Unit rationale, description and aim
Effective teaching is underpinned by reflection, enquiry and evidence-based practice. Pre-service teachers must develop skills that enable continual, self–regulated professional development. This unit facilitates induction into the profession with a 25-day block placement in a school context.
This unit is a capstone experience where pre-service teachers apply knowledge and skills in a final placement and its related teaching performance assessment. Pre-service teachers undertake a substantial and sustained block of professional experience that approximates the realities of teaching, extends their repertoire of pedagogical skills and develops their understanding of teachers’ roles and responsibilities. Pre-service teachers reinforce and expand their professional knowledge, practice and engagement in attaining the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) at the Graduate level. The culminating teaching performance assessment (GTPA) is the capstone assessment in this final placement unit. It engages pre-service teachers in a critical inquiry focused on pedagogical decision-making in active (planning, teaching and assessing) and reflective practices (reflecting and appraising) to identify and evaluate the impact of their teaching on student learning.
This capstone unit aims to synthesise learning from across the pre-service teachers’ course to demonstrate the culminating attainment of the APST: Graduate Teacher Standards.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Demonstrate professional readiness for independent...
Learning Outcome 01
Use multiple sources of evidence - including stude...
Learning Outcome 02
Apply knowledge and skills developed throughout th...
Learning Outcome 03
Evaluate teaching strategies and programs by refle...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
Topics will include:
- Ethics and standards for independent professional practice
- Management of the full range of teacher’s responsibilities including routines, transitions, supervision, pastoral care of school students and relationships within the school community
- Collaborative interaction with supervisors, teachers and professionals to support teaching and learning; including using constructive feedback
- Understanding core teaching practices – planning, teaching, assessing, reflecting and appraising
- Reflexive practices for appraising learning and evaluating teaching programs
- Using data and evidence of school and class contexts for responsive pedagogical decision-making
- Using data and evidence of learners and their learning for responsive pedagogical decision-making
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment enables pre-service teachers to demonstrate attainment of Australian Professional Standards for Teachers: Graduate level, ACU’s Graduate Capabilities and the Course Learning Outcomes. The two tasks are culminating, summative assessments that afford pre-service teachers with opportunity to showcase their readiness to commence independent professional teaching practice.
The tasks provide two complementary perspectives on pre-service teachers’ professional readiness. Task 1 requires sustained engagement in a professional experience placement in a block of 25 days. Assessment of the placement involves observations by and professional communication with nominated school-based and academic supervisors; this represents assessment of professional readiness by the profession. Task 2 is the final report of the capstone inquiry (GTPA) undertaken by the pre-service teacher during placement. It provides an opportunity to articulate the critical thinking and problem-solving that underpinned pedagogical decision-making across the selected learning sequence. As such, it provides evidence of the knowledge and understanding the pre-service teacher is using in enacting teaching within their placement context. Together, these tasks provide strong evidence that a pre-service teacher can demonstrate and think critically about pedagogical practices and decisions as expected of a graduate teacher.
Pre-service teachers must complete both tasks to a satisfactory standard to pass this unit.
Overview of assessments
Hurdle Task: Preparation for Placement Prior to ...
Hurdle Task: Preparation for Placement
Prior to commencing placement, you must finalise a logbook of actions to prepare for your final professional experience placement. This includes: (1) maintaining a Working with Children Check or Police Check, where mandated; (2) completing a ‘fitness to teach’ review; (3) completing any mandatory requirements specified by your state/territory; (4) attaining a score of 95% or better in each online preparation module for the calendar year; and (5) completing mandatory GTPA preparation activities.
Complete/Incomplete
Assessment Task 1: Professional Experience Place...
Assessment Task 1: Professional Experience Placement
Submit the Final Professional Experience Assessment Report as completed by an experienced educator in your placement school context and your Attendance Record. The report must demonstrate successful completion of 25 professional experience days and satisfactory attainment of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers: Graduate level.
Your placement school and class allocation will be determined by your course as follows:
- Primary; will be placed in any primary setting from F-6.
