Overview
The capacity for teachers to demonstrate a positive impact on student learning is central to effective teaching and to the design of pedagogical practices that make a difference. In this unit, you will explore pedagogical strategies and processes applicable to your secondary curriculum learning areas with a focus on student engagement and student centred learning practices. You will explore how to select and use quality resources and teaching approaches appropriate for your curriculum learning areas. You will compile a portfolio of professional pedagogical repertoires that will include a range of strategies for teaching higher level content, based on contemporary research and best-practice evidence. Through exploring the characteristics of quality evidence and identifying the types of evidence you could draw upon, you will identify and analyse whether your teaching practice has made a positive impact on student learning. Evidence of your impact on student learning will be drawn directly from your personal reflection on your approach to planning and teaching, feedback received on your teaching practice and your observation of other teachers. Through critical reflection on your demonstration of the relevant professional standards, you will also identify your professional learning needs in order to improve your future practice.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
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 - 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 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 student feedback via email; voicemail: direct communication; SUTE data
Students were deeply appreciative of the weekly check-ins on their wellbeing.
Retain the weekly check-ins and opportunities to share positive news.
Feedback from student feedback during tutorials; SUTE data
High level of engagement with tutorials. Students said they enjoyed the discussions and the level of agency they had in them.
Continue with the engaging teaching approach within this unit.
- Design pedagogical practices that impact positively on student learning
- Critically reflect on professional practice outlining strengths and professional challenges to strengthen skills to impact on student learning
- Apply constructive feedback to improve professional practice and student learning outcomes
- Use the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers to monitor learning and improve professional practice in response to feedback, self-evaluation and reflection
- Create a portfolio of professional pedagogical repertoires.
Successful completion of this unit provides opportunities for students to demonstrate the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Career Stage) focus areas of:
1.2 Understand how students learn
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
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
4.1 Support student participation
5.1 Assess student learning
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
7.4 Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Portfolio - 50% | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 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.
n.mead@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Topic 1 Demonstrating Impact: making a positive impact on student learning
Key Terms:
- Impact - a marked effect or influence
- Visible Learning - occurs when teachers see learning through the eyes of students and help them become their own teachers and is about learners taking ownership for their learning. "The biggest effects on student learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching, and when students become their own teachers" (Hattie, 2012). Visible refers to making student learning visible to teachers, ensuring attributes that make a 'visible' difference to student learning. The "learning" aspect refers to how we go about knowing and understanding then doing something about student learning" (Hattie, 2012)
Chapter
There is no set text book for this unit. Weekly readings are listed in the learning materials and in the eReading List.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 2 Make a difference: Pedagogy in practice
Key Terms:
- Reflective practitioner - A reflective practitioner is one who is constantly thinking about and evaluating their own practice with a view to improvement.
- Reflection on action - Tends to happen after the action, when the practitioner considers what occurred and what the impact of those actions were.
- Reflection in action - This occurs while the practitioner is in action, when they can reflect on and evaluate what is happening and then actually adapt what they are doing in response to their reflection.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 3 Make a difference: The learner context
Key Terms:
- Learner profiling - This is a process of collecting data about each learner to identify their strengths and weaknesses and determine implications for learning design. Some individuals and groups of learners may need specialised learning programs, scaffolding or alternative assessment tasks to be able to achieve selected learning outcomes.
- Multiple Intelligences - The theory of multiple intelligences was originated by Howard Gardner, who suggested that the traditional notion of intelligence, was far too limited.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 4 Infusing higher order thinking: Cognitive Verbs in action
Key Terms:
- Explicit pedagogy - is concerned with thinking clearly about what we say to our students, the particular learning task we are focusing on, and the actual structure of the learning experience. It includes explicitly demonstrating and modelling specific structures, skills, knowledges and, importantly, attitudes to learning
- Higher Order Thinking - involves the transformation of information and ideas. This transformation occurs when students combine facts and ideas and synthesise, generalise, explain, hypothesise or arrive at some conclusion or interpretation. Manipulating information and ideas through these processes allows students to solve problems, gain understanding and discover new meaning.
-
Cognitive Verbs - are the key skills that students will be expected to use across a range of senior subjects in Queensland Senior Syllabus documents and provide the foundation for the entire Queensland Senior School Curriculum. Also known as key task words, task words and verbs, the cognitive verbs are common curriculum elements in disguise and teachers should be very familiar with these skills.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 5 Promoting higher order thinking: Questioning skills
Key Terms:
- Questioning - is the basis of effective inquiry and encourages higher order thinking. Good questioning promotes understanding by providing opportunities to explain, clarify, probe, make connections and identify problems and issues. Questioning contributes to dialogue between teachers and learners and has an impact on their use of questioning to promote their own learning.
