Curriculum Core A & B

Constructivism

Constructivism in its purest form is when a person learns through prior experiences and knowledge. The learner will build on what they already know rather than absorbing what they are being taught straight from the teacher. Constructivist theory is applicable in any learning situation, including educational and psychological discussion. Constructivism can provide promising conceptual framework for organizing research and practice in the various fields in which consultation is practiced. The attraction to the theory is its simplicity. Whilst the theory is easy to understand, the widespread adoption of the theory in the educational world has become complicated as every person perceives the theory differently. For some people constructivism is a description of learning that can be changed and molded into a style of teaching that works for them. Depending on modern developments using our 5 senses, it acts as a buffer as to what we are perceiving or learning. Constructivism can be interpreted differently but essentially what I perceive the theory to be is understanding one another’s viewpoint. Constructivism suggests that learning occurs through interpretation and not through transmission. And interpretation is always predisposed by what is already known to the learner.

Educational Learning CLT/ZPD:

Before I went to school, I had a lot of people reading books to me. Therefore, when I went to school, I was highly intelligent, I was able to read and write my name. However, I believe I missed out on a developmental process as by the time I reached year three I was at the same level as my classmates. On reflecting on Koffta’s theory in which “development is based on two inherently different but related processes, each of which influences the other”, I realise that Koffta’s theory shows that development is important, as it coincides with learning. Furthermore, when reflecting back on my schooling years, mathematical studies was a hard subject for me when I got to high school due to me not learning the basic fundamental facts about percentage, fractions and decimal points in year seven. When I got to year eight and year nine, the teachers had to catch me up on to where everyone else was at, and my mother would have to sit down with me every night going through the things I should have learnt in year seven. In turn, this helped me grasp an understanding finally of year nine mathematics. This tells me that if a student skips certain developmental parts of learning as we grow, this can hinder a student’s learning experience. Just as a baby has to crawl before they walk to develop a significant part of their brain. In conclusion, and on reflection, I feel that development of myself has helped me with my learning as I have gotten older which then goes back to Paget’s theory which suggests that development is important before one can learn.

Assessment - Introduction to SACE:

https://www.sace.sa.edu.au/documents/652891/4654975/Stage+1+English+Subject+Outline+%28for+teaching+in+2019%29.pdf/c40ef62f-02af-fef9-0adb-68c8740bbd16?version=1.0

SACE Curriculum for English SACE Stage 2: https://www.sace.sa.edu.au/documents/652891/4654975/Stage+2+English+Subject+Outline+%28for+teaching+in+2019%29.pdf/7efba02a-d789-c72c-7212-7f74170d8c0b?version=1.0

SACE Curriculum for English Literary Studies Stage 2 https://www.sace.sa.edu.au/documents/652891/4654975/Stage+2+English+Literary+Studies+Subject+Outline+%28for+teaching+in+2019%29.pdf/077f4060-3935-da44-fd1a-4adbb61d84cc?version=1.0

SACE English Site: https://www.sace.sa.edu.au/web/english/overview

Upon reading Churchill and Masters G, historical features can dramatically affect and influence the current SACE curriculum. In Churchill, it demonstrates that “history can show how different approaches to education affect the capacity of different groups in society to benefit from schooling”. This shows that education is complex and looking through history can determine the current SACE curriculum. There are many historical insights into teaching such as, a critical perspective social, political economic and cultural factors shaping education, discourse of education, pedagogy, curriculum, classroom management and technologies, teachers’ work, teachers’ lives’ and teachers identities. Historically, we can study “how unequal educational outcomes were understood and addressed in different times and contexts”. Furthermore, history allows us to see the different teaching styles, approaches and implications for the way teachers taught and for the different social groups they taught as well. Also, history offers much insight to the historical background of SACE as we can study unequal educational outcomes and how they were understood and addressed in different times and contexts. By looking back on history, we can look at ideas about different social groups and how not everyone learns the same way. In regard to SACE, there may be better ways to teach students as opposed to other students as history tells us that everyone learns differently. History tells us that schooling has changed; 200 years ago, people only went to school for a few years, but now students are at school for 13 years, evidently a major change in the SACE curriculum.

