Overview
The focus of this unit is teaching and learning in the senior secondary school (Years 11 and 12). There is a specific focus on pedagogical approaches and thinking skills applicable for senior teaching areas. The influences on senior secondary school curriculum frameworks from key stakeholders are critically examined. You will also analysis and interpret subject curriculum documents in order to plan and implement effective units of work that utilise pedagogical approaches that develop the thinking skills and processes required for discipline teaching areas. Other areas examined include curriculum development, teaching and learning resources, teaching strategies, pedagogical approaches, assessment and school work programs relevant to the pre-service teacher’s discipline teaching areas. Critical use is made of information and communication technologies, curriculum and policy documents, higher order thinking strategies and appropriate content in order to design quality learning experiences that involve explicit teaching of the subject discipline area in the senior schooling context.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisites - CC10 EDSE12021 CC13 EDSE12021 and EDFE13033
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 1 - 2025
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 12-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
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 SUTE
Subject area learning materials
Update subject area learning materials to 2025 syllabus version
Feedback from SUTE and email
Assessment tasks
Review assessment to address similarity to assessment tasks for EDSE14004.
Feedback from SUTE
Feedback on drafts
Ensure provision of timely and explicit feedback on drafts from subject tutors.
- Examine and utilise curriculum frameworks applicable to subject areas in senior secondary schooling
- Outline the content, assessment and discipline requirements for a senior subject area
- Outline and justify specific teaching strategies, pedagogies, thinking approaches, processes and learning experiences for a senior subject area
- Critically select and justify the use of teaching and learning resources for senior secondary subjects
- Design and justify units of work and assessment instruments that promote learning, and match the needs of senior secondary school curriculum frameworks.
Successful completion of this unit provides opportunities for students to engage with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Career Stage) focus areas of:
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
3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs
4.5 Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically
5.1 Assess student learning
5.2 Provide feedback to students on their learning
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||||
| 2 - Presentation - 50% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | |||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | |||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | |||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | |||||
| 5 - Team Work | |||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | |||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | |||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | |||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | |||||
| 10 - First Nations Knowledges | |||||
| 11 - 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.
r.zipf@cqu.edu.au
l.m.shannon@cqu.edu.au
Week 1
Begin Date: 10 Mar 2025Module/Topic
Introduction to senior years learning and teaching
Chapter
Brady, L. & Kennedy, K. (2019). Curriculum Construction (6th ed.). Pearson Australia.
Chapter 1 - The school curriculum and its stakeholders: who owns the curriculum?, pp. 2-12.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 2
Begin Date: 17 Mar 2025Module/Topic
Senior school curriculum documents and planning requirements
Chapter
Brady, L. & Kennedy, K. (2019). Curriculum Construction (6th ed.). Pearson Australia.
Chapter 9 - Curriculum planning models - theory and practice, pp. 135-139.
Ritchhart, R. (2006). The seven R’s of a quality curriculum. Education Quarterly Australia.
Resnick, L. (1987). The 1987 Presidential Address: Learning in School and out. Educational Researcher, 16(9), 13-54. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1175725
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 3
Begin Date: 24 Mar 2025Module/Topic
Lesson planning and pedagogical content knowledge in the senior years
Chapter
Marzano, R. J. (2017). The new art and science of teaching. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 4
Begin Date: 31 Mar 2025Module/Topic
Senior syllabus curriculum and assessment requirements - Literacy and Numeracy
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 5
Begin Date: 07 Apr 2025Module/Topic
Pedagogical content knowledge
Chapter
Enqvist, J. (not dated). PCK: Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Retrieved from http://staff.hamk.fi/~jenqvist/IntMater/PCK.pdf
Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), pp. 1-23.
See eReading list for subject specific PCK readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Vacation Week
Begin Date: 14 Apr 2025Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 6
Begin Date: 21 Apr 2025Module/Topic
Designing teaching strategies - classroom practices
Chapter
Killen, R. (2009). Effective teaching strategies: Lessons from research and practice. 5th ed. South Melbourne, Vic: Centage.
Marzano, R. J. (2017). The new art and science of teaching. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
See eReading list for subject specific teaching strategies readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 7
Begin Date: 28 Apr 2025Module/Topic
Designing teaching strategies - planning lessons
Chapter
School Drug Education and Road Aware (SDERA). Challenges and Choices: Teaching and learning strategies. Retrieved from https://www.sdera.wa.edu.au
See eReading list for subject specific teaching strategies readings
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 8
Begin Date: 05 May 2025Module/Topic
Designing teaching strategies - teaching and learning resources
Chapter
See eReading list for subject specific teaching resources
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 9
Begin Date: 12 May 2025Module/Topic
Designing units of work - higher order thinking
Chapter
Frangenheim, E. (2018). Reflections on classroom thinking strategies (11th ed.). Qld: Rodin Educational Consultancy.
Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority (QCAA). (2018). Glossary of cognitive verbs:General syllabuses. Brisbane, Qld.: Author.
Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority (QCAA). (2018). Categories of objectives, Marzano processes and related cognitive verbs. Brisbane, Qld.: Author.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 10
Begin Date: 19 May 2025Module/Topic
Assessment in the senior years
Chapter
Brady, L. & Kennedy, K. (2018). Assessment and reporting: Celebrating student achievement (5th ed.). Pearson Australia.
Assessment in General subjects
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 11
Begin Date: 26 May 2025Module/Topic
Design of assessment tasks in the senior years
Chapter
Readman, K. (2013). Practical planning and assessment (1st ed.). South Melbourne: VIC. Oxford University Press.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 12
Begin Date: 02 Jun 2025Module/Topic
Unit conclusion - putting it all together
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Review/Exam Week
Begin Date: 09 Jun 2025Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Exam Week
Begin Date: 16 Jun 2025Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Presentation
Teachers use units of work, corresponding assessment task/s and pedagogical content knowledge to plan lessons that align with curriculum and assessment requirements in the senior years. This task enables you to demonstrate your ability to select relevant content, learning activities and resources to plan lessons for ONE of your senior teaching areas.
Requirements:
- Task 1 must be completed using a different senior teaching area to that used to complete Task 2.
- QCAA General syllabus must be used unless you are a Trade Entry student with one discipline area.
- For this task, a lesson is taken to be 70 minutes in length. Lesson plans should reflect this time frame.
- Suggested presentation mode is a voice over ppt; however, other media presentation modes are acceptable.
Task Details:
This task requires you to develop a presentation demonstrating your skills and knowledge about planning, implementing, and evaluating and improving teaching. You will use the relevant Year 11/12 curriculum document to plan four exemplar lessons and record yourself teaching a 5 - 10 minute segment of one of the lessons. The lesson plans can focus on any curriculum topics from your Year 11 and 12 subject area, and do not need to be sequential or from the same topic, unit, or year level. The lesson plans must address curriculum imperatives as outlined:
Lesson 1 - Numeracy and/or literacy strategies
Lesson 2 - Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Lesson 3 - Higher order thinking questioning strategies
Lesson 4 - ICTs to enhance learning opportunities and strategies available to support the safe, responsible, and ethical use of ICTs
This assessment task comprises four steps. A suggested timeline for completion of each step is provided below to assist you to meet the final due date:
Step 1 – Use the lesson plan template provided on the Moodle Assessment page to develop a lesson plan that could be used to teach a concept in your senior subject area. Ensure the lesson plan template contains specific detailed information and addresses one of the four curriculum imperatives. The lesson plan must focus on the subject content and pedagogy and should not include details concerned with classroom management and routines.
Post the draft lesson plan, one only, for feedback from your subject tutor on the subject area discussion forum. You will receive feedback on your draft lesson plan from your tutor.
Timeline - Week 2
Step 2 – Make a 5 -10 minute video recording of you teaching a segment of one of your lesson plans. Send the link to a peer and ask them to provide feedback on your teaching demonstration video.
Timeline - Week 3
Step 3 – Now finish, review and make changes to your four lesson plans with respect to the tutor feedback and your own critical reflection. Likewise, use the peer feedback to revise and redo your teaching demonstration video. Document how you enhanced your lesson plans and teaching demonstration in response to feedback and reflection to evidence your ability to reflect, evaluate, and improve lesson planning and implementation.
Timeline - Week 4
Step 4 - Use your four exemplar lesson plans, revised teaching demonstration video, and documented evidence of response to feedback to develop a presentation showcasing your ability to plan, implement, and respond to feedback. The presentation should explain and justify the pedagogical choices you made in the lesson plans by:
- referring to the four exemplar lesson plans to demonstrate your ability to plan exemplar lessons that address numeracy and literacy, ICTs, differentiation for diverse learners and higher order questioning strategies
- showing the demonstration lesson segment to demonstrate your ability to enact planning documents
- explaining how you addressed feedback to demonstrate your ability to respond critically to feedback and improve teaching
- justifying the pedagogy and resource decisions you made in the construction of the exemplar lesson plans using scholarly sources to demonstrate your pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge of curriculum planning requirements.
Timeline - Week 5
Generative AI and academic integrity
Within this assessment, the use of Gen AI agents is as follows:
- Gen AI can be used to generate ideas and resources for lesson plans
- Gen AI cannot be used to generate lesson plans or presentation script
Vacation Week Wednesday (16 Apr 2025) 12:00 am AEST
Week 7 Wednesday (30 Apr 2025)
Feedback will be provided on formative tasks throughout the term. Feedback on the final assessment response will be provided following moderation.
