DESIGNING TEACHING & LEARNING - 102086

Assessment 1:

Australian teachers use the following concepts of Teacher Professionalism, Curriculum,

Pedagogy and Assessment as foundation models to enhance the education for students.
Teachers use these concepts as tools to help themselves as educators and improve their overall
teaching performance. These concepts play a major role in influencing contemporary
education in the way teachers educate and students learn. The following will explore the
interrelationship of these concepts and how teachers approach and cater to Gifted and talented
students. The teachers’ roles are explored in the way they cater to this selected group of students
and how they use curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to provide for their needs.

Teacher Professionalism is made up of various factors to ensure the bettering of education for
students and the continuous growth within the profession of education. It is the embodiment of
both theoretical and practical application of education, intertwined with reflexivity to ensure
effective teaching and learning. ("Standards | Australian Institute for Teaching and School
Leadership" – AITSL, 2017). There is a quality of practices that are implemented through a
standard that is essential in the teaching profession.
These standards within Teacher Professionalism, based on APST, the Australian Professional
Standards for Teachers corresponds with the concepts of how and what Australian teachers
teach. These “professional developments” are an effort within the system in order to align and
develop policies that establish an ongoing evolvement in regards to methods of teaching
(Riggs, Iris M., Sandlin, Ruth A., 200). The AITSL has set seven standards that are expected
by teachers to be implemented in their teaching to reach the requirements of being able to teach
at a certain level of expertise (AITSL, 2012). These requirements reflect a teacher’s knowledge
of the content, how they are teaching it, the assessment and feedback they receive from students
and their parents/careers and creating and maintaining a safe and supportive environment for
students (Dr. Berger, Lecture 1: The Teaching Profession, 2017). In order to sustain and
improve both current and new teachers, expectations of teacher standards are constantly being
adapted to meet the highest of requirements as contemporary perceptions are causing an
influence. In Dr. Berger’s first lecture, he discusses the accreditation process of teachers, the
expectations in their achievements and different levels of professionalism within a teacher’s
career (Dr. Berger, Lecture 1: The Teaching Profession, 2017).

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Curriculum is the various concepts within the education system in which teachers develop a
range of objectives in order to educate. Australian teachers implement the ‘curriculum’ within
their education as it is the “what, how and when” (Dr. Berger, Lecture 2: Curriculum, 2017) to
teach students. A curriculum consists of many factors from what is being taught (content,
subjects), to how it’s being taught (the materials used, and the following of the syllabus) and
the assessment outcomes of students (Dr. Berger, Lecture 2: Curriculum, 2017). The Australian
Curriculum is developed to build on the knowledge and skills of individuals, in which teachers
then adjust it to their state’s syllabus in order to accommodate to the diverse range of students
within their classes. The Australian Curriculum has implemented a set of requirements across
all states in which teachers are held accountable to educate students on specific content
(ACARA, 2017). The way teachers choose to teach this content in order to meet their students’
best needs is then measured against national standards, for example NESA (NSW Education
Standards Authority) is in charge of standards and curriculum development within New South
Wales.

As mentioned in Lecture 3, Pedagogy is the “method and practice of teaching” (Dr Berger,
2017). It is the construction of methods that are incorporated within a teacher’s lessons to
accommodate to the knowledge that the students have previously obtained and integrate it with
new teaching approaches to better their learning. The adaptation of assessing what students
require and how to implement these needs in their lessons allows teachers to consider their
lesson planning and how they can adjust them to further build their students’ knowledge.
Australian teachers use pedagogies to create strategised ways to implement tasks in a way to
make learning effective. Wolk highlights the importance of interaction of students with their
content in a way that creates an environment that makes learning enjoyable, fun and inviting
(Wolk, 2008). Teachers must not only be expository teachers that base lessons on fact and
knowledge, taking upon a traditional ways of teaching, but also be open to being constructivist
teachers that provide a diverse way of educating. Creating opportunities for group activities
rather than just individual work and providing students with authentic tasks adjusted to further
their skillset enhances student engagement (Dr Berger, 2017). Pedagogy interconnects with the
concepts provided in the NSW Quality Teaching Model as these three aspects of the model:
Intellectual quality, significance and quality learning environments, provides a framework in
regards to teaching programs (Faull, 2008).

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Teachers uses different systems and methods to evaluate the level of understanding that
students have gathered from their teaching of content. Assessments are a set of activities used
to gather information on a student’s knowledge and how they can apply this information (Dr.
Berger, Lecture 4: Assessment, 2017). The method of assessments implores the notion of
gathering data either through formal or informal assessment to indicate the academic level of
students and what is required for teachers to address for improvement. Assessments are used
to not just evaluate the academic progress of the students but to highlight to teachers the
improvements they must undertake within their teaching to better future lessons. They can also
be used to highlight not just to their students but to their parents/careers their achievements and
sections within their learning that needs change and how to develop themselves academically.
Assessments can come in the form of Diagnostic, Formative and Summative. Summative
assessments grade what students have achieved and is at the end of a unit (Dr. Berger, Lecture
4: Assessment, 2017), for example NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and
Numeracy). NAPLAN was developed to report the academic levels and measure the
performance of students against national standards (Department of Education and Training,
2016). However, NAPLAN draws focus on Literacy and Numeracy, which therefore is a biased
approach regarding students that have strength in other subjects like History or PDHPE, where
there is no National Assessment, yet may be weaker in these subjects that are being tested
nationally.

