Teaching is a profession and the ability to teach, helping individuals understand and incorporate

difficult subjects such as Mathematics, Science and English, not everyone “who can do” can
necessarily teach whatever they are “doing”. Key teaching and learning concepts such as
professionalism, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment convey that teaching is a skill which needs to
developed and refined and through the effective design of the aforementioned concepts, just like
any other professions there are set of standards which govern how teachers must conduct
themselves called the Australian Professional Standards for Teacher (APST), the Australian National
Curriculum is used to set out what Australian student learn, The New South Wales(NSW) Quality
Teaching model is used to help teachers carry out the curriculum in class and finally The National
Assessment Program- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), used for schools to demonstrate their
academic calibre and for the government to identify schools performance and aid in problem areas.
By addressing and identifying the learning needs of gifted and talented students, teaching will be
further cemented as a profession.

Profession is defined as a paid occupation, one that involves prolonged education and training in a
specific area in higher education (Post Kindergarten- year 12) resulting in the receiving of a formal
qualification like a Bachelors or Masters degree. Teaching requires one to go through a higher
education to attain a Bachelors for teaching areas and then Masters of teaching, so there are bodies
of knowledge attained one of which is the pedagogy that pre-service teachers learn during their
masters, and the other being knowledge in a subject matter that Is attained in the bachelor’s degree
(Connell, 2013, p. 267). NSW education standards amongst other things like Practicals integrating
future teachers into the school environment. The following list demonstrates the standards teachers
must abide by.

“The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers comprise seven Standards that outline what
teachers should know and be able to do” (NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), 2011, p. 6).

1. Know students and how they learn.

2. Know the content and how to teach it.
3. Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning.
4. Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments.
5. Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning.
6. Engage in professional learning.
7. Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community.

These standards identify the elements of quality teaching at all of its career stages, they contain the
agreed upon attributes of the complex job of teaching, teachers with the ability to apply knowledge,
practice and professional engagement as listed above are able to create an environment for learning
that is of effectiveness (NESA, 2011, p. 6). Just like teaching other professions have standards which
are used to aid their conduct. Nurses have standards of practice each specific for the type of nurse
for example the midwifery subsector have a competency standards which have been in effect from
July 1st 2010 (Nursery and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2006, p. 4-9). Furthering that teaching is a
profession with as equal standing as nursing.

A Curriculum are key learning areas apart of any learning institute and aim to help students grasp
difficult concepts by engaging critical thinking but not with a textbook alone it must be explained by
an expert of that subject area and Australian teachers fill this role well as they undergo study in a
subject area of their choice gaining a major and sub major in their study for example a science
teacher undergoes a Bachelor of science degree attaining expertise in areas like Chemistry Physics
and Biology. The Australian National Curriculum is used by all teachers and once they have gained
experience in key learning areas within the Curriculum they are able to teach them in school. There
are four categories for curriculum Explicit, implicit, hidden and excluded. The explicit curriculum can
be then split to general capabilities which consist of basic skills taught in schools like literacy,
numeracy and more important areas like critical and creative thinking, intercultural understanding
and personal and social capability. The other being cross-curriculum priorities which focus more on
sustainability, Aboriginal and TSI histories and Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, with
younger and more culturally diverse teachers these ideas can be better expressed compared to that
from the older more middle aged teachers, and the uprise of technology connects the students to
the rest of the world and this means access to excluded curriculum like documentaries of aboriginal
history or science documentaries increasing interest and engaging students with the explicit
curriculum ( Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2016). Curriculum
in teaching something that is ever changing as new things are discovered and those that are
necessary will be incorporated to their specific key learning area. Hospitals will use a standard
medical history form to be filled by the patient to assist the medical doctor in diagnosing the
patient’s condition and based on the description of the patient’s condition testing and treatment is
conducted. Teaching is then like a medical profession utilising a standard curriculum to be then
crafted by the teacher to demonstrate concepts in class.

Pedagogy is the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical
concept creating a quality learning environment, intellectual quality and showing the significance of
what’s being taught. The Quality teaching, successful students (QTSS) is a government initiative used
by the local schools to help ensure that all of the primary school students benefit from quality
teaching and learning practice, fulfilling all there learning needs, the QTSS programmes includes the
mentoring of teachers improving any weaknesses, observing these teachers in-class and showing
those teachers effective teaching strategies, monitoring student progress in areas like reading,
writing or numeracy of need to ensure teachers are helping and improving them on said areas,
overall helping schools become thriving learning environments (NSW Department of Education,
2015). Pedagogy are one of the knowledges attained that allows for teaching to be a profession
without a well-developed pedagogy there will be poorly skilled teachers, and without pedagogy
there would be no format for teaching meaning a chaotic unordered mess of content.

