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“Mark always develops great teaching aids to help with
the lesson engagement and
has very good ideas for developing flexible lessons related to a variety of
curriculum areas”
Gay Quelhurst - Midway
Report - Term 3 2008
Standard 1 embodies the overarching principle of the Teaching
and Learning cluster as can be seen from the QTC
graphic on the preceding page. Accordingly, the fulfilment of
Standards 2, 3, 4, and 5 also rely to some extent on the educator’s
ability to engage the students and to flexibly accommodate their various
needs (Fetherston, 2006).
Creating engaging learning experiences requires that the
material be tailored to the students and the environment be student centred (Woolfolk
& Margetts, 2007). Appropriate differentiation and mediation of the
curriculum is vital, particularly in a primary setting (Eggen & Kauchak,
2006). Accordingly, the method and manner of material
presentation must be sensitive to the preoperational, concrete operational or
formally operant status of individual students (Piaget, 1962). It is
now well understood that learning is not a thing transmitted whole from one
person to another. It is socially co-constructed and hence, engaging
experiences are those in which students’ existing worldviews are known,
respected and built upon. It follows from this that learning is often
constructed in peer groups, semi-independent of superordinate involvement,
and that such peer interactivity has a part to play in engaging learning
experiences (Daniels, 2001).
Student engagement is also far higher when the cognitive and
learning styles of individuals are flexibly accommodated. As Woolfolk
& Margetts (2007) note, flexibility of this kind improves student
motivation. It is also good practice to present material that appeals
to a variety of modalities. Visual, aural, kinaesthetic, active,
passive, written, oral, single, grouped - flexible lessons are modulated to
recognise success delivered by various vehicles in keeping with Gardner’s
(1983) seminal findings on multiple intelligences.
One of the means of that modulation and a further key to
engaging today’s techno-savvy students is Information and
Communications Technology (Malone, 2006; O'Hanlon, 2007). Extensive
experience in digital graphics and information technology enable me to deliver
broad areas of curriculum concept using digital media.
An example of a flexible learning experience that achieved
enthusiastic embrace by my students is the Science Unit on Genetics and
Inheritance that I delivered to a composite Grade 6-7 class at St Anthony’s.
The unit featured (in addition to traditional modalities) a blend of
multi-media including YouTube videos, illustrative animations, digital
graphics and online investigations. Homework and revision was presented
on-line in unit-dedicated web pages and assessment included considerable
choice and authenticity. In this way, material was presented that was
flexibly accessible to a wide range of learning styles and preferences (Woolfolk
& Margetts, 2007), in class time and at home. Click
Here. (New Window)
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“The children particularly enjoyed his hands on
Science and Maths lessons which enabled independent and group work, which
stimulated thinking and language development as well as covering the
curriculum areas”
Gay Quelhurst - Referee Statement
2009
The position of the Queensland Department of Education and
Training (2009) is that both literacy and numeracy are integral to
effective learning, teaching and assessing in all curriculum areas and across
all phases of learning. Words and numbers are at the heart of human
semiotics and understanding them is the portal through which one must
pass to convene with all other learning.
It follows then, that in addition to class time dedicated
specifically to language and number skills, numeracy and literacy should be
integrated into almost all lessons in a Primary setting (Department of Education
and Training, 2009). A fractions lesson can integrate the etymology of the
word “decimal”, SOSE lessons may provide the platform for
engaging with proportion.
Yet languages change over time with the ebb and flow of cultural
patterns and values. Accordingly, an effective teacher needs to keep abreast
of the shifting definition of literacy, broadening, as it does to include new
media and methods. Additionally, a variety of genres should be considered,
such as brief notes, shopping lists, traffic signs and advertising. All these
offer opportunities to anchor phonics in something real. As do learning
experiences that explore the ways that different communication methods and social,
cultural and historical contexts influence language choice, appropriate
discourse and literacy and numeracy practices (Queensland College of
Teachers, 2006).
In monitoring and evaluating students’ literacy
and numeracy needs, teachers who tend to look for patterns of errors across
the work of individuals and groups and respond with targeted instruction, are
more likely to make an impact on children's development (Neuman,
Snow, & Canizares, 2007).
