Reflective Learning Plan

As a future teacher you are required to reflect on your own professional development needs and identify ways to continue your learning. This
task has been designed to provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate your awareness of your professional responsibilities, challenges and
opportunities in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education and the importance of respect, engagement and self- awareness in
teaching.

Instructions to complete this Reflective Learning Plan

Your response should be written in the first person.

Submit via SafeAssign

The word limit for the essay can be under or over the set limit by 10 per cent.

Imagine that you are nearing the end of your supervised professional experience at a school. The school coordinator has indicated that you have progressed well
during your placement. She/he is keen to know what you feel the next steps in your professional learning might be in relation to professional standards 1.4 and
2.4. Document in a reflective plan how, by the end of your program, you will continuously grow the following goals in relation to professional standards 1.4 and 2.4:

You will present a structured reflective learning plan written in the first person.
Ensure you use the course text and some of the required weekly readings to identify aims and actions (referenced) to progressively achieve the goals.
Your plan should adhere to Harvard writing conventions, including a List of References (LoR). The plan will be uploaded to your e-portfolio for progressive completion
and review.

Rationale: The purpose of the reflective learning plan is to create a document that keeps a record of possible teaching strategies and ongoing knowledge and
understandings that I acquire over time that also meet the criteria in the professional Standards 1.4 and 2.4. As a non-Indigenous Australian there are many sensitive
Aboriginal and Torres Strait cultural issues that may be incorporated into the school and classroom in a culturally appropriate manner. Through my readings and research,
I have collated teaching strategies and ways through which I may understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders culture that would be beneficial to my teaching
practices. I aim to acquire further knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, understand the ways in which I may demonstrate respect and promote
reconciliation and continue to accumulate teaching strategies that incorporate culturally appropriate activities to use as a future teacher in Queensland.
Criteria to be Addressed
Understanding and respect for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples and cultures.
Ability to promote reconciliation.
PROFESSIONAL STANDARD 1.4
Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students
Aim: To provide culturally appropriate classroom activities
that promote an understanding and respect for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people and culture.
Action:
The teacher will demonstrate an understanding and respect
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by
celebrating differing customs.
To achieve this:
 Invite local Indigenous families to engage with the
students telling Dreamtime stories, artwork, build
bush tucker gardens, traditional languages spoken
and other significant cultural learning activities.
 Aboriginal art and artists (eg. Albert Namatjira as a
contemporary artist). Also provide rock and dot
paintings examples as traditional artwork.
Aim: To create classroom and school activities that involve
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ history and
culture.
Action: Australian education systems need to acknowledge
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture
because it is a part of Australia’s history and is also a
positive step toward reconciliation (Price 2015, p. 160).
This may be accomplished by:
 Demonstrating my personal acceptance by
promoting an afternoon tea (after school) with
parents/caregivers so they get to know me and find
that I am easy to approach with any concerns. This
PROFESSIONAL STANDARD 2.4
Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous
and non-Indigenous Australians
Aim: By the end of my university studies, I aim to have gained
more of an informed and comprehensive understanding of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ culture.
Action: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ traditional
language is a part of their culture, identity and self-esteem. Be
mindful that for some students, English is not their first language
(Buckskin 2015, p. 180).
To achieve this, I will be required to:
 Acquire more knowledge (eg. specific customs, rituals,
language) of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
people for the area where I am teaching. Have a ‘yarn’
with members of the community.
 Build on my knowledge of the politically correct
language I should use when speaking to parents of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders so as not to
offend.
 Acknowledge that I may not have all the necessary
knowledge and understanding of the diverse cultures of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Buckskin
2015, p. 187).
Aim: To promote reconciliation through the inclusion all
members of the community in school functions and activities that
make everyone feel welcome and appreciated.
Action: For non- Indigenous people, a successful avenue to gain
reconciliation is through relational engagement (Clarke, de Costa
& Maddison 2016, p. 5).
To achieve this:
 Implement protocols that acknowledge the local
traditional custodian “welcome to country” at
assemblies every week, and wherever possible in the
classroom (Oxfam Australia 2015 p. 3).
 On July 1995 both flags (Australian, Aboriginal and

