“He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches.

” -George Bernard Shaw, 1903, Man and

Superman

“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.” (Albert Einstein). The

explicit methods a teacher utilises in their classroom has a significant influence regarding

the quality of learning attained by the student. Therefore, a teacher themselves must

thoroughly understand and be knowledgeable about the underlying ideas behind the

concept they are teaching. A teacher must possess the ability to provide enriched and

meaningful learning experiences through a range of resources, knowledge and wisdom

incorporating a unique set of skills acquired through education and most importantly

experience. This knowledge is created and transformed rather than just received and

remembered (Holt-Reynolds, 2000). Just because an individual can perform a set of skills

does not mean that they hold the ability to be able explain the skill and to teach it

efficiently. To achieve student learning the teacher must adhere to professionalism within

the workplace, obtain extensive knowledge about curriculum, implement knowledge and

curriculum through pedagogical strategies and further evaluate their teaching through their

students by engaging in the National Assessment program. In this essay I will draw upon

these key notions above, to examine teaching as a profession.

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) sets a comprehensive foundation

for teaching excellence. APST intends to constitute direction for teachers to conform to

mandatory expectations, sets baseline requirements and integrates high quality teaching

practices, essential in the delivery of everyday teaching. APST is designed to foster a

national criterion in all states and territories within Australia, to connect quality teaching

Mia Katar 17432825 Design, Teaching and Learning Assessment 1

with quality learning (Mulcahy, 2011). In the APST there are 7 individual teaching standards

which surround three teaching domains. Standards 1 and 2 directly relate to the

professional knowledge of a teacher to be able to recognise, identify and respond to their

students’ individual needs. In aim to cater for all types of learners’, teachers need to

implement an array of teaching strategies to accommodate to each student individually.

Additionally, teachers need to teach curriculum content through information technologies

such as using computers, understand and advocate diversity and improve students’

proficiency in literacy and numeracy. Standards 3,4 and 5 refer to professional practice

which involves the teacher setting achievable expectations for their students, supporting

students’ engagement through using a range of learning materials to effectively plan

lessons. Thus, providing their students with adequate knowledge and understanding, be

able to communicate effectively within the classroom and further encourage parent

engagement. Finally, standards 6 and 7 encompass the idea of professional engagement.

Professional engagement includes developing professional relationships with colleagues,

taking into account constructive feedback, continually evaluating, reflecting and improving

teaching practices and building relationships with the broader community ("Australian

Institute for Teaching and School Leadership", 2011). These are all fundamental elements to

keep teaching standards equivalent across the board.

Although the APST standards set up a professional framework for teachers, it does not entail

all qualities a teacher must possess outside of the guidelines. Contrastingly, Taylor (2016)

argues that many teachers believe the APST do not entirely take into account relationality,

teacher dispositions and raw spontaneous occurrences that take place daily within the

classroom. E.G. interconnectedness, core values, attitudes, beliefs and responsibility.

Adoniou & Gallagher (2016) concur with this idea that there are many missing attributes

Mia Katar 17432825 Design, Teaching and Learning Assessment 1

within the APST including appropriate situational reactions, respect and treatment, patience

and persistence and encouragement and nurture. The absence of these crucial elements

may hinder teachers’ abilities to act and perform professionally in the workplace.

The Teacher’s role in implementing Curriculum is vital for students’ success. The Australian

Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is the professional governing

body for the development of the Australian National Curriculum (ANC). Specifically, in

relation to state, The New South Wales Education Standards Authority (NESA) is responsible

for curriculum management in NSW. The ANC is implemented by the authoritative body, to

assist students to become confident and successful learners. The ANC defines the content

and quality of teaching and learning within an educational setting. Thus, for students to

meet educational outcomes it is the teacher’s responsibility to manage and evaluate each

student using the curriculum guidelines. Teachers use the curriculum to organise a variety of

learning opportunities for their students and modify their practice, to accommodate for the

diversity of their students (Tedesco, Opertti, & Amadio, 2014).

