Belief Statement
I believe to be a successful educator it is fundamental I encompass a comprehensive body of professional knowledge, establishing opportunities to get to know and understand individual learners’ physical, social/emotional, intellectual competences, and cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), 2022). I intend to implement data-driven decision-making to target my teaching, guaranteeing that each child’s diverse needs and interests are at the forefront of my practice to best support their wellbeing and learning (Schildkamp, 2019; Vygotsky, 1978). It is my ambition to establish rich, positive teacher-student relationships, to create a safe, inclusive classroom environment where all children have a sense of belonging and access to equal educational opportunities (Marzano, 2017; Rose et al., 2018).
As an effective educator, I endeavour to have an extensive understanding and efficient implementation of the curriculum through high-impact, evidence-based teaching strategies (AITSL, 2022). To constitute a student-centred, personalised learning environment, I will draw on the Australian Curriculum as an overarching framework to facilitate engaging, purposeful and appropriately challenging education (Schildkamp, 2019; Zipin, 2020). I value active participation, designing learning experiences with authentic real-world connections and hands-on activities to intrinsically motivate my class and provide them with quality opportunities for development (Rogers, 1956). Through this, I will contextualise essential twenty-first century skills outlined in the Cross-curriculum priorities and General capabilities, to transform children into informed citizens (Allen & White, 2021).
References
Allen, J., & White, S. (2021). Learning to teach in a new era (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). (2022). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) (Rev. Ed.). https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/national-policy-framework/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers.pdf
Marzano, R. (2017). The new art and science of teaching. Solution Tree Press.
Rogers, C. (1956). Clientcentered theory. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 3(2), 115–120. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0046548
Rose, D. H., Robinson, K., Hall, T. E., Coyne, P., Jackson, R., Stahl, W., & Wilcauskas, S. (2018). Accurate and informative for all: Universal design for learning (UDL) and the future of assessment. In Handbook of accessible instruction and testing practices: Issues, innovations, and applications (pp. 167–180). Springer International Publishing.
Schildkamp, K. (2019). Data-based decision making in education. Educational Research, 61(3), 257–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2019.1625716
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
Zipin, L. (2020). Building curriculum knowledge work around community-based problems that matter: Let’s dare to imagine. Curriculum Perspectives, 40(1), 111–115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-019-00096-y
Standards 1 & 2 in practice
Please click here to view a demonstration and analysis of my capabilities against identified focus areas within the AITSL standards 1 and 2.