Engagement with anti-racism in
your professional practice.
Understanding of how to
engage with Aboriginal and
may be a regular once a month activity that can be
either classroom a whole school activity.
 Celebrating the National Close the Gap day. Have
activities for the class or whole school. For
example, handprints of the students onto a wall
mural.
 National Reconciliation Week (27 May to 3 June).
The 2018 theme is “Don’t Keep History a
Mystery’. This will provide a great opportunity to
invite Indigenous community members to speak to
the class or school about the theme for this special
week.
Aim: To discourage racism in the classroom and school. I
will endeavour to promote school-based activities that
expose students to possible damages to an individual’s self-
worth and self-esteem by racist comments.
Action: It is the teachers’ responsibility to encourage
students to accept differences and dispel stereotypes and to
promote positive attitudes toward people from diverse
backgrounds (Priest et al. 2014, p. 24).
To achieve this:
 Classroom and school rules are to be followed that
do not discriminate against a particular race.
 Important for pre-service teacher to pre-read any
stories that may be read to the class to avoid any
derogatory statements that may offend Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander students (Price 2015, p.
165).
 Discuss bullying that is based on ones’ race and/or
culture with the class and create anti-bullying
posters.
 To gain an appreciation of an individual’s culture,
the class can celebrate diversity in the classroom.
Students are encouraged to present talks about their
culture (early education can do this in ‘show and
tell’).
Aim: To build relationships with local families and
communities through engaging students and members of the
Torres Strait Island) were proclaimed to be ‘Flags of
Australia’ by the Australian Government. Ensure that the
school I am teaching at have all flags flying.
 Install the App ‘Welcome to Country’ to be aware of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait culture and protocols that
are geo-specific.
Aim: To develop an appreciation and respect for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander culture by celebrating and/or creating an
awareness of culturally significant days or weeks.
Action: A positive attitude by all school community members
toward Australian Indigenous special days of recognition is a step
toward anti-racism and reconciliation (Clarke, de Costa &
Maddison 2016, p. 6).
To achieve this:
 The non-Indigenous teacher should be mindful of ‘white
privilege’ and the effects on those who are Indigenous
(McIntosh 1990, p. 1-2).
 Recognise the teacher’s views are held in high regard
from students and not always parents’ attitudes have the
most influence (Priest et al. 2014, p. 4).
 I need to be cognisant of the number of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people who experience racism in
their everyday lives (Reconciliation Australia 2016, p.
28).
Aim: To develop an appreciation and respect for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander culture by celebrating and/or creating an
Torres Strait Islander families
and communities with a focus
on building relationships.
Social justice and inclusive
learning and teaching practices.
community in class and whole school culturally significant
activities.
Action: To build positive relationships with Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander families may be achieved through by
parent/caregiver participation within the school (Tracey et
al, 2015).
To achieve this:
 Invite families to school for special occasions. For
example, NAIDOC week. NAIDOC week is the
first full week in July. It is to celebrate the history,
culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people. Classes could contribute by
displaying Indigenous artwork they have done with
help from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
community members. Also, be aware of the theme
for each year.
 Encourage other teachers to participate in a class or
whole school activity for National Close the Gap
Day (March 5). For example, all families are
welcome to a ‘Big Breakfast’.
Aim: To cater for individual learning needs and be mindful
of varying teaching strategies to make lessons more
meaningful for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
students.
Action: To cater for individual learning needs of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander students the teacher is required to
take into consideration the differing histories, languages
(two-way bidialectal), and cultures and the way students
learn (Herbert 2015, p. 47). The teacher needs to include
culturally relevant maths strategies, computer access
availability and include Indigenous language wherever
possible (Matthews 2015, p. 113-114).
To accomplish this:
 History lessons should include the perspectives of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Invite
local community members to the classroom to
explain traditional Indigenous culture.
awareness of culturally significant days or weeks.
Action: A positive attitude by all school community members
toward Australian Indigenous special days of recognition is a step
toward reconciliation (Clarke, de Costa & Maddison 2016, p. 6).
To achieve this:
 The school community may feel strongly about
significant special days or weeks allocated for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander recognition. Invite
local Indigenous members to the school to discuss ways
to celebrate without offending. For example, NAIDOC
week, National Close the Gap Day, International Day of
the World’s Indigenous Peoples, National Sorry Day.
 For non-Indigenous teachers it is useful to access
information from websites first to gain background
knowledge (Herbert 2015, p. 46).
Aim: To be cognisant of the current educational policies come
from the dominant culture.
Action:
Understand that many educational settings have not made the
inclusion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
learning that is culturally fair (Hollinsworth 2013, p. 1054).
To achieve this:
 Be mindful, as a non-Indigenous teacher, to provide
equal opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students (Hollinsworth 2013).
 Remember testing has been formulated and written for
non-Indigenous students. The type of questioning that
are also written in English, have little or no meaning for
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (Angelo
2013).
 The classroom teacher also needs to be mindful of any
materials that may offend that he/she may use when
  To encourage acceptance, ‘Every face has a place’ discussing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
in the classroom. Welcome to the class poster with culture, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
photos of every child’s face. resources for the classroom. These need an Art Code to
 Maths activities need to focus on hands on determine whether it was made by Aboriginal and Torres
materials, stories that can be acted out (maths Strait Islander people. Have community members in the
problems) and creating own mathematical symbols classroom to help with creating artworks respectfully.
that represent the four basic operations (Radoll  Display warnings before showing any videos that they
2015, p. 113). may contain images or voices of deceased persons as a
 The teacher needs to remember that internet may way to be respectful of Indigenous culture (Oxfam
not be used at every student’s home. When using Australia 2015, p. 5).
computers, it would be helpful to know the
individual student skill level and don’t set work to
take home if the internet is not available (Radoll
2015, p. 133).
 Communicate with local community Elders to
include into the classroom the Aboriginal and/or
Torres Strait Islander language of the particular
area or region I am teaching at. For example, have
words or symbols included on classroom charts,
word walls and labels (Troy 2015, p. 151).
 The linguistic varieties and identifying EAL/D
learning, with the use of cue cards displayed on
desk or in classroom to help with meanings of
English words for written assessments (Angelo
2013, p. 67).
Concluding Statement:
The aims and actions outlined in the reflective learning plan enables me to be cognisant of the implications of my teaching strategies to address Standards 1.4 and 2.4. I
have become aware of the important role teachers can play in developing positive attitudes toward Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ culture. By building
relationships with local members of the school community opens up a plethora of positive educational benefits for all students. These may include relevant cultural
experiences for students that address anti-racism, provide a step toward reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and as the teacher, enables me to
engage students with a wide range of culturally acceptable teaching strategies that cover many subject areas to implement into the classroom. With continued reflection,
working toward the above goals enables me to promote a socially equitable classroom.
References

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Buckskin, P 2015, ‘Engaging Indigenous students: the important relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their
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