The Curriculum is divided into two main categories; Foundation- Year 10 and Senior

Secondary. Foundation- year 10 incorporates a three-dimension foundational design

surrounding the importance of disciplinary knowledge, skills and understanding, general

capabilities and cross curriculum opportunities. The categories branch into sub categories

such as literacy and numeracy, critical thinking, intellectual understanding and the history of

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, just to name a few. The senior secondary

curriculum is subject specific, and is taught over a two-year period based upon the subject

matter. The curriculum guides student achievement standards through a rationale in aim for

students to acquire a deep degree of understanding to a sophisticated level (Australian

Mia Katar 17432825 Design, Teaching and Learning Assessment 1

Curriculum, n.d.) It is therefore the teachers’ objective to identify and execute the related

core competencies to their students to ensure they achieve the appropriate learning

outcomes before advancing to the following level. Wrench, Hammond, McCallum, & Price

(2013) believe that how one teaches curriculum, directly impacts student engagement and

learning. Consequently, it is the teachers daily goal to set meaningful, supportive and

challenging tasks in exciting and interesting ways to uphold students’ motivation. Teachers

must modify and adapt the curriculum in relation to students’ individual needs in order to

efficiently reach these outcomes.

Contrastingly, according to Lujan & DiCarlo (2006) some teachers argue that the curriculum

is an overload of content resulting in students relying on memorisation instead of

developing skills such as problem solving and critical thinking. These skills are essential for

deeper understanding and learning of life long skills. As a result, this could directly affect the

professionalism of the cohort by negatively impacting quality teaching and learning

outcomes.

Pedagogy is a crucial element incorporated into the teaching profession. Pedagogy has

direct association with curriculum and the APST. Teachers are professionals who use

pedagogy as a foundational apparatus to deliver the curriculum in an appropriate manner

aligning with the APST. The Quality Teaching Model (QTM) acts as a school-wide

pedagogical framework across all key learning areas from as early as kindergarten up to year

12. The aim of the QTM is to integrate effective teacher pedagogy to improve students

learning outcomes. The QTM acts as a manual to assist teachers in enhancing their

classroom practices to achieve pedagogical excellence. The model is broken down into three

dominant components; intellectual quality, significance and quality learning environments

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and 18 sub-categories. Intellectual Quality refers to pedagogical practices that purely focus

on deep understanding and high order thinking to grasp concepts and key ideas. Quality

learning environment involves the safe, secure and supporting relationships within the class

room with a reciprocal set of expectations from both the students and teacher. Significance

requires the teacher to make connections between what is being taught and the students

existing knowledge and/or experiences. Significance aims to create meaningful and enriched

based experiences that can be relatable to the real world (Ladwig & Gore, 2009). Hill, Ball

and Schilling (2008) recognise the value of teachers being able to acknowledge students

preconceived ideas and their current knowledge surrounding subject matter. The literature

further highlights teachers concentrating on students’ best ways of learning and their errors

to improve their pedagogical approach and explanation. Teachers are required to

implement these pedagogical practices daily within the classroom to effectively incorporate

the learning needs for all students. Further, to aim for maximal participation, engagement

and understanding by all.

Students’ can illustrate a variety of complex needs within the classroom that can be difficult

to successfully manage. Teachers as professionals must adapt and are accountable for

developing teaching strategies, that will best benefit their students across all different

learning levels. In contrast, some teachers may take the expository approach where student

input is neglected and students may become disengaged. The outcome of student learning

and engagement will therefore be a reflection on their professionalism to teach at a high-

quality standard.

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Teachers use assessment as a critical tool in determining how effective their pedagogical

practices are. Assessment is built and constructed in relation to the curriculum content that

is taught by the teacher. Through assessment, teachers can retrieve an understanding of

how well curriculum content is understood by their students. Assessment also interconnects

with the APST through the assessment of student learning and reporting their achievement.

Every day within the classroom teachers assess their students in a variety of different ways.

Assessments can be implemented informally such as through observation and questioning

and also formally involving targeted testing and examinations. There is three types of

assessments which include diagnostic assessments which are pre-content evaluation,

formative assessment which involves during-content evaluation and finally summative

assessment which is post-content evaluation. An example of summative assessment that

teachers use nationally is the NAPLAN. NAPLAN is a norm-referenced assessment. Thus,

allows teachers to gain an overall depiction of where their students average is compared to

others using a national benchmark. NAPLAN results are therefore categorised into bands

levels 1 through to 6 dependent on literacy and numeracy results. NAPPLAN correlates with

APST standards through consistent and comparative judgement/analysis (ACARA, 2011).