- Primary and Early Childhood; will be placed in a lower primary setting from F-3
- Primary and Secondary; will be placed in an upper primary setting from 4-6.
- Secondary; will be placed in a secondary context with classes from Year 7-10 in one or both teaching areas, with preference for the first teaching area. Teaching allocations may also include classes from Years 11-12.
Pass/Fail
Assessment Task 2; Teacher Performance Assessment...
Assessment Task 2; Teacher Performance Assessment
Reflect critically on a teaching, learning and assessment sequence and its impact on student learning. Present a report accompanied by documentary evidence that demonstrates planning, teaching, assessing, reflecting and appraising practices for a selected class in meeting specified learning goal/s.
The TPA is a common, culminating assessment used across multiple ITE programs and providers. Please see the detailed explanation in the guideline materials supplied via the LMS for information about the specific requirements for the relevant calendar year.
Pass/Fail
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit uses experiential learning theory where students actively engage in hands-on experience and real-world problem-solving. Pre-service teachers will actively participate in a supervised teaching role, applying theoretical knowledge and skills to teaching and learning, and reflecting on this experience to consolidate professional readiness. They will engage in the sustained role of teacher undertaking diverse duties, including planning, teaching, assessment and moderation, differentiated engagement with students, department/year-level/school meetings, collaborative team planning sessions, supervision, and other duties required within the setting. The unit also uses an inquiry-based model, supporting pre-service teachers to implement and report on a capstone project focused on the teaching and learning of a specified learning goal for a selected class of learners.
Targeted direct instruction is provided to support pre-service teachers in preparing for engagement in their placement context and completing the capstone project. Pre-service teachers will engage collaboratively and collegially with a mentor and/or supervising teacher, peers and supervising academics in preparing for and undertaking the professional experience and related capstone project. Pre-service teachers will receive scaffolded support in the use of generative AI within placement contexts and in relation to their assessments. These activities facilitate differentiated support based on needs of individual pre-service teachers.
Representative texts and references
Required text(s)
Australian Curriculum https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) www.acara.edu.au.
Relevant State and Territory curriculum documents.
Recommended references
Alexakos, K. (2015). Being a teacher/researcher: A primer on doing authentic inquiry research on teaching and learning. Sense Publishers.
Brady, L., & Kennedy K. (2018). Assessment and reporting: Celebrating student achievement (5th ed.). Pearson Australia.
Charteris, J., & Smardon, D. (2015). Teacher agency and dialogic feedback: Using classroom data for practitioner inquiry. Teaching and Teacher Education, 50, 114-123.
Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2020). The reflective educator's guide to classroom research: Learning to teach and teaching to learn through practitioner inquiry (4th ed.). Corwin.
Deppeler, J. (2017). Navigating the Boundaries of Difference: Using Collaboration in Inquiry to Develop Teaching and Progress Student Learning. In L. Florian and N. Pantic. Teacher Education for the Changing Demographics of Schooling (pp. 149-165). Springer, Cham.
Leat, D., Reid, A., & Lofthouse, R. (2015). Teachers’ experiences of engagement with and in educational research: what can be learned from teachers’ views?. Oxford Review of Education, 41(2): 270-286.
Mills, G. E. (2018). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (6th ed.). Pearson.
Mor, Y., Ferguson, R., & Wasson, B. (2015). Learning design, teacher inquiry into student learning and learning analytics: A call for action. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(2), 221-229.
Posch, P. (2019). Action research - conceptual distinctions and confronting the theory-practice divide in Lesson and Learning Studies. Educational Action Research, 27(4), 496-510.
Taylor, L. A. (2017). How teachers become teacher researchers: Narrative as a tool for teacher identity construction. Teaching and Teacher Education, 61, 16-25.
To, J., & Carless, D. (2016). Making productive use of exemplars: Peer discussion and teacher guidance for positive transfer of strategies. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 40(6), 746-764.
Wall, K., & Hall, E. (2017) The teacher in teacher-practitioner research: three principles of inquiry. In Boyd, P. and Szplit, A., International Perspectives: Teachers and Teacher Educators Learning Through Enquiry, KielceKrakow: 35-62.