- Evidence of improvement in response to feedback
- Knowledge and application of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment
- Knowledge and application of literacy and numeracy strategies
- Knowledge and application of ICTs
- Knowledge and application of higher order thinking questioning strategies
- Enactment of teaching plans
- Justification of the pedagogy and resources selected for the four planned lessons
- Language conventions and research
- Examine and utilise curriculum frameworks applicable to subject areas in senior secondary schooling
- Outline the content, assessment and discipline requirements for a senior subject area
- Critically select and justify the use of teaching and learning resources for senior secondary subjects
- Design and justify units of work and assessment instruments that promote learning, and match the needs of senior secondary school curriculum frameworks.
2 Written Assessment
Teachers require expert knowledge of their subject curriculum, discipline content and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in order to plan, teach and assess senior years subjects. Completion of this task will enable you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment requirements for the senior teaching area. This task requires you to develop a teaching and learning plan for one school term in Year 11 for one of your senior teaching areas, and provide a justification of the key elements of the planning document.
Requirements:
- This task is to be completed for ONE of your senior teaching areas and you must use a different senior teaching area to that used to complete Task 1.
- QCAA General syllabus must be used unless you are a Trade Entry student with one discipline area.
- The unit plan must focus on Year 11, not Year 12.
- Plan to teach 8 weeks with 3 lessons per week, i.e., 24 lessons of 70-80 minutes duration.
- Use the QCAA General (or Applied, if applicable) TLAP template provided on Moodle.
This assessment task comprises four steps. A suggested timeline for completion of each step is provided below to assist you to meet the final due date:
Step 1 – Use the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Plan (TLAP) template provided on the Moodle site to develop a teaching and learning plan that could be used by you or other teachers in your senior subject area. The plan must include:
· unit description
· unit objectives
· assessment plan
· notional hours, unit objectives and relevant subject matter for each objective ‘chunked’ over the 24 lessons.
Build the detail in your unit of work by including for each lesson:
· learning goal/s
· key learning experience/s
· main teaching resource/s
· Consider what key question/s will drive learning for each lesson and add in where applicable.
Post your draft teaching and learning plan for feedback from your subject tutor on the subject area discussion forum.
Timeline - Week 7
Step 2 – Continue working on the unit plan by:
· backward mapping the knowledge and skills (cognitions) required for the unit assessment into lessons
· identifying ‘assessment for learning’ milestone points across the unit
· identifying the literacy and numeracy skills required for the unit and including strategies to develop these skills throughout the unit where relevant.
Post your draft unit plan for feedback from your subject tutor on the subject area discussion forum.
Timeline - Week 9.
Step 3 – Develop a table to evidence how tutor feedback and self-reflection on your draft unit plan was used to evaluate and enhance the unit of work. A template titled 'Evidence of feedback application' is available on the Moodle site for you to populate. The completed table can be added as an appendix in your final submission.
Timeline - Week 10.
Step 4 – Your final submission will include: title page; introduction; unit of work for the term; scholarly justification of the planned unit, teaching strategies, student activities, resources, formative assessment strategies, strategies used to support the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICTs, and literacy and numeracy skills addressed that makes links to theory/research; reference list; Appendix 1 - Evidence of feedback application. Further explanation of how to write an introduction and a justification are provided on the Moodle site.
Timeline - Week 12.
Generative AI and academic integrity
Within this assessment, the use of Gen AI agents is as follows:
- Gen AI can be used to generate ideas and resources for lesson within the TLAP.
- Gen AI cannot be used to generate text for the TLAP justification.
Week 12 Friday (6 June 2025) 12:00 am AEST
Exam Week Friday (20 June 2025)
Feedback will be provided on formative tasks throughout the term. Feedback on the final assessment response will be provided following moderation and prior to the date for Certification of Grades for Term 1.
- Content selection and organisation
- Knowledge and understanding of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment planning requirements
- Knowledge and understanding of curriculum objectives
- Knowledge and understanding of pedagogy and resources
- Knowledge and understanding of literary and numeracy strategies
- Knowledge and understanding of ICTs
- Knowledge and understanding of formative and summative assessment
- Justification of curriculum and assessment
- Justification of pedagogy and resources
- Language conventions and research
- Examine and utilise curriculum frameworks applicable to subject areas in senior secondary schooling
- Outline the content, assessment and discipline requirements for a senior subject area
- Outline and justify specific teaching strategies, pedagogies, thinking approaches, processes and learning experiences for a senior subject area
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?