My own preference is to immerse students in real examples of the
literacy or numeracy aspect being addressed. I use a variety of media to
explore those aspects, guiding students toward evaluation and synthesis of the aspects of
language or numbers under study. I tend to introduce language and number
terms and rules during discussion and encourage student interaction and demonstration
if appropriate. I may have students notice and analyse, for example, how the poet uses
adjectival phrases to create pictures, or how the near-10 strategy for mental
arithmetic reveals numeric patterns.
Examples of teaching aids that I have developed and used include:
A fun interactive factorisation game helpful in
reinforcing number concepts, click here.
A YouTube video used to ground a lesson on proportion in
real world concepts, click here.
An interactive tool for exploring direct speech
punctuation and creative language alternatives, click
here.
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 - Design And Implement
Intellectually Challenging Learning Experiences
“Mark was able to deliver lessons that engaged and
challenged his students.His knowledge of the curriculum was very thorough.He
used technology well within his lessons to enhance learning outcomes”
Chris Cawley - Referee Statement
2009
As the QTC (2006) itself acknowledges, comprehensive
understanding of the central concepts, modes of inquiry and structures of the
discipline areas they teach is central to allowing educators to challenge
their students. In this I am most fortunate to have a reservoir of
curriculum relevant knowledge and understanding that is both broad and deep.
I have also gained a solid grasp of the manner in which
learning takes place and how knowledge is accumulated and retained.
Piaget (1962) is credited with first realising that children's learning
capacity develops in approximate step with their capacity for abstract
thought. They frame the world in schemas that are constantly disputed
by the realities that they encounter, requiring that they either assimilate
or accommodate new input. Hence, challenging learning experiences are
those that create disequilibration in student schemas then resolve those
tensions by calibrating tasks to the Zone of Proximal Development of the
students (Daniels, 2001). Novel and difficult concepts also need to be
appropriately scaffolded and social discourse has a role to play in allowing
students to first appropriate, then internalise new understandings (Vygotsky,
1997).
Incorporation of higher order thinking skills into learning
experiences is also fundamental to challenging students (Queensland College
of Teachers, 2006). Lessons that impart knowledge have their place,
but lessons that oblige students further to apply, analyse, synthesise and
evaluate that knowledge promote deeper and more focused engagement with the
content (Bloom, 1956).
One sequence of learning experiences that I designed to extend
students was intended for Grade 5. The lesson concept plans show students were
consistently challenged with higher order requirements at the upper end of
Bloom’s Taxonomy to “translate”, “reverse”,
“apply”, “transpose”, “approximate” and
“create. Click here
(large file - 500Kb)
Another sequence of lessons on “Water” that I
delivered to Grade 1-2 students and which is available online will also
demonstrate. Each week groups of students were presented with a
different provocation, such as explaining what had happened to the salt that
disappeared when they stirred the water in which I had placed it. There were five
similar lessons, each them challenging in different ways. Click
here (New Window)
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1-2Q is a class full of diverse needs and a diversity of
backgrounds. Mark managed to teach/ plan to the needs of all
students. He showed an interest in learning about each child and their
needs, and always had methods in place to make sure all children were not
only included, but participated at a level at which they were comfortable.
Gay Quelhurst - Practicum
Report - Term 3, 2008
“Diversity” implies, and Hickey (2006)
concurs, that each person brings with them to the classroom an idiosyncratic contextual
locatedness - the distinctive confluence of physical, cultural, social,
emotional and cognitive circumstances that have framed their world
view. Accordingly, I do not expect that the people in my classes will
be of particular types or that they will fit into categories at
all. Rather, the opposite, that each of them will bring a unique
blend of antecedents which, when shared and celebrated, can nourish our class
community. Some research (Simonton, 2000 cited in; Woolfolk & Margetts,
2007) even suggests that exposure to diverse perspectives encourages
creativity and lateral minded problem solving.