Assessments are used to assess someone or something in a specific subject area, recording marks on
knowledge and skills followed by finding points of improvement overall in the state, school and class.
The NAPLAN is a standardised test which all Australian students must sit, the students are tested on
literacy and numeracy from years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Like any other assessment they NAPLAN data is used
by the government to see how the Australian students are performing compared to their
international peers, then through identification of problems improvements are then implemented,
the NAPLAN is managed by the ACARA(Department of Education and Training, 2017). Other than
NAPLAN schools conduct their own assessments to figure out how far students are progressing in
the curriculum and using weightings on tasks to determine the importance of the task and the
calibre of knowledge needed to complete the task given for example informal assignments: small
class quizzes are used for weekly progress checks this allows for teachers to gauge how much of the
KLA content is being understood and what areas might need to be revisited, these tasks generally
come with no weightings meaning less pressure on the students. Larger weighted tasks such as
exams, essays and projects test for overall knowledge of the KLA and incorporation of critical
thinking and further research into specific areas of study and this does create more pressure for
students. At the end of the semester the grades are determined by the weightings obtained and
come from letter grades A= Very High Achievement to Fail= very limited achievement (The
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Certification Authority, 2016). Through this teachers
determine what progress needs to be made for all students in the years to come.

Gifted and Talented students (GATS) are the peak of academic skills and must be catered for so that
their talents are not wasted for this to be done, Critical thinking must be engaged at a higher level
and using the concepts curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Using the QTSS, schools can work
with teachers and the gifted to create strategies which complement their knowledge and strengthen
any weak areas, allowing for students to be well balanced in all areas and excel further in there
subject of choice (NSW Department of Education, 2015). After school programmes and connecting
learning between gifted students can allow for them to work together and engage in peer learning,
mentor programmes where gifted students in the year above can engage with their younger peers
and help them shape what sort of key learning area they want to hone their skills towards.

Curriculum adjustments can be made to be personalised for gifted and talented students,
accelerating the student may be the case for some individuals placing them in a year better suited to
their knowledge and thinking level, but this may affect the child’s social life and they may be
ostracized by peers in the class, But another way would be to draw on different levels along the
foundation of the key learning area for example students tabulating and summarising information
on planets and GAT students creating a simulation of the planets after research is conducted
(Australian Curriculum (AC), 2016), integrating different KLAs together and creating a more
challenging task by making GAT students create a persuasive writing piece on why people should go
on an intergalactic tour (AC, 2016), cross-curriculum can be used to engage GAT students in projects
related to sustainability by using their knowledge in solar energy and research skills to develop a
design for solar sustainable energy, through all this gathering the students learning goals into a task
that can allow for them to show skills from various KLA like a report on the solar system discussing
its importance and creation (the science) with the use of correct grammar and spelling (literacy)
right factual knowledge demonstrated in graphs or tables (AC, 2016).

Assessments measures progress and with GAT students these can determine how high a level of
education the student regardless of their grade year there maybe be cases where a year 7 student
that excels in mathematics at a year 10 level but maybe be still at a year 7 level for English, This will
allow for the teacher to then personalise the curriculum so that maths will be taught at a high level
and English at a low level building up the KLA to a higher standard. When graded more attention to
smaller details like correct working out for a math question or focus on grammar, spelling and
punctuation in essays help determine marks, with GAT students there may be only a small difference
in marks.

In conclusion teaching is one of the most important professions, without teachers there wouldn’t be
scientists, no doctors, lawyers etc., It may have not started out as a profession with Confucius
(561BC) being the first teacher, but it has developed into one overtime with key areas profession,
curriculum, pedagogy and assessment used to demonstrate its skill level and Standard for practice
the APST, QTSS, aiding teachers in their endeavours. All professions have a code of practice which
allows for that profession to be conducted properly without these standards teaching may have not
been considered a profession. Curriculum allows for the easy and effective learning and is one of the
many assets available to teachers with GAT students’ progress on the curriculum can be done to
allow for more challenging work. The ability to teach is not something one can fully gain without the
aid of an education in pedagogy and through professional training at a Master’s level it becomes
honed into an effective tool. The assessment finally allows for all the progress made through the
discourses of the year to determine how much understanding was achieved. This skill is what makes
teaching a profession, governed by standards, taught at a high level with skills in a KLA and using
data to find solutions to problems in the class room through assessment

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2016). Cross-curriculum

priorities. Retrieved from http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities

Australian Curriculum. (2016). Gifted and talented students: Personalised Learning. Australian
Curriculum. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-
diversity/gifted-and-talented-students/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Certification Authority. (2016). Assessment and reporting.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Certification Authority. Retrieved from
http://www.acaca.edu.au/index.php/schooling/assessment-and-reporting/

Connell, R. Campbell, G. (2013). Education, change and society. South Melbourne, Australia; Oxford
University Press.

Department of Education and Training. (2017). National Assessment Program. Retrieved from
https://www.education.gov.au/national-assessment-program

NSW Department of Education. (2015). Quality Teaching, Successful Students – at a glance.

Retrieved from https://education.nsw.gov.au/our-priorities/strengthen-teaching-quality-and-school-
leadership/quality-teaching-successful-students-at-a-glance

NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). (2011). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
NESA. N/A. 4-6. Retrieved from
https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/8658b2fa-62d3-40ca-a8d9-
02309a2c67a1/australian-professional-standards-teachers.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=

Nursery and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA). (2006). National competency standards for the
midwife. NMBA. N/A. 4-9. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/nitish/Downloads/Midwifery-
Competency-Standards-January-2006.PDF