While NAPLAN is a good indicator to acknowledge where students’ capabilities lie many

teachers perceive NAPLAN as a negative assessment process.

Thompson & Harbaugh (2013) suggest that NAPLAN assessment negatively impacts on

curriculum, teacher pedagogy and quality teaching and learning outcomes. The literature

draws upon the notion that teachers are spending a copious amount of time teaching to

NAPLAN and not enough time is spent on the curriculum. Further, stating that teachers feel

their pedagogy is controlled by having to focus on NAPPLAN testing rather than catering for

explicit student needs. Consequently, teachers are teaching content on a superficial level

Mia Katar 17432825 Design, Teaching and Learning Assessment 1

while attending more to students who they recognise will produce favourable NAPLAN

results such as band 5s and 6s, overlooking those students who need the most help.

NAPLAN has a number of unfavourable outcomes such as teacher-structured learning,

decreased freedom for students and limited classroom interactions (Thompson & Harbaugh,

2013).

Using the foundational elements to assess the needs of Gifted and talented students

Gifted and Talented (GAT) students “occupy the top 10% measures in ability and

performance” (Merrotsy, 2017, p. 30). As a result of this statistic, curriculum, pedagogy

and assessment play an important role in recognising and identifying the learning needs for

GAT students. To be able to implement effective pedagogy, a teacher must recognise that

GAT students are all uniquely different from each other and skilled in an array of diverse

mediums (Gifted and Talented Students |Australian National Curriculum, n.d). Therefore,

the one size fits all approach is invalid when addressing the strengths and abilities of the

student. Teachers need to be able to recognise and identify the types of behavioural

disengagement as a result of boredom within the GAT student population.

In the curriculum ACARA provides an extended curriculum to guide teachers in supporting

the learning outcomes of the GAT. GAT needs can be defined across four categories such as

creatively, socially, intellectually and physically (Gifted and Talented Students |Australian

National Curriculum, n.d). It is therefore the responsibility of the teacher to provide and

cater for these student needs with challenging and accelerated experiences. Teachers may

wish to implement curriculum differentiation in regards to level advancement, increased

Mia Katar 17432825 Design, Teaching and Learning Assessment 1

difficulty and accelerated learning pace, as standardised concepts may appear to simple

(Gifted and talented students | NSW Education Standards, n.d.)

These techniques are required without drawing significant attention to their diversity, which

can contrastingly result in counter-productivity. According to Gagne’s Differentiated Model

of Giftedness and Talent, he accentuates the projecting need for school support in order for

GAT students to progress their gifts into talents and reach an optimal level of capability

(Merrotsy, 2017). This process directly correlates to the (APST) evidenced within “know

your students and how to teach them” and “differentiating teaching to meet needs of all

abilities”. Efficient teaching and learning is essential through the application of pedagogy

where teachers “know the content and how to teach it” through the implementation of

teaching strategies to retain focus, concentration and engagement. Henderson, & Jarvis

(2016) concur enforcing the notion that a teacher can shape quality learning in the GAT

sector by producing positive outcomes for all students. The literature places emphasis on

building student teacher rapport in aim to evaluate and recognise “needs, interests and

motivations and determine how to teach them effectively” (p. 61). By incorporating these

aspects into the classroom, diverse learning groups are able to strive and succeed to reach

their full potential. The quality of learning is dependent on the quality of teaching through

pedagogy and curriculum modification.

In conclusion, teaching quality can impact a student’s life positively by incorporating the

mandatory fundamental frameworks competently. By teachers implementing pedagogy,

curriculum and assessment via the Australian Professional Teaching Standards, it allows the

students an opportunity to succeed academically and therefore throughout the remainder

Mia Katar 17432825 Design, Teaching and Learning Assessment 1

of their lives. That impact in itself, is what makes teaching a noble and rewarding

profession.

Mia Katar 17432825 Design, Teaching and Learning Assessment 1

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