Brown (2006) describes inclusive learning environments as those
in which each child is appreciated for what they themselves bring to a
setting. Hence, nurturing diversity necessarily means that
teachers imbue their classrooms with a positive atmosphere that recognises
these contributions. Thus, having a goal of accommodating and
supporting, not only learner’s academic requirements, but their social
and cultural needs as well, ensures that all class members’ voices are
heard and their values respected.
Classroom practices that reinforce the value of diversity can
include direct instruction, modelling of value laden behaviours and providing
a variety of success pathways to optimise cultural neutrality (Fetherston,
2006). Students can be matter-of-factly familiarised with aids and
devices for disabled students such that they are demystified (Woolfolk & Margetts,
2007). Educators should also be sensitive to the patterns of
interaction that children have with their parents, and attempt to emulate
this style if possible (Freeman, 1998).
Two YouTube videos that I created for practicum classes also
encouraged students to value diversity and appreciate our privileged
circumstances. One presents imagery of the diverse peoples of the world
trapped by hunger & destitution, click here.
The other heightens awareness of refugees with a message of hope, click here.
Mentor teachers commented as follows on my ability to fulfil
this Professional Standard:-
Mark was very supportive of all students needs and was
inclusive in his approach to all learning activities”
Bryan Simpson - Referee Statement
2009
“He obviously enjoys relating to the children and makes
every effort to include all the children in the learning process”
Gay Quelhurst - Practicum
Report - Term 2, 2008
“He was consistent in managing the students and
responsive to their needs”
Bryan Simpson - Practicum
Report - Term 1, 2009
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“Mark demonstrated a range of assessment practices
across all curriculum areas.
He was able to use assessment tasks to enhance further learning experiences.
Mark was able to provide formal assessment tasks and data that were relevant
and accurate.”
Bryan Simpson - Practicum
Report - Term 1, 2009
My approach to designing assessment instruments is in keeping
with current understandings that are widely espoused in the literature, see,
for example, Wiggins (2005), Banks (2005) and Fetherston (2006).
Amongst the shared principles laid down by those authors are that: assessment
should engender learning as well as determine what has been learnt; students
motivation is enhanced when learning’s real world usefulness is
perceptible to them; assessment processes should be incremental and earlier assessment
tasks should prepare learners for later tasks and; assessment should be
authentic.
Additionally, quality assessment manifests several other key
characteristics. It should be valid, in that it measures what it
intends to measure and reliable, in that it is an accurate measure of student
performance (Fetherston, 2006). Central to flexibility in assessment is
the concept of choice, which, according to Wood & Smith (1999), can be
applied, inter alia, to timing, style, media, content, and
method. Assessment must also to be fair. Fairness, while
less concrete, more subject to cultural mores than the parameters above (Woolfolk
& Margetts, 2007), can still integrated with assessment instruments
through acknowledgement and accommodation of variegated students’ needs
(Killen, 2005).
Teachers are required to report their assessment of student
attainment to other education professionals, government instrumentalities
and, of course, to parents. Accordingly, collaboration, both among
educators and with parents, while closely related to Standards Nine and Eight
respectively, is also fundamental to meaningful reportage (Queensland College
of Teachers, 2008). Such reports fulfil a variety of purposes like
progress information, accreditation, guidance for educational reformers and
infrastructure planners and hence its reliability and accuracy is vital.
During my second professional attachment I developed a major
instrument of assessment for a Science Unit on Genetics which embodied many
of the principles outlined above. It evinced validity in that it
measured what it intended - broad understanding of taxonomy, genetics &
inheritance. It was reliable because it returned comparable results between
theoretically equal student cohorts, irrespective of evaluation personnel. It
was flexible through its provision of student choices and that flexibility
enabled it to accommodate the diversity of student needs, which is the very
essence of fairness. Its authenticity is derived from the significant
component of rich tasks rooted in performance types that are valued in real
world activity. Click Here. (New Window)
“He presented positive and constructive feedback to
students”
Bryan Simpson - Referee Statement
2009
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- Design And Implement Engaging And Flexible
- Design And Implement Learning Experiences
- Design And Implement
- Assess And Report Constructively