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I believe knowing your students and how they learn is the most integral component to teaching, this relates to the domain of professional knowledge from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. As once you have built a relationship and understand your student’s strengths, challenges, interests, and lived culture is when you can tailor learning to meet your student’s needs (Hornby & Greaves, 2022). Ensuring students can make connections to the learning and it is meaningful for them will increase motivation and engagement. Students need to make connections with new content it is only when the brain makes a connection (connecting the new information with the old) is when they can begin to understand (Hammond, 2015). Consequently, teachers need to know a student’s lived culture, their background and practices to begin to understand what knowledge a student brings with them to the classroom, to then establish a connection.  

This strong rapport that I have created with my students will then enable them to grow and thrive in a safe learning environment whilst learning and practicing new concepts. The Australian Curriculum will guide the learning that takes place, I will confer with the achievement standard and content descriptors of the relevant learning area to create engaging learning sequences. My pedagogical approach will be to utilise a variety of teaching instruction but leaning towards active involvement (Hornby & Greaves, 2022) to develop student understanding through practice to strengthen neural pathways (Hammond, 2015).

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References

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Sage.

Hornby, G., & Greaves, D. (2022). Essential Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies Ensuring Optimal Academic Achievement for Students. Springer. https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/book/10.1007/978-3-030-96229-6