(6) ENGAGE IN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
AITSL Standard 6.3 - Engage With Colleagues and Improve Practice
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Reflecting on Feedback:
1. Mentor Feedback
At the time of my second practice, I had learned about core pedagogy and a range of different instructional strategies. Through my understanding of social constructivism, I planned my lessons to have time for social interaction and group discussions. For example, I would plan for a think-pair-share (TPS) activity with my Year 10 class to discuss how they use scientific inquiry in everyday life. After this lesson, my mentor gave me written feedback saying that I needed to give more waiting time for students to process and digest the question. They had noticed that one student at the back of the class had an answer. However, I missed this opportunity to ask them for a response because I did not give myself and the students enough wait time. Therefore, I made a conscious effort to give at least 10 seconds to scan the class. This worked well since I was able to catch the same student in the following lesson. This also improved the learning environment as the students felt safer when answering questions. Consequently, I had a larger range of student responses which greatly improved the variety of responses as well as student engagement.
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2. Supervisor Feedback
During my supervisor's visit for a Year 10 class, I planned for a lesson that involved implicit instruction, questioning, and engaging activities. After the lesson, my supervisor gave me written feedback (see below) on how to improve my teaching. She wrote that I should make learning more relevant for the students. Since my second practice was in a rural area, I was unfamiliar with the local community and culture. Therefore, I decided to put more effort into learning more about the school’s culture as well as important local activities. With this knowledge, I continued to improve my practice. For example, I used the topic of fishing during a class discussion about spring and neap tides. The students were highly engaged in the discussion and happily shared their stories/experiences. This proved to be a strong point since these students were able to achieve the learning outcomes in the following assessment.
Screenshot of "Supervisor and mentor written feedback" - taken by Peter Lam (2019).
3. Seeking Advice from Colleagues
At my first school, I decided to meet with the Indigenous Australian Education Officer (IAEO) for advice. I wanted to learn about different teaching strategies that have been used to successfully engage my Indigenous students. She told me that I should try to integrate some Aboriginal perspectives into the lesson content. Armed with this knowledge, I incorporated an activity and discussion on Indigenous fire-stick farming for my Year 7 class. My Indigenous students were highly engaged in the activity instead of finding opportunities to misbehave. This helped them to demonstrate their understanding of sustainability by answering the questions in the worksheet.
Image of Indigenous fire-stick farming taken from ABC Education (2009). Retrieved from: http://education.abc.net.au/home#!/media/30042/aboriginal-fire-knowledge-reduces-greenhouse-gases
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During my second practice, I encountered a student who continually showed signs of disrespect. I went to seek advice from my mentor and colleagues who told me to visit the “Football Academy”. This was a program set up by the school to motivate and support struggling students. I was able to learn about my students’ interests which helped me to build rapport with this student. I proceeded to provide him with alternative tasks to demonstrate his knowledge. For example, he preferred drawing instead of writing, so I gave him the option to draw a poster on sustainability. This worked well since he was able to stay on task and not be distracted by his peers.