- Lower/higher questions - Questions can be classified as lower or higher:
- evaluating learners’ preparation and comprehension
- diagnosing learners’ strengths and weaknesses
- reviewing and/or summarising content.
- encouraging learners to think more deeply and critically
- problem solving
- encouraging discussions
- stimulating learners to seek information on their own.
- Closed Questions - Questions that require only a yes/no answer and limited response from learners
- Open ended questions - questions that are constructed in such a way that they may require learners to think and draw on a range of responses other than yes or no
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 6 Effective teaching: Teaching methods continuum, scaffolding, graphic organisers
Key Terms:
- Instructional methods - The purpose of selecting an instructional method is to identify and employ teaching strategies and techniques that most effectively achieve the performance outcomes. Current educational theory and research support the use of instructional methods that make learners active learners (e.g., lecture, lab, small group discussion, case-based study, simulations, independent study, etc.).
- Teaching methods continuum - A teaching strategy can be actioned using any of a number of different teaching methods along a teaching methods continuum, with the degree of teacher control (high teacher responsibility—low learner responsibility) to learner driven (low teacher responsibility—high learner responsibility) being the focus.
- Scaffolding - A strategy or tool that is used to help structure and support learning so the learner may be able to grasp a concept, complete a task and so forth.
- Graphic Organiser - A framework that is used to help learners organise and store knowledge. These should be used to explicitly draw attention to the thinking process, they should not be seen as just sheets to fill in.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 7 Teachers as professionals
Key Terms:
- Profession - a disciplined group of individuals who adhere to ethical standards. This group positions itself as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education and training at a high level, and is recognised by the public as such. A professional is prepared to apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others
- Professionalism - the competence or skill expected of a professional. Professionalism comprises the personally held beliefs about one's own conduct as a professional. It's often linked to the upholding of the principles, laws, ethics and conventions of a profession as a way of practice.
- Professional Standards - The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers make explicit what effective teachers should know and be able to do. The Standards describe what is expected of teachers across three domains: Professional Knowledge, Professional Practice and Professional Engagement; and at four career stages: Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Portfolio of Resources and Critical Reflection
Due: Week 6 Friday (19 Apr 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Portfolio of Resources and Critical Reflection Due: Week 6 Friday (19 Apr 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Topic 8 The Professional Standards and personal reflection
Key Terms:
- Code of Ethics for Teachers
- Teacher Beliefs
- Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST). The Standards are grouped into three domains:
- Professional Knowledge
- Professional Practice
- Professional Engagement
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 9 Reflection and goal setting
Key Terms:
- Personal Reflection - is an opportunity to reconsider events, thoughts and feelings from a fresh perspective. It is a way of assessing yourself, your ways of working and how you teach. To put it simply ‘reflection’ means to think about something. Reflecting and composing a piece of self reflective writing is an increasingly important component to improving teaching practice to set goals and plan your professional development pathway.
- Reflect Critically - Often reflection and critical reflection are used inter-changeably in the literature. However, critical reflection denotes another level of reflection beyond what you might or might not cover in other forms of reflection (eg. diary, journal). Critical reflection is an extension of critical thinking. It asks us to think about our practice and ideas and then it challenges us to step-back and examine our thinking by asking probing questions. It asks us to not only delve into the past and look at the present but importantly it asks us to speculate about the future and act.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 10 Professional learning: Way forward planning
Key Term:
- On-going Professional Learning - teaching is a dynamic profession and, as new knowledge about teaching and learning emerges, new types of expertise are required by educators. Teachers must keep abreast of this knowledge base and use it to continually refine their conceptual and pedagogical skills.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
CRITICAL TASK
Critical reflective statement on impact including personal reflection and an action plan
Due: Week 10 Monday (13 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Portfolio
Task Description
This task has four sections:
Part A (500 words)
You will be required to reflect on your own attitudes and perceptions towards learning and teaching outlining what works well for you as a teacher and what your professional challenges are (500 words)
Part B (1000 words maximum)
You are to identify aspects of a learner cohort within your major teaching area that you will be working with on your next placement (or have worked with previously) through a 1000 word (maximum) cohort description. This is to include aspects of student data that you can interpret and utilise to inform your planning.
Part C (three detailed lessons)
Design a series of three lesson plans for your chosen cohort profiled in Part B.
