1.2 Understand how students learn
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of research into how students learn and the implications for teaching.
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
During a professional experience placement, I taught a grade 8 humanities class in a low socio-economic area of a rural Queensland town. This class was comprised of students on individual curriculum plans (ICPs) and had 12 students’ total. While I was familiar with the topic of Mesoamerica, I accessed the Australian Curriculum to ensure the students were receiving correct content and to assist me in helping the students to achieve the best possible outcome (ACARA, 2019).
Before teaching this class, I considered a range of teaching implications and the needs of the students. This included becoming aware of several behaviour issues across the class leading me to make further considerations for students learning. This meant using humanistic teaching as a form of pedagogy which allowed me to appropriately build connections and encourage learning through the hierarchy of needs which I recognised in the students (Madsen et al, 2012).
During the teaching of this class, I planned and implemented a sequence of lessons that used content suited to the student’s level. My goal was for students to understand the content to a capacity at which they could use in both formative and summative assessment types. Following discussions with my mentor teacher at the time we constructed ways to interpret the content for students and ensure students were given take up time for learning to allow students to consider the content and to slow down the lesson with consideration of all students learning speeds. These lesson sequences used ICT resources in the form of a PowerPoint (see artifact 1 for example of a lesson in Examples of Teaching). Using standard ICT resources in these lessons opened up ways to implement 21st century skills as outlined in the Australian Curriculum with further skills such as the literacy and a significant focus on personal and social capability also being implemented. I further used the Essential Skills for Classroom Management (ESCM) to effectively regulate student behaviour and intervene when needed (Education Queensland, 2007). With further differentiation coming in the form of pre-exam stimulus breakdowns for students to gauge understanding of key elements (see artefact 2 in Examples of Teaching).
Through this teaching experience I gained an insightful look into differentiating learning and understanding how students learn. By recognising students’ cognitive development I found that I was able to consider the outcomes and needs of diverse students within this class (Churchill et al, 2019). As well as consider different levels of engagement across the class not only through behaviour management strategies such as the ESCM but also through humanistic pedagogy to assist in creation and delivery of differentiated material.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2019). General Capabilities. ACARA. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/.
Education Queensland. (2007). Essential Skills for Classroom Management. Queensland Depart of Education. https://classroomprofiling.com/essential-skills-2021/.
Churchill, R., Godinho, S., Johnson, N. F., Keddie, A., Letts, W., Lowe, K., Shaw, K. (2019). Teaching making a difference. (4th ed.). John Wiley and Sons Australia, Ltd.
Madsen S. R., & Wilson I. K. (2012). Humanistic Theory of Learning: Maslow. Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. https://doi-org.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_1022.
