102086 Designing Teaching and Learning

17681810 – Jarrod Glass

Lisa Rogers, the former CEO of the Australian Institute for Teaching and Student Leadership (AITSL)
made the claim that “Teaching is a vocation and a profession.” This essay also strongly supports this
claim. The reasoning for this claim lying in four of the key foundational areas of education. These
four areas include the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST), which sets the bar for
teachers across Australia. Secondly is through the use of curriculum that is set by Australian
Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and adopted by the NSW Board of Studies
in the form of the syllabus, which shows us what teachers teach. Thirdly, the understanding of
pedagogy strongly links to professionalism, through the use of the Quality Teaching Framework.
Lastly a look into the area of assessment through an analysis of NAPLAN. By definition a vocation is
the “innate ability in an individual towards a particular occupation.” (Difference between Job and
Profession | Job vs Profession, 2013), and Lisa highlights this in her quote “Not everyone can teach….
Australia have set very high standards about what someone needs to achieve in an Australian
classroom”. The challenges associated with each of these foundation topics will be used to explain
why teaching is a profession.

When comparing the APST with the definition of a profession from the Professional Standards
Councils (PSC), it is seen that the APST meets all the standards of a profession. The first standard
‘know students and how they learn’, fits into the PSC definition of ‘possessing special knowledge and
skills.’ as teachers are trained to be able to have a wide range of teaching strategies to help
accommodate the needs of any type of student (Williams, 2014). The second standard, ‘Know the
content and how to teach it’ also meets the criteria of ‘possessing special knowledge and skills’. This
is due to teachers undergoing undergraduate study in their Key Learning Area (KLA) and potential
teachers needing to undertake a post graduate master’s degree to learn how to teach. As a result
this information can be viewed as ‘possessing special knowledge and skills’, which is obtained from
‘a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education and training at a high level’.
Furthermore, an entry mechanic as set by AITSL, investigates the innate ability of the potential
teachers through online interviews ("Selection Guidelines: Factsheet", 2019). This process shows
that the teaching profession is a vocation filled with teachers who have an innate ability to teach.
The third standard is ‘Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning’ which meets the
criteria of not only ‘possessing special knowledge and skills’, but also how to ‘to apply this
knowledge’. The fourth standard is ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’
and directly meets the criteria of ‘adhering to ethical standards’. The challenge of creating these
environments can be highlighted by Collins and Ting (2014). “The level of care required to support
students wellbeing, can be intense, confusing, and overwhelming.” This view can be seen through
the number of aspects teachers need to consider when teaching, including first-aid and child
protection training among others. The fifth standard, ‘Assess, provide feedback and report on
student learning’ can be seen as a way of to ‘apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the
interest of others’. This is because assessment is inherently for the benefit of the student. It shows
student learning and helps guide them to areas of improvement. The sixth standard states teachers
are to ‘Engage in professional learning’. This is becoming increasingly challenging as teaching is
always evolving and requires teachers to evolve with it. This can be seen through the focus on
technology, which has been playing an increasing role in the educational process, requiring teachers
to learn the new skills or fall behind. This standard meets the PSC definition of ‘learning derived from
research, education and training at a high level’. The last standard is to ‘Engage professionally with
colleagues, parents/carers and the community’, which matches up with ‘ethical standards’, as
teachers face challenges in needing to act in a professional manner even when not in the schooling
environment. Otherwise based on the NSW Code of Conduct, “…if your conduct has the potential to
damage the reputation of the Department, even if it is in a private capacity, this could lead to
disciplinary action” (NSW Department of Education, 2016). And secondly to ‘exercise these skills in
the interest of others’, as teaching as a profession is a service onto others, to teach them the skills
they do not possess as wished by the community through the curriculum.

The curriculum most reflects the PSC profession definition of ‘apply this knowledge and exercise
these skills in the interest of others.’, as curriculum is inherently for the community and nation. The
curriculum or more locally in NSW, the syllabus outlines exactly what students need to learn and
what teachers need to teach. The syllabus and national curriculum reflect the values, challenges and
needs of our time. This can be apparent with the current cross curriculum. The cross curriculum
areas include, understanding and skills relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and
cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia and Sustainability ("ACARA - Cross-curriculum
priorities", 2016). These cross curriculum areas were decided upon at the Melbourne Declaration,
which is built upon the works of all state educational ministers (Barr et al., 2008). These ministers
are a ‘disciplined group of individuals’, ‘recognised by the public’, who ‘possess special skills’, and
‘apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others’. As outlined the curriculum is
a tool that is shaped by knowledgeable people in our wider national community to serve the
interests of our society. The Melbourne Declaration outlines, the cross curriculum areas that,
“acknowledges major changes in the world that are placing new demands on Australian education”
(Barr et al., 2008, p.4). The challenge for teachers is to find ways to incorporate cross-curriculum
content into lessons. Although we have the curriculum outlining what students should be taught, it
ultimately comes down the teachers to put this into practice. Teachers, ‘possess special skills’ in the
ability to read the curriculum or syllabus and through use of pedagogy determine how these areas
will be taught. The challenge comes down the teacher to decide how best to teach the content of
the syllabus and for this reason it is important teachers have a strong internal drive for the work. For
if the teachers are not passionate and lack drive it can have long lasting effects on the student’s
ability to learn as outlined by Auwarter & Aruguete (2008). For this reason it can be seen that
teaching is vocational and key to curriculum being successful is the use of a teacher’s pedagogy.

