Unit Outline

This unit introduces you to the study of teaching as a profession and provides opportunities for you to critically examine the nature of teachers’ work. Through reflecting on your past educational experiences and dispositions (that is, your attitudes and beliefs) about teaching and teachers, you will establish a sound base to develop your knowledge and understanding of contemporary teaching practice. Content explored in this unit includes the pragmatics of teachers’ work such as planning, establishing a positive and supportive learning environment, communicating as a teacher, and student learning, motivation and engagement. You will have the opportunity to further explore each of these topics and to develop your professional knowledge through observation of educational contexts. You will be introduced to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Level) and reflect on these in relation to your engagement in this unit and thus, your own development as a teacher or education support specialist.

Intended Learning Outcomes

As per the Assessment and Results Policy 1.3, your results will reflect your achievement against specified learning outcomes.

On completion of this unit, you will be able to:


1.	Plan for and be active in your own learning within the context of an Education degree
2.	Reflect on your knowledge of teaching and yourself as a developing teacher/education support worker
3.	Articulate your informed understanding of the foundations of teachers' work
4.	Communicate in writing for an academic audience.

Alterations as a result of student feedback

How will I be Assessed?

For more detailed assessment information please see MyLO.

Assessment schedule


ASSESSMENT TASK #	ASSESSMENT TASK NAME	DATE DUE	WEIGHT	LINKS TO INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Assessment Task 1:	You as an Educator: Beliefs and Aspirations	Week 5	15 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Assessment Task 2:	Engagement in Education Settings: Student Learning, Motivation and Engagement	Week 8	20 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Assessment Task 3:	Engagement in Education Settings: Creating Effective Learning Environments for all Students	Week 11	25 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Assessment Task 4:	Engagement in Education Settings: Your Learning	Week 14	40 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4

Assessment details

Assessment Task 1: You as an Educator: Beliefs and Aspirations

Task Description:

In this unit you will begin the process of preparing for study toward a professional teaching or education support career, and for life-long learning in general.

This task involves two distinct steps:
First, you are required to draft a brief statement (written in an academic style) based on your current knowledge and understanding of teaching/education support, and the attributes that you bring to teaching/education support. Specifically, the statement will address:
a) your reasons for becoming a teacher/education support specialist; and
b) the attributes of an effective educator that you currently possess and how those attributes will enable you to carry out the roles and responsibilities of your chosen profession.

Note that you should focus on just one or two attributes and reflect on them in light of just one or two roles/responsibilities.
You must submit your draft paper to Studiosity for feedback on written expression and content. You should do this by the end of Week 3 of semester, to ensure you receive feedback in a timely manner.

Next, you must refine your draft paper based on the feedback report that you receive from Studiosity and upload both your Studiosity report and final draft to MyLO (as separate documents)

To achieve at least a pass for this assignment your final draft must:
• address both (a) and (b) above, and
• refer to at least two readings written by two different authors.

An assessment brief for this task will be provided in MyLO.

Task Length:

600 words (maximum)

Due Date:

Week 5 (25/Mar/2024)

Weight:

15 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Capacity to reflect on your reasons for becoming a teacher/education support specialist and the attributes you have that make you suited to teaching/education support (20%)	LO2, LO3
2	Identification of professional roles/responsibilities of a teacher/education support specialist and the external influences on their work (20%)	LO2, LO3
3	Examination and communication of your developing beliefs and attitudes about teaching and yourself as a teacher/education support specialist (20%)	LO2, LO3
4	Communication of ideas through appropriate use of scholarly writing conventions and information literacy skills (20%)	LO4
5	Use of Studiosity feedback for strengthening your written expression and content (20%)	LO1, LO4

Assessment Task 2: Engagement in Education Settings: Student Learning, Motivation and Engagement

Task Description:

One key aim of this and the remaining ‘Engagement in Education Settings’ tasks is to help you deepen your knowledge and understanding of the foundations of teaching. A second aim is for you to further develop your capacity for reflective thinking; an important skill for all teachers and education support specialists.