The Australian National Curriculum has been developed to integrate and enhance education
for a diverse range of students. With the use of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, quality
teachers within the education system address the requirements needed to meet content in a way
that caters for a range of students and their abilities. Focusing on Gifted and Talented students,
the methods explored are evident in the way teachers mold and design curriculum, pedagogy
and assessment when addressing the learning needs for this specific group of students.

There is a clear interrelationship between the three foundation concepts, curriculum, pedagogy
and assessment that teachers use in order to approach contemporary ways to enhance learning
in accordance to certain student abilities. Within a ‘regular’ classroom setting, it is evident
through studies conducted by ‘The National Research Centre on The Gifted and Talented’,
(NRC/GT) that many gifted and talented students are not adequately challenged due to most
teachers not having both the experience nor background to provide to their needs (Houseman,

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Woody Comp., 1987); (Cox, June., Daniel, Neil., Boston, Bruce., 2010). There are certain
“curricular practices” (Westberg, Karen L., Archambault, Jr Francis X., Dobyns, Sally M.,
Salvin, Thomas J, , 1993) that take place within a classroom which teachers use to identify
different ways they can enhance their pedagogies in order to challenge gifted and talented
students.

Evaluating the needs of this group of students through methods of assessments both formal and
informal allows for teachers to explore the level of knowledge these students have acquired
and the growth in education they are able to reach. Quality teachers that integrate the model
for pedagogical excellence within their teaching set forward opportunities for their students to
excel academically. In-cooperating the curriculum within pedagogies and assessments
demonstrates the knowledge teachers are aspiring to gather about their students in order to
progress their learning further. Reforming educational practices to improve education for gifted
and talented students can be executed through problem-based learning (Dr Berger, 2017).
Development in the detail of pedagogies and its alliance with the Australian Professional
Standards for Teachers sets a direction for broadening their students’ education.

The Quality Teaching Model has been developed to “improve teaching and student outcomes”
(Gore, 2007) through different teaching approaches. Within pedagogical structures, there are
two types of teachers that approach the content and the methods that they use in educating their
students. When adapting assessments and pedagogy to cater to gifted and talented students,
being an expository teacher rather than constructivist teacher may have its downfall. Although
expository teachers educate in a more traditional manner, focusing on fact and knowledge
which allows students to organise, understand and build concepts of content (Dr Berger, 2017),
it is evident that constructivist teachers that create authentic, dynamic group based lessons
allow gifted and talented students’ skills to flourish rather than be problematic due to them
completing individual work quickly. This sets opportunity for students to interact with one
other, sharing ideas and knowledge, enhancing their desire to strengthen their current skills (Dr
Berger, 2017). This is not to dismiss expository teachers’ methods as incorrect or damaging to
gifted and talented students, as independent study challenges these students to explore a deeper
level learning, how to gather and apply this new found knowledge into their work.

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The three dimensions within the Quality Teacher model of Intellectual Quality, Quality
Learning Environment and Significance are designed to approach students in various ways in
order to address and specifically target current skills whilst developing weaker areas (Gore,
2007). Taking these dimensions and implementing numerous strategies (Beisser, 1998, March)
allows for gifted and talented students to accentuate their skillset. Strategies such as
‘differentiated instruction’, ‘compacting the curriculum’, ‘acceleration’ and ‘tiered activities’
are different approaches executed by teachers throughout their pedagogy to highlight important
components of curriculum (Tomlinsion, 1999); (Winebrenner, 2002);. These strategies can be
utilised within the concept of assessments being either diagnostic, formative and summative
assessments. These assessments are enforced to demonstrate the performance levels of these
certain students to themselves, their parents/careers and teachers (Dr. Berger, Lecture 4:
Assessment, 2017). This process allows room for improvement within the students’ learning
and within the teacher’s methods of teaching.

Regardless of the efforts processed by teachers, and the following of Australian Professional
Standards there are various factors that can impact learning outcomes if the needs of gifted and
talented students are not met. When classroom activities are equal and not equitable to cater to
gifted and talented students, they may become disruptive and classified as ‘problematic’
students. They may be ‘problematic’ due to various reasons that are not necessarily due to their
poor academic skills but rather to issues that may be from home (Chubbuck, 2010); (Sleeter,
2008). Another factor that could impact the outcomes of a gifted and talented student’s
academic progress is that they may originate from or their school is from a low social economic
status which usually equates to a lack of material, funding and quality of teachers to further
these students’ skills (Biddle, Bruce J., Berliner, David C., 2002). The community in which
both the school is located and the student originates from can deeply influence the both learning
and teaching opportunities for them. (Biddle, Bruce J., Berliner, David C., 2002).

Overall it is evident that a teacher’s role is beyond just educating students on a lesson out of
the curriculum. It is understanding the interrelationship between curriculum, their
professionalism, pedagogies and assessment and how this too interconnects and may need
adaptation when addressing certain students. Thus, the learning outcomes and needs of gifted
and talented students has been illustrated in a way that signifies the adaptation made to
designing curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to cater to these students’ needs and abilities.

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Bibliography
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DESIGNING TEACHING & LEARNING - 102086 | Nancy George - 17215187