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Domain: Professional Knowledge
Know students and how they learn.
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
Evidence
To facilitate effectively learning it is essential to provide a range of teaching and learning strategies to cater for different learning styles and individual needs. This is a complex task and thus planning is valuable for success. Yet at the same time it is important to be able to respond to individuals in the moment.
Graduate Level 1st.
Examples of 'in the moment' responses to students as occurred in Year 9 Science (chemistry class).
Student A: With Teachers Aide (intellectual considerations). This student was working out how many molecules were required to balance an equation. She already had visual tools to assist (size representative cards) clearly struggling with trying to get them to balance. Using a three and a two card. She was stuck on trying to get the 2 card to fit to the 3 card. After watching for a moment I moved another 3 card up for her and asked her ‘what if you do this?’. She almost immediately saw she could bring over 2 x 2 cards. And gave a smile. Yet she still seemed distressed, she was concerned about the harder ones. I reassured her with ‘Just keep doing these. When you can do these well you will want to move to the harder ones. It will be fine.’ The teacher's aid gave a beaming smile and nod of appreciation.
Student B: A more capable student in the same class. I had seen them doing quite well earlier in the class yet they had moved over to another method for the task. However they appeared to be struggling with this new approach. I asked them about it. They said the other method had made more sense. I asked why not continue with it? ‘Can I?’ ‘Yes’ Allowing students to use the method they prefer, while still demonstrating how they do it, is important as it allows them to make sense of what they are doing and build upon that.
Graduate Level 2nd.
Examples of planning for a range of learning needs.
Year 7 LP on Biological Classification using concrete examples, visual, kinaesthetic, auditory and ICT
1.2 Understand how students learn
Evidence
To facilitate effectively learning it is essential to understand the process of learning so that lessons can be constructed aligned with the natural learning process. Reference for attention, fun, relevant and engaging...... learning styles...
Graduate Level 1st.
Research shows the learners learn best when the content is relevant and presented in an engaging manner (Almarode & Miller, 2013). The use of stimulus to gain their attention is one such method.
A stimulus, particularly at the start of the lesson, can be used to 'grab' the students attention. This strategy can be a powerful way to demonstrate relevance for them and as a consequence gain their interest. In this example a Youtube TedTalk on the lived experience of Depression was used, as part of Unit 2 VCE Psychology: Mental Health lesson. Only the first six minutes was required to have a significant impact on the students.
Indeed when powerful appropriate Clips are found the visual and audio combination can provide a deeper learning experience, than merely describing the idea.
Almarode, J. & Miller, A. M. (2013) Captivate, Activate, and Invigorate the Student Brain in Science and Math 6-12 Corwin: Thousand Oaks, California.
Graduate Level 2nd.
Understanding the needs of students' physiological and psychological needs of are very important. The published article 'Can we use brain theory to accelerate learning?' demonstrates my understanding of what research demonstrate is developmentally occurring in the brain and how that can be applied to children learn.
Sheen J. (2014) 'Can we use brain theory to accelerate learning?' in TLN Journal Spring 2014 Vol 21 No 3 pp 14-16
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
Evidence
To facilitate effectively learning it is essential to be aware of and adapt to the varying needs to students from a diverse range of background. Ones background knowledge and values acts as a filter for understanding and thus learning new knowledge and skills. It is essential that this is considered and handled with respect to maximise learning.
Graduate Level 1st.
1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
Evidence
To facilitate
Graduate Level 1st.
Enculturation
1.5 Differential teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
Evidence
To facilitate effectively learning it is essential to provide lessons in a scaffolded step by step approach allowing for scaffolding and each learner to work at the own pace. As part of this it is generally necessary to provide learning content at a number of levels and or in ways that students can work at their own level and pace, this is known as differentiation.
Graduate Level 1st.
Strategy 1 Progressively challenging worksheets/ requirements.
In this Maths example, found under standard 3.1, I provided a progressively challenging worksheet for each student. This allowed for students at different abilities to progress at their own level of ability and pace. Being in a single sheet there was no 'grouping of students' with the risk of students taking on 'labels' of their ability.
Graduate Level 2nd.
Strategy 2 Provision of different levels of content information, general and in-depth.
Under standard 3.1 I discussed differentiation using the example of Cells Revisions Prezi for year8 Science, where different levels of content where provided related to
1) the differences between plant and animal cells and 2) mitosis. I clearly provided both the basic and more detailed information on the same view. This meant that students having some difficulty where able to focus on the core requirements, while those 'able' had more information to add depth to their learning.
Proficient Level 1st.
1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disabilities
Evidence
The Melbourne Declaration's Goal 1 is: Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence. This means all students have the right to access to quality education. In accordance with this adaption to the specific need of individuals, including those with disabilities, is required. This may necessitate research into the specific needs while documented planning is valuable.
Graduate Level 1st.
An example of a learning management plan and individual learning plan for a disable student (Jane Doe) is attached below.
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