Your lesson plans (with associated resources) are to demonstrate the relevant syllabus objectives for the chosen senior class in your major teaching area.
Your lessons should include the following characteristics:
1. Show how the planning will allow students to work towards demonstrating the relevant syllabus objectives from the senior syllabus in your chosen major teaching area.
2. Make links to the use of the relevant cognitive verbs within the senior syllabus to promote higher order thinking.
3. Include the use of 2 quality resources, one of these must be an ICT resource.
4. Include a range of teaching strategies that scaffold the use of the chosen resources to assist students to meet the syllabus requirements.
5. One activity within the lessons must demonstrate your ability to teach literacy or numeracy in context within your teaching area.
6. Outline how the resources will be used to meet the needs of identified diverse learners to assist them to achieve the outcomes of the lesson/s.
7. Provide sufficient detail in the lesson plans so that they could be used by another teacher.
8. Ensure the teaching strategies used in the lesson plans will ensure students have achieved the desired learning goals.
9. Utilise assessment strategies (formative and/or summative) to assess student learning.
10. Include strategies to ensure students receive feedback on their achievement within the lessons.
Part D (1000 words maximum)
Through exploring the characteristics of what quality evidence is and identifying the types of evidence you could draw upon based on your response to this task, you are to identify and analyse whether you believe your approach to planning has made a positive impact on student learning.
You are to evidence your impact on student learning drawn directly from your personal reflection on your approach to planning and teaching, any previous feedback received on your teaching practice and your observation of other teachers.
Your statement must include an articulation of how these lessons provide evidence of how you have demonstrated impact on student learning.
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 (19 Apr 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 8 Friday (3 May 2024)
Feedback on this assessment response will be provided in sufficient time to allow for academic support and advice as necessary to inform students' responses to the next assessment task.
Understanding of learning and teaching through personal reflection (Part A)
Demonstration of processes and skills important to the creation of effective cohort description and identification of implications for teaching (Part B)
Application of professional knowledge to enhance teaching and learning through the development of lesson plans and associated learning resources (Part C)
Understanding of the components that impact on the learning and teaching process and how these impact student learning (Part D)
Use of written communication conventions
- Design pedagogical practices that impact positively on student learning
- Critically reflect on professional practice outlining strengths and professional challenges to strengthen skills to impact on student learning
- Apply constructive feedback to improve professional practice and student learning outcomes
- Use the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers to monitor learning and improve professional practice in response to feedback, self-evaluation and reflection
- Create a portfolio of professional pedagogical repertoires.
2 Written Assessment
As a Critical Task, you must pass this assessment to gain a pass overall for the unit.
Task Description
Through reflecting critically on your demonstration of the relevant professional standards, the purpose of this task is for you to identify your professional learning needs in order to improve your future practice. Your response to this task must demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of research into how students learn and the implications for teaching (APST 1.2).
Your task is to write a 2000 word (maximum) personal reflective statement that outlines how your teaching practice, choice of pedagogical approaches, selection of curriculum, choice of teaching resources and assessment practices has demonstrated your ability to impact positively on student learning through considering your demonstration of the following Professional Standards in your practice:
How have you used strategies that can be used to evaluate teaching programs to improve student learning?
(APST 3.6)
How have you used strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities?(APST 4.1)
How have you demonstrated understanding of a range of strategies for reporting to students and parents/carers and the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement? (APST 5.5)
How have you used the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in identifying your professional learning needs? (APST 6.1)
What professional learning have you engaged with to improve your practice and identify how this has impacted on student learning? (APST 6.2)
How have you used constructive feedback from supervisors and other teachers to improve your teaching practices? (APST 6.3)
What are the reasons for engaging in continuous professional learning and what are the implications of this on improving student learning? (APST 6.4)
Based on your responses to the above questions, your conclusion should outline your action plan through articulating what you believe to be your professional learning needs in order to improve your future practice.
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 10 Monday (13 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
This task will be returned after the moderation process has occurred.
Ability to impact positively on student learning through the demonstration of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in teaching practice
Ability to select and organise evidence that makes explicit links to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
Critically reflect on teaching practice
Identify professional learning needs in order to improve future practice
Communicates through the use of written communication conventions
- Design pedagogical practices that impact positively on student learning
- Critically reflect on professional practice outlining strengths and professional challenges to strengthen skills to impact on student learning
- Apply constructive feedback to improve professional practice and student learning outcomes
- Use the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers to monitor 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?
