Describe the function of each section of the essay.

For example this is Feedback/comments

the Introduction. related to marking
criteria (rubric) and
assessment
requirements (Learning
guide)

Sample comment:
provides an overview of
the main points
Introduction Function discussed in the essay.

Ullmans research examines to what extent LGBTQ students are physically

victimised and left isolated within classroom environments that do not
promote unbiased, inclusive education for same sex attracted students.
Ullman draws on previous research engaging with stage environment fit
theory in order to efficiently contend how gendered school climates can
facilitate declined educational outcomes for LGBTQ students. The article
accounts for the formal organisationally enforced and informal socially
enforced construction of gendered climates. The article makes explicit,
that higher absenteeism and truancy is a result of gender biased
exclusive education within classrooms. Thus fostering unwelcomed and
unsafe environments for LGBTQ students which is a main contributor to
LGBTQ students declines educational outcomes.
The article discourses issues of curricular silences on gender and
sexuality issues inherently asserting heteronormative culture while
demoting any deviation of traditional sexual orientation. Additionally,
the article conceptualises gender climate to provide insight into the
varying ways in which gender biased exclusive education is fostered
within classroom environments. The article makes mention of
heteronormative school enforced physical appearance in forms of
uniforms as well as subconscious biased gendered curriculum.

Cited background research

The article cites research conducted in US high schools whereby gender
unbiased inclusive education was implemented explicitly through
curriculum led to a higher positive gender classroom climates and
reported increased educational outcomes in comparison to classrooms
that did not promote equity education for all students including LGBTQ
students.

These findings are consistent with the observation that breaking male
gender norms elicits more violence than breaking female gender norms
(Brown and Tappan 2008).

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 Methods used/ Participants and process
The research conducted within the article dominantly draws on
Qualitative research whereby snowball sampling (Faugier and Sargeant
1997) was used on a selection of five students. The students who
identified themselves as LGBTQ student’s ages varied between the ages
of sixteen to nineteen, all deriving from Sydney’s Western suburbs. The
interviews conducted were one to one with the author and lasted
between 45 to 90 minutes. Interviews deviated from strict format with
discussions about participant’s experiences regarding heteronormativity
and its implementation within secondary schooling. Organisation and
analysis of interviews relied on NVivo. (Ullman, 2014)

Results
Interview of the participants revealed that school uniforms and school
policies regarding restriction self-expression via physical appearance
such as accessories, hairstyles, and piercings accounted for much of the
negative experiences encountered by the LGBTQ

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 Explain how this issue is relevant both broadly and specifically within
your KLA.
My Key Learning Area is English. Curriculum outcome 10 for English stage
6 requires students to “synthesis information and ideas into logical
arguments by 10.1: - Discerning ideas, attitudes and values reflected in
texts from personal, social, historical, cultural and workplace contexts”
(Board of Studies, 2009)Thus areas of study and selection of texts should
include ideas, attitudes and values inclusive and informative of non-
heteronormative values in order to efficiently foster students greater
understanding of the world around them.

Introduce your chosen learning activity/activities

The chosen lesson plan was developed by Georges River College and is a
Year 9 project: Our virtual world: The Internet and web site development
as part of Stage 5 Information and Software Technology (NSW
Department of Education and Training, 2004). It is formatted so that it
describes what students learn about, what they learn to do, and the
associated teaching and learning activities. In this lesson students learn
about the Internet and its history, the intranet and some elements of
internet software. In the middle column which outlines students’
outcomes, it seems that students need to be able to articulate a range of
factors and processes related to the Internet. The activities include
reading sections from a book on the history of the Internet and being
told about the Student booklet by the teacher. The lesson plan then
states ‘students will utilise knowledge and comprehension skills to lay a
foundation for the acquisition of knowledge’ in a number of areas’
(NSWDET, 2004, p.1).

Although the learning goals and outcomes are clearly outlined, the
learning activities are described in a reasonably general way without

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 specific guidelines or instructions about how they might be carried out.
This provides the opportunity to consider how the recommendations by
Boyle and Gilles (2010) might be applied to this lesson plan and revised
so that it is based on cooperative learning. One of the points Boyle and
Gilles (2010) emphasise is that students learn best when engaged in
enquiry with open ended questions. The lesson plan could be re-
structured so that the activities elicit the type of information students
need to acquire in more interesting ways than just reading the booklet as
they suggest. Additionally, Boyle and Gilles (2010) argue that one of the
benefits of cooperative learning is that students are able to explore and
extend upon information so this is another reason for using cooperative
learning in this lesson. The activities could be adapted in a number of
ways so that each requires cooperative learning. Ideally, for the purpose
of this assignment, it could be assumed that the teacher has already had
some training in implementing cooperative learning. If the teacher was
not trained then it would be suggested that they at least become familiar
with some of the key cooperative learning literature suggested in the
article. It seems that if the teacher is not trained then the chance of a
successful learning experience is not so high.

