full range of abilities;
(b) An analysis and justification of the ways in which your professional knowledge related to subject matter, curriculum and pedagogy potentially impacts on the inclusive participation and learning of future students who represent all of the following groups:
a. Students with disability
b. Students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
c. Students with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural and linguistic backgrounds
d. Students with literacy and numeracy capabilities that are well below or well above the expected year level
e. Students with behavioural needs or an inability to self-regulate their learning behaviour
This reflection should draw on examples of practice you have observed or experienced and sources of professional learning for teachers in your area of specialisation including evidence-based pedagogical frameworks or research to illustrate and support your ideas.
7th March 2025
Feedback on this assessment task will be provided following moderation and prior to the date of certification of grades for this term.
Assessment will be marked against the following criteria:
● Selection of evidence that demonstrates focus areas of the Standards for planning, teaching and assessment in an area of specialisation
● Personal critical reflection on enacted teaching practice and the success of selected teaching, management and engagement strategies
● Evaluation of the impact of content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge on student learning
● Knowledge and understanding of teaching approaches that are responsive to the literacy, numeracy, learning and behavioural needs of diverse student groups, including students with disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
● Identification of sources for professional learning including professional networks and community representatives that improve teaching practice and student learning
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers Practised/Assessed in this task
1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 2.6, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.6, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 6.1, 6.2, 6.4
- Plan and teach learning sequences using curriculum, content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge to make learning accessible to students across the full range of abilities
- Plan for, collect and interpret student data using assessment strategies and recording formats that provide a focus for giving feedback and monitoring and reporting on students’ progress and achievement
- Identify differentiation strategies and teaching approaches that cater for the learning needs and characteristics of diverse groups of students including students with disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds
- Apply preventative, supportive and corrective management strategies to create and maintain a safe, supportive learning environment
- Evaluate the impact of planned and enacted teaching on the learning and participation of students across the full range of abilities
- Use the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers to monitor professional learning, identify appropriate sources of further learning, and improve professional practice in response to feedback, self-evaluation and reflection.
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