Provide examples of assessment of, for and as from what you have experienced at school and from the experiences you have undertaken already in this course. It is important that you can distinguish the differences between of, for and as.

Throughout my education I experienced a broad range of summative and formative assessments. For the formative assessment “for assessment learning” I completed activities such as quizzes and short answer responses in English. Furthermore, other examples of formative assessments were in class science tests and short answer responses to the material we were learning in class. Continuing on, in the Bachelor of Teaching class “Curriculum and Methodology”, it is required to do pre-work before class in order to be prepared for the content that is about to be taught. These formative assessments prepare the students and go towards the final summative assessment. Formative assessments at university aren’t as common as summative assessments, however when studying French, I had a few formative assessments, such as online tasks that didn’t count towards my final grade. During school, some examples of “assessment of learning” or summative assessment required students to write essays and present oral presentations, especially in English and History. “Assessment as learning” requires students to write weekly reflections that incorporate their weekly learning goals. This type of assessments allows teachers to monitor the students’ weekly progress.

Why does Vygotsky's ZPD, play such an important role in assessment and planning for learning?

Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development plays an important role in assessment and planning for learning. If a teacher is using an assessment strategy in the classroom, the teacher must place it within the learning of ZPD. This may not be as easy as it sounds as it requires a broad understanding of both the learning standards for the grade level and also the individual requirements of each student. Therefore, as a teacher it is imperative to cater for individual student needs.

· How is assessment within the IBDP different from other systems?

· Why is formative assessment essential for assessment within the IB?

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a recognised high school qualification by universities worldwide (Interactive PowerPoint). It is an internationally accredited program that aims to help develop social, emotional and intellectual skills to prepare students for the rapidly globalising world (Churchill et al, 2017). The IB highlights the importance of international mindedness and inter-cultural understanding through inquiry-based learning (Intensive IB PowerPoint 2019). The IB includes a formal assessment that involves an external exam, independent examiners and a moderation process (Intensive IB PowerPoint 2019). Furthermore, international mindedness is “concerned with developing a deep understanding of the complexity, diversity and motives’ that influence human interactions globally” (IB schools Australasia 2019).

The IB structure of assessment varies greatly in comparison to other assessment systems. There is a two-year senior IB Diploma Program that consists of entirely moderated assessment. Students in the IBDP complete 6 subjects, each requiring to sit a 75% external examination (Interactive PowerPoint), with the remaining internal assessments moderated externally. IB teachers are required to equip students with foundational content knowledge and appropriate skills necessary for understanding exam questions.

Formative assessment is essential for assessment within the IB as it is requiring students to “think visible” (Interactive PowerPoint). Furthermore, the IB’s formative feedback process hopes to formulate metacognition in students, creating critical and self-motivating learners. Feedback is incredibly important in the IBDP as it is essential for students to understand constructive criticism. Furthermore, due to the high-stake examinations, feed back prepares students for these environments.

Seminar Tasks: Term 2.

Seminar 1:

From your experience of so far in your degree and from your last placement, reflect upon what you consider to be your role as a teacher? What are the expectations of students, parents, school leaders, school community upon you? In 250 words respond to this question.

I believe the role of a teacher is changing in regard to caring for the students. Of course, teachers have always been there for the students in a personal way however I believe the role of a teacher is becoming more like a mentor and not just an educator. The expectations that the community put on teachers can be a heavy burned or can be seen as an excellent privilege. Parents expect teachers to put in the extra effort before and after school times to ensure that their children receive the best outcome in regard to their grades. The community places a huge expectation on teachers to cater for their community’s needs. Not only do teachers have to work through the day, more often than not, teachers will see parents and students on weekends and after school, the role of a teacher never ends.

In light of the readings and your thoughts in answering the above question, what do you consider to be the crucial characteristics of the changing role of a teacher particularly in relation to assessment. In particular, describe and validate your opinion on the suggested ideas set out in Black/Williams paper. Your response to this question should be no more than 250 words.