Discuss the revisions you would make to your chosen learning activity
and, most importantly, justify these using your chosen article.
In using this lesson plan I would revise the entire lesson so that it is
based on cooperative learning. If the teacher just told the students the
information in a didactic way or just asked them to read the sections of
the booklet, then according to the research (Gilles & Boyle, 2010) and
good teaching pedagogy (Allen, 2013, p.52), and this would leave the
students disengaged and distracted. The lesson is divided into three
components in the template above and these could be the three
different sections of the lesson. The history of how the Internet was
developed could be conveyed as a short play for example, so that
students choose critical moments in the history of the internet and write
a short script and perform these. This might seem more like an activity
for a drama class, but one of the stated objectives in the TAS syllabus is
‘effective communication skills and collaborative work practices leading
to information and software technology solutions for specific problems’
(Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards, NSW, 2003, p.11).
By role playing critical moments in the development of the internet, its
history would be brought to life in a three dimensional way so that
students grasp that it was developed by real people making real life
decisions and of course, high level technological understanding. This
would help students to understand the history more fully and in a
context, and they are more likely to recall this at a later date (Booth,
2012). In order to apply the recommendations for the article the
instructions for this task would need to be very clear, according to the
principles of cooperative learning (Gilles & Boothe, 2010), with an
example of a short role play on a different topic shown to students (for
eg. YouTube), as they might not have participated in such an activity
before.

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 According the to the lesson plan, the second activity involves the teacher
introducing the Student booklet and giving a detailed overview of the
content. Again, rather than the teacher standing at the front and telling
the students about the booklet, a group learning activity such as Divide
and Conquer (Jacques & Salmon, 2011) could be used so that students
work together to learn about portions of the content and then to explain
it to the other groups. In order to use the principles of cooperative
learning described by Gilles and Boyle (2010) and not simply be a group
learning activity, the lesson would need to have an element of enquiry.
The teacher could develop a series of open-ended questions and each
group would use these to explore different sections of the booklet. They
would record the answers and then explain these to the rest of the class
who would be encouraged to ask questions of each group as well. This
would also be aligned with the syllabus which states that students need
‘problem-solving and critical thinking skills’ (BOSTES, 2003, p.11).

The third section of the lesson plan is more comprehensive in the

amount of content that is covered and this might require a number of
lessons. It is focussed on acquiring foundational knowledge about
different aspects of the internet. This is a good opportunity for the
teacher to be the ‘guide on the side’ (Hertz-Larowitz, 1992, cited in Gilles
& Boyle, 2010, p.938) where they take all the necessary elements into
account to create a rich learning experience. This experience could also
be a piece of formative assessment so that student learning is evaluated
and then they are provided with feedback that they can apply to their
next tasks. The assessment could consider how they worked in the group
as well as the output from the group. Black and Williams (2011) claim
that although formative assessment can take considerable planning
when using cooperative learning that it helps students understand and
monitor their learning processes. Students could be provided with the
list of the different areas to be covered and asked to determine the
order in which they think they should be learnt about and to justify why.
This gives students a sense of autonomy in their learning and stimulates
preliminary research and group discussion and problem solving. When
each group reports their list and justifications to the class as a whole, the
teacher could record the lists visually so that students can compare
these. Students would then return to their smaller groups to consider
whether they need to rearrange their lists based on the justifications
provided by other groups.
Conclusion

Reading a research article and then applying its recommendations to a

lesson plan provides opportunities for making the connection between
research and teaching. Although the article on cooperative learning by
Gilles and Boyle (2010) did not relate specifically to the KLA of TAS or
Information and Software Technology the principles could still be
applied. This leads to thinking more expansively about educational
research and recognising that it is has relevance across all KLAs as often
it is the principles, rather than the content that are most important. In
this case, cooperative learning was confirmed by the research article to
be complex and time consuming for teacher, but nevertheless a valuable

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 learning approach that could be utilised more effectively. The training of
teachers to ensure that it is implemented well is appropriate and this is
up to the teachers’ themselves but also teacher education institutions
and professional bodies. In terms of the particular lesson discussed
above, it can be argued that applying the lens of cooperative learning so
that students learn together in an enquiry based approach they will have
a significantly improved learning experience.

Reference list
Allen, P.J. (2013). Skilling teachers in pedagogy. Vancouver, Canada:
Harper.
Black, P. & Williams, T. (2011). Assessment and classroom learning.
Assessable Learning Experiences. 3, 12-41.
Booth, M. (2014). Using dramatic techniques across the syllabus.
Christchurch, New Zealand: Palmer and Daughters.
Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards, NSW. (2003).
Information and Software Technology Years 7–10 Syllabus June
2003. Syllabus Documentation. Retrieved from
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/info-
software-technology.html
Gall, M.D., Gall, J.P., & Borg, W.R. (2015). Applying educational research.
How to read, do and use research to solve problems of practice
(7th edition). Hoboken, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
Gilles, R.M. & Boyle, M. (2010) Teachers’ reflections on cooperative
learning: issues of implementation. Teaching and Teacher
Education. 26, 933-940.
Jacques, D. & Salmon, G. (2011). Learning in Groups. Oxon, Canada:
Kogan Page.
NSW Department of Education and Training. (2004). Stage 5 Information
and Software Technology Year 9 units of work Project 1: Our
virtual world. Technology Unit, Curriculum K-12 Directorate,
NSW Department of Education and Training. Retrieved from
www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/secondary/technology/
7_10/information/course_plans_units/hurstville/yr9_overview.pdf

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14681366.2016.1194311?needAccess=true