To that end, you are required to complete a written reflective journal entry which will focus on your first observation experience (video footage provided in MyLO), and will be written in light of your learning in relation to:
• Student learning or Student motivation and engagement
• The related literature of the field
• The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
• Your future teaching/education support aspirations related to the topic. This should include planning for any professional learning you may need to undertake to improve your future teaching/education support practice relating to student learning or student motivation/engagement.

An assessment brief for this task is provided in MyLO.

Completion of this Assessment Task relates to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 1.2, 2.1, 3.5, 4.1, 6.1, 6.4

Task Length:

850 words (maximum)

Due Date:

Week 8 (26/Apr/2024)

Weight:

20 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Examination and communication of key aspects of the foundations of teachers’ work (20%)	LO2, LO3
2	Identification of professional roles, responsibilities and external influences on teachers' work (20%)	LO2, LO3
3	In-depth examination and communication of your own beliefs and attitudes about teaching and yourself as a teacher/education support specialist (20%)	LO1, LO2, LO3
4	Planning for your learning about the teaching/education support profession and your development as a teacher/education support specialist (20%)	LO1, LO2, LO3
5	Communication of ideas through appropriate use of scholarly writing conventions and information literacy skills (20%)	LO4

Assessment Task 3: Engagement in Education Settings: Creating Effective Learning Environments for all Students

Task Description:

This written reflection is much the same as AT2, other than the focus topic/s have changed.

For this task you are required to complete a written reflective journal entry which will focus on your first observation experience (video footage provided in MyLO), and will be written in light of your learning in relation to:
• Establishing effective learning environments for all students
• The related literature of the field
• The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
• Your future teaching/education support aspirations related to the topic. This should include planning for any professional learning you may need to undertake to improve your future teaching/education support practice relating to effective learning environments.

An assessment brief for this task is provided in MyLO.

Completion of this Assessment Task relates to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4,1.5, 1.6, 3.5, 3.7, 4.1, 6.1, 6.4

Task Length:

850 words (maximum)

Due Date:

Week 11 (17/May/2024)

Weight:

25 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Examination and communication of key aspects of the foundations of teachers’ work (20%)	LO2, LO3
2	Identification of teaching roles, responsibilities, and external influences on teachers' work (20%)	LO2, LO3
3	In-depth examination and communication of your own beliefs and attitudes about teaching and yourself as a teacher/education support specialist (20%)	LO1, LO2, LO3
4	Planning for your learning about the teaching/education support profession and your development as a teacher/education support specialist (20%)	LO1, LO2, LO3
5	Communication of ideas through appropriate use of scholarly writing conventions and information literacy skills (20%)	LO4

Assessment Task 4: Engagement in Education Settings: Your Learning

Task Description:

This final assessment task requires you to collate evidence of your learning - your developing understanding of core unit content - across the semester. You will present your work as a portfolio, using the relevant Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) as organisers, as follows:
• Select one focus area only for each of the four APST covered in this unit, from the list below. You will need to refer to the APST website and/or the EDU102 MyLO unit, for descriptions of each standard and focus area:
Standard 1 focus area: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6
Standard 2 focus area: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4
Standard 3 focus area: 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 3.7
Standard 4 focus area: 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4
It is recommended that you reflect on the Standards that you feel least confident in, in practice, so that your work in preparing the portfolio may further develop your understanding in this regard.
• In PebblePad, create a portfolio section for each Standard (1, 2, 3 & 4), and within each section, create a sub-section for each selected focus area (1.4, 2.1, 3.4, 4.2 for example).
• For each of the selected focus areas, present a short narrative reflection of your learning related to that aspect of teachers’ work. At a minimum, your narrative should include:
- the key highlights of your learning related to the focus area
- any challenges that you faced in developing your thinking
- what additional learning you may need to undertake to
further develop your understanding in relation to this focus
area. This should include an outline of your plans for future
learning, independent of your course of study.
• Your narrative must be scholarly. That is, you must demonstrate how the prescribed text and/or wider readings have informed/helped develop your understanding of the APST focus area, and reference accordingly.
• Support your narrative with the inclusion of key evidences of your learning for each of the chosen APST focus areas. Evidence might include extracts from discussion posts, from your notebooks, snippets from earlier assignments/feedback, links to or quotes from electronic texts, images or video footage, your own video notes/voice recordings – it is up to you to determine the type and suitability of each piece of evidence.
• The relevance of each piece of evidence used and how it demonstrates your learning, must be made clear through your narrative.