Pedagogy is best described as the way teachers teach. Not only does the area of pedagogy align
strongly with the APST, but also the definition of a professional. The Quality Teaching Model is
currently the framework in place in NSW public schools to help improve teacher’s ability to improve
pedagogical practice (Butcher & McDonald, 2007). The Quality Teaching Model is derived off of
‘research, education and training at a high level’, based on the works of Gore, Griffiths and Ladwig
(2004). Just as the curriculum was designed to meet the needs, challenges and values of our
developing society, the Quality Teaching Method allows for teachers to integrate technology, build
collaborative practices, reflect on current practices and improve school culture among others
(CollIns, 2018). The framework focuses around three key areas of intellectual quality, Quality
Learning Environment (QLE) and significance. Intellectual quality focuses on the development of
deep understanding, focusing on key ideas and using specialist language. By doing so teachers
demonstrate the professional standard ‘know the content and how to teach it’ and also fits the
definition of applying these special skills and knowledge the teacher possess for the good of
students. QLE, fits several of the APST. It teaches that all students can learn, and that classrooms
should be positive spaces where no one is put down, demonstrating an adherence to ‘knowing
students and how they learn’ through understanding their engagement. ‘Create and maintain
supportive and safe learning environments’ and ‘ethical standards’, are accomplished through social
support, student direction and high expectations. A study by Hines (2008), found that students were
strongly effected by teacher efficacy. Teachers with low efficacy had students perform considerably
worse than teachers who were efficacious. This again demonstrates teaching as a vocation as
teachers need the passion to want all students to learn and succeed. A subset of the QLE is explicit
quality criteria, which is use of the syllabus or curriculum to show students exactly what they need
to know in order to complete the task, and not leave learning ambiguous. Lastly the area of
Significance centres on applications of knowledge to other subjects and outside of school. It
highlights cultural knowledge and the use of narrative to convey messages. By practicing inclusivity
and cultural knowledge teacher meet the profession criteria for ethical standards. Connecting the
Quality Teaching Model’s significance with assessment, Wigglesworth, Simpson and Loakes (2011),
found that the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), is unsuitable
culturally for indigenous students. As a result it is proposed that a different curriculum, which
encompasses indigenous lives and cultural background is accommodated to help the students learn.
The difficulty with use of the Quality Teaching method is finding a way to incorporate all these
factors into a lesson seamlessly, requiring quite a high level of skill and expertise to do so.

The last foundation is assessment. Assessment is one of the seven APST and more than just giving
out a mark. It’s more about providing feedback on student learning and for the teacher to reflect on
how their teaching has been received. NAPLAN is a national standardised test that is sat by year 3, 5,
7 and 9 students across the country to assess their levels of literacy and numeracy. This test is highly
controversial and can be seen as both professional and unprofessional. On the positive note,
NAPLAN has increased the importance surrounding literacy and numeracy and due to accountability,
teacher’s performance has been seen to improve, based on the study by Thompson (2013). The
enactment of NAPLAN is an application of teachers skills, applied in the interest in the students.
However, according to the same paper by Thompson, “teacher perceptions suggest that the ‘policy
enactments’ may be having different classroom effects than intended.”(p.80). Unfortunately, despite
the professional goal of NAPLAN, it is having some negative effects felt by teachers across Australia.
Greg highlights teachers challenges with NAPLAN results being tied to funding and enrolment in
schools and unofficially a way of assessing teacher performance. This has caused school grading
through the ‘myschool’ website. This results in NAPLAN becoming a promotional tool for schools to
entice parents to enrol students and secure more government funding. The primary function of the
NAPLAN assessment is to provide a snapshot of students standing in regards to literacy and
numeracy. Instead of this teachers are being forced to teach to the test (Thompson). The same
paper states that this teaching to the test approach, “…impacted for many teachers on the
curriculum choice in the school/classroom, on the style of pedagogy teachers felt they had to
adopt.” (p.82). This approach to teaching that detracts from the syllabus and more suitable
pedagogy for learning by teachers, results in learning that is no longer for the ‘interest of others’.
Both of these points show that NAPLAN is a good professional tool to monitor and help students
learning. Yet, in practice the NAPLAN is being used as a promotional tool, which is both unethical
and stops the teacher’s ability to teach. Although there are some serious negatives surrounding the
NAPLAN assessment, this unprofessionalism comes from school administration and not the majority
of teachers that find the NAPLAN assessment to be having a negative effect (Thompson).
To conclude. Teaching is definitely a profession. Teachers continually rise above the challenges
presented to them throughout all four of the foundational areas. Teachers must adhere to the APST
and act in an ethical matter in and outside of school. These APST match up very closely with the
PSC’s definition of a profession. A look into pedagogy and curriculum, shows a clear connection to
professionalism as teachers use the ACARA cross-curriculum in their lessons to help educate
students on the growing needs of our society and teachers implementing the Quality Teaching
Method in all their classes to help create deeper learning from their students. Incorporating the
Quality teaching method and cross-curriculum is a challenging task and requires special skills as an
educator to do effectively, which draws upon the vocationally of teaching as a profession. Lastly the
NAPLAN assessment causes many challenges through strained relationships, extra stress on teachers
and teaching to the test. Despite NAPLAN being used unprofessionally as a promotional tool, it can
be seen teachers are still using NAPLAN to help student’s literacy and numeracy tests. Teachers go
through screening tests to allow only the best teachers into our schools and those with high efficacy
and drive. Therefore it can be confidently shown that teaching is indeed a vocation and a profession.
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