In Churchill, chapter one, there is an explanation on a teacher named Ly, it is said that she did her job well because “when teachers and schools do their jobs well, students from all life circumstances, in every community, attain their potential”. Ly was a productive teacher as she recognised her school was multicultural and therefore catered for their needs by allowing them to research their own topics, rather than saying all the students had to do the same survey. Furthermore, Churchill states, that the responsibility of a teacher does not stop when the class finishes, “once you make the commitment to teach, you agree to take responsibility for the quality of the experiences each of your students will have in your classroom”. A good teacher is required to “develop strong skills in pedagogy, content, and theory in order to plan for the learning of all students”. According to Churchill, a teacher is always required to recognise areas in their teaching that may need improvement, calling them “blind-spots”. Furthermore, teachers are responsible for keeping up to date with “policies and updated research”. Teachers are required to have “a high degree of specialised theoretical knowledge” and be open to change daily; “in the 21^st century, change is a constant and every teacher lives and learns through social and professional change” (pg. 8). Education and the role of teacher has changed due to major historical events such as the two world wars and globalisation. Teachers are constantly being confronted by the differences between the globally ‘relevant’ and ‘irrelevant’ societies in their classrooms, therefore need to know how to manage this continuous change. Furthermore, teachers are constantly required to update their pedagogy in order to fulfil the students learning requirements. Teachers flexibility and willingness to adapt and grow is what ensures students get the best learning outcome. Assessment is a part of everyday life, whether that be a music critic or a doctor, therefore it is essential in the classroom environment. Assessment is imperative to a student’s learning capabilities in order to achieve better results based on the feedback given by the teacher. Assessing is linked to a student’s improvement. According to chapter 1 in Brady and Kennedy, there are 13 different types of classroom assessment.

Seminar 2:

List the various types of assessments you have identified in your experiences and within the texts' why is the purpose of an assessment task so important?

There are various types of assessment such as short-answer tests, essays, multiple choice tests, quizzes and oral presentations. On my first teaching practical, I was able to witness and implement various types of assessment that tested different kinds of knowledge and skills. Furthermore, there are two broad types of assessment; formative and summative. Feedback in formative assessment allows teachers to gage the student’s capabilities as well as identifying and overcoming problems int heir learning. Summative assessments are formal testing’s done on the entire unit that had just been taught to identify the students learning. Furthermore, summative assessment is referred to as ‘assessment of learning’ as it intends to make a summary judgement about learning reflected in a single grade or mark. Summative assessments can also be considered as ‘high-stake assessments’. Authentic assessment is when there is an application of real-life events to the learning process; “[it] can take into account the personal histories of students and thus engage them more in assessment tasks that are meaningful to their daily lives”. Assessment is imperative for parents to understand their child’s learning aptitudes. Large scale assessment analyses the student’s creative and critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, good interpersonal skills and literacy and numeracy.

Why is validity, dependability, reliability and moderating so important to student assessment?

It is imperative for the parents’ confidence in the teachers that assessment is reliable, dependable and valid. To ensure the assessment is valid, the teacher must ask themselves two questions “what do I want the students to know, to be bale to do or to value?” and “does the assessment task help me to answer that question”? the assessment has to correlate what is being taught in class. For it to be deemed valid, it must provide evidence that ‘students have learned what is intended’. Similarly, assessment tasks must be reliable, therefore, the more that results correlate between the successive administrations of the test, performance on parallel forms of the test, performance in two halves of the test and so on, the more reliable to items are said to be.

Seminar 3:

What do you consider to be the difference between authentic and traditional assessment? Is there a difference? Document your five favourite assessment types and provide a rationale for your choice. Finally provide comment on the 'portfolio' and describe what you like/dislike about this strategy from both a student and teacher perspective.

Authentic assessment is heavily based on ‘traditional’ and ‘norm-referenced tests’ with a view that they fail to relate to real world tasks. According to Brady and Kennedy, authentic assessment is difficult to characterise and is therefore often primarily defined by what is not. There are multiple types of assessment strategies including: role-plays, oral presentations, performances, model building, mind or concept maps, problem solving tasks, rich tasks, graphs, flow charts, interpretation of stimulus data, web pages, photos or video, collage, depiction and freeze frames, open ended questions, designs formal and informal observation, focus groups and creative writing. These assessment strategies fall under four classifications; tests, performance assessment, product assessment and self-assessment. My favourite five assessment types are, true-false tests, short answer tests, interpretive tests concept maps and multiple answer assessments. These are my favourite five as I believe they retrieve the most accurate level of results from the students.