An assignment brief, including example portfolios, will be provided in MyLO.

Completion of this Assessment Task relates to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, 3.5, 3.7, 4.1, 6.1, 6.3, 6.4

Task Length:

1700 words (maximum) Word count does not include actual evidence (images, snippets etc.)

Due Date:

Week 14 (05/Jun/2024)

Weight:

40 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	In-depth examination and communication of key aspects of the foundations of teachers’ work, as associated with the selected APSTs (20%)	LO2, LO3
2	In-depth examination and communication of your own developing learning, beliefs and attitudes about teaching and yourself as a teacher/education support specialist, in relation to the selected APST (20%)	LO2, LO3
3	Identification of gaps in your understanding about the selected APST and planning for your further learning in this regard (20%)	LO1, LO2, LO3
4	Use of relevant and clearly annotated evidence which appropriately demonstrates your learning related to each selected APST (10%)	LO2, LO3, LO4
5	Organisation and presentation of portfolio (10%)	LO1, LO4
6	Communication of ideas through appropriate use of scholarly writing conventions and information literacy skills (20%)	LO4

How your final result is determined

To pass this unit, you need to demonstrate your attainment of each of the Intended Learning Outcomes, achieve a final unit grade of 50% or greater, and pass any hurdle tasks.

Submission of assignments

Where practicable, assignments should be submitted to an assignment submission folder in MYLO. You must submit assignments by the due date or receive a penalty (unless an extension of time has been approved by the Unit Coordinator). Students submitting any assignment in hard copy, or because of a practicum finalisation, must attach a student cover sheet and signed declaration for the submission to be accepted for marking.

Requests for extensions

If you are unable to submit an assessment task by the due date, you should apply for an extension.

A request for an extension should first be discussed with your Unit Coordinator or teaching support team where possible. A request for an extension must be submitted by the assessment due date, except where you can provide evidence it was not possible to do so. Typically, an application for an extension will be supported by documentary evidence: however, where it is not possible for you to provide evidence please contact your Unit Coordinator.

The Unit Coordinator must notify you of the outcome of an extension request within 3 working days of receiving the request.

Late penalties

Assignments submitted after the deadline will receive a late penalty of 5% of the original available mark for each calendar day (or part day) that the assignment is late. Late submissions will not be accepted more than 10 calendar days after the due date, or after assignments have been returned to other students on a scheduled date, whichever occurs first. Further information on Late Penalties can be found on the Assessments and Results Procedure.

Review of results and appeals

You are entitled to ask for a review of the marking and grading of your assessment task if there is an irregularity in the marking standards or an error in the process for determining the outcome of an assessment. Details on how to request a review of a mark for an assignment are outlined in the Review and Appeal of Academic Decisions Procedure.

Required Resources

Required reading materials

Required Readings are set by the Unit Coordinator as readings that are essential for this Unit. Students need to buy these texts as they will be a useful resource throughout your study and your future teaching practice.

Churchill et al., (2022). Teaching: Making a difference (5th ed.). Wiley.

Reading Lists provide direct access to all material on unit reading lists in one place. This includes eReadings and items in Reserve. You can access the Reading List for this unit from the link in MyLO, or by going to the Reading Lists page on the University Library website.