Portfolios are collections of students work that shows a broad range of the child’s capabilities. I believe, from a teacher’s perspective, portfolios allow teachers to see the student’s growth and progress over time. However, from a student’s perspective, it would seem like a hefty and confronting task, especially for the students with learning difficulties. Portfolios have a vast range of benefits to both the student and the teacher, such as creating an authentic portrayal of what students learn, providing teachers with meaningful information about student’s needs, interests and self-concepts and enhancing student’s ownership of their own learning, just to name a few.

Seminar 4:

Identify the benefits of both self and peer assessment.

There are many benefits to a student’s growth and learning in both self and peer assessment. Self-assessment allows students to monitor, grade and track necessary changes and improvements to their own work. Furthermore, it prepares students for reflection on the quality of performance necessary in future professions, it enhances meta-cognition, it promotes learning, it develops fuller understanding of student strengths and weaknesses, and many other self-assessment benefits.

Peer assessment is a healthy way of comparing their own work with that of their classmates, stimulating positive competitiveness within the students. It also allows the students to strive to be better when they know they are being assessed against peers. Moreover, it provides students with ownership over their own work, thereby helping them to be more autonomous, it encourages critical appraisal of the work of others, providing the peer assessor with useful models on how to improve their own work. Peer-assessment offers students the opportunity to work collaboratively and builds lifelong skills that can be implemented in future professions.

From my experience these benefits are somewhat accurate, as a student I thrived off competitiveness and tended to push myself harder when I knew I was being assessed by peers.

The characteristics of the learning environment that will ensure that both self and peer assessment will flourish are through creating journals that include reflections, process portfolios, graphic organisers, physical continuums, presentations, conferencing, student-led reporting, joint marking and self-assessment proformas, just to name a few.

Seminar 5:

Why are records in schools important to keep? Out of the 12 principles of reporting which ones do you think are most important?

Keeping records as a teacher is imperative in the assessing process, ensuring that all grades are transparent and validated. Teachers are required to maintain and consistently update a systematic record that allows them to communicate students grades publicly, aka to parents. Records involve keeping track of multiple student assessments in order to have an eligible and reliable outcome of student’s overall result. It is imperative that records are easily accessible by teachers and are simple to use, maintain and update. Records needs to be easily interpreted. Out of the 12 principles of reporting I believe one can not be and is not more important than the other however if I had to choose, I would say “reporting should enhance student motivation and commitment to learning” and “reporting should involve teacher/school in providing quality information regarding the achievements of students” are two very important elements to assessment reporting. Furthermore, I believe the principle “reporting should involve input from parents and teachers” as they say “it takes a village to raise a child”. I believe that the same principle applies when teaching a student. Parents should know their children well, and with correlation with the students themselves and the teacher, it will evidently produce the best outcome for the student.

Appraise the 4 different reporting interviews: teacher-parent, teacher-student, student-parent and teacher-student-parent. Which would you use and when?

Teacher-parent reporting interviews would be used mid-year and at the end of the year to ensure parents are up to date with their child’s progress. However, in saying this, teachers may be required to speak with parents more regularly if they were to have immediate questions about certain assessment outcomes. Teacher-student reporting interviews happen regularly throughout the year as they are constantly communicating about assessment in the classroom. Student-parent interviews, occasionally used as an alternative to teacher-parent interviews, allow students to engage in self-evaluation that inspires the production of quality work; this style of reporting can be achieved throughout the entirety of the year and allows both students and parents to be up to date with the progress of the students work. The teacher-student-parent interview, or three-way interview, encourages, improves and allows communication between all three parties. This style of report interview is beneficial to all three parties; students demonstrate what they know through showing evidence of their achievements, parents learn about their child’s progress, have the opportunity to ask questions and negotiate strategies for supporting their child and teachers facilitate the process by responding to questions and learning about the student’s home life.

Feedback Through ICT: (Grade: High Distinction)

Revamp this PowerPoint: (Grade: High Distinction)

LMS Comparison: (Grade: High Distinction)