Student Name; Mohamed Deif

Student Number: 19066686

ASSIGNMENT 1 - ESSAY ON THE FOUNDATION OF TEACHING

AND LEARNING

One of the foremost researchers in the field of education, Professor Ian Menter shared

his ideas on the importance of high quality and professional teaching in a 2014 lecture

when he stated, “There is now almost universal recognition around the world that

’teaching matters’ and that the quality of teaching is crucial in social and economic

development”. Throughout the years, Australia’s educational system has

demonstrated its recognition of the important role that professional and high quality

teaching plays in personal, social and economic development on a nationwide scale.

Australia has ultimately reflected a dynamic approach in striving to achieve this

highest standard of professional and high quality teachers through its constantly

changing and evolving educational system which focuses on four key teaching

concepts. These four concepts include teacher professionalism, curriculum, pedagogy

and assessment. This essay will ultimately argue that the application of each of these

key concepts in the Australian educational system is crucial to achieving a high quality

professional standard of teaching. This essay will also further discuss some of the

challenges to the professionalism of teachers in the current educational landscape. An

example of a specific challenge to the professionalism of teachers which this essay will

discuss will be the topic of finding suitable teaching pedagogies that help include

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People (ATSI) in the Australian Educational

system.

One of the first key areas which ensures high quality and professional teaching in

Australia is the recognition of teaching as a professional field in the Australian

workforce landscape. Although there have been many debates and challenges over
the decades about wether teaching should be considered a professional field or not, it

is undoubtedly certain that teaching is indeed a professional field since it fulfils the

criteria of professionalism that is established by the Professional Standards Council.

The Professional Standards Council outlines that, “A profession is a disciplined group

of individuals who adhere to ethical standards …possessing special knowledge and

skills … research, education and training at a high level. A profession is also prepared

to apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interests of others.”

(Professional Standards Council). Ultimately, this criteria of professionalism outlined by

the Professional Standards Council are also inherent requirements that need to be

fulfilled in order to become a teacher, thus it can be determined that teaching is

indeed a profession.

Having said that, the teaching profession has its own regulatory bodies which for

professionalism such as NESA who have published various guides such as the teacher

accreditation guide known and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

(APST) which exists to guide learning and improve the quality of teaching standards in

Australia to help engage with students. The NESA teacher accreditation guide helps to

identify different career stages as well as levels of teaching ability and expertise

starting from the ‘Graduate’ level, onto ‘Proficient’ and then ‘Highly Accomplished or

Lead’. This regulated approach to teacher accreditation has played a massive role in

gaining the acknowledgement for teaching as a profession as it ensures that all

teachers entering schools are both qualified and accredited professionals,

“Accreditation is critical to upholding the integrity and accountability of the teaching

profession and in ensuring high quality teaching in every classroom” (NSW

Department of Education, 2017).

As far as the Australian Provisional Standards for Teachers is concerned, its existence ensures the

acknowledgment of teaching as a profession through its recommendation of a multitude of diverse

teaching pedagogies in Australian schools. Examples of these include maintaining a teaching focus on high

order thinking and intellectual quality. As well as creating a quality learning environment in which the focus

is to cultivate a dynamic teacher-student relationship so to ensure a creative and engaging learning

experience (The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2015). Therefore, it can be seen

that teaching is indeed a professional field since it maintains its own regulatory bodies which ensure that

teachers remain accredited and up to date with all the professional requirements of the field.

Another key area which ensures high quality and professional teaching in Australia despite the challenging

of teaching as a professional field is the presence of a regulated Australian and NSW curriculum. In the field

of education, a curriculum can be defined and refers to the planned sequence of instruction and teaching

that is to be delivered to a student in order to fulfil educational requirements. The Australian Curriculum,

Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is the principal regulatory body which is responsible for

monitoring the entire Australian National Curriculum and upholding the three key elements of the

Australian Curriculum which are general capabilities, cross-curriculum priorities and staged implementation

in accordance to the Melbourne Declaration of 2008. ACARA ensures that all schools deliver at least the

eight key learning areas to fulfil the key area of staged implementation which include English, Science,

Health and Physical Education, Mathematics, Social Science, Humanities, The Arts, Technologies and

Languages (ACARA, 2011). In addition to these eight key learning areas, the curriculum ensures that schools

fulfil the area of general capabilities by integrating and interconnecting skills and knowledge to “develop

successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens”. These general

capabilities include Literacy, Numeracy, Information and Communication Technology and Critical and

Creative Thinking. (Carroll, 2020) In addition to this, the Australian National curriculum regulated by ACARA
ensures that there are multiple cross-curriculum priorities by ensuring that information about Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islanders as well as Australia’s engagement with Asia are taught in schools Australia wide.

As far as New South Wales is concerned, NESA is responsible for taking a more detailed approach to the

Australian curriculum inside NSW by taking the Australian Curriculum and generating syllabuses for use by

teachers in the state, thereby creating a more detailed NSW curriculum (Carroll, 2020). In accordance to

NESA, the NSW curriculum spans from Early stage 1 to Stage 6 with the Key Learning Area in stage 4 and 5

being English, mathematics, Science, Creative Arts, HSIE, Languages, PDHPE and TAS. The curriculum is

critical in ensuring that quality and professional teaching is ensured in Australia as it ensures that teachers

know how to plan their classes as well as their syllabuses in order to keep student learning on track.

Pedagogy is an additional key area which ensures that high quality and professional teaching is present in

Australia. According to the Cambridge dictionary, pedagogy most commonly refers to the approaches and

methods taken to teaching. Pedagogy also refers to theory and process of learning and how these

processes are influenced by and influences its learners. In the context of challenges to the professionalism

of teachers, the best way to approach thinking about the pedagogy of teaching is by assessing and ensuring

the best and most effective teaching pedagogy. There is a multitude of research available surrounding this

topic of effective teaching pedagogy. Wolk (2008) asserts his belief that ‘joyful’ learning is a ‘necessary’

condition to counteract boredom during learning. Hattie (2003) on the other hand found in her research

that effective teachers are those that are more holistic teachers who integrate their own knowledge with

students’ past knowledge sp as to help them understand. A study of both these different scholarly

researcher’s approach to teaching pedagogy does indeed reveal some difference. Whereas Wolk’s (2008)

approachfocusls more on creativity and authenticity, Hattie’s approach is more expository as she focuses

more on traditional methods of teachers directly relating their knowledge to their students. Therefore, it
can be seen that Wolk takes a more constructivist approach with his emphasis on authenticity, creativity

and engagement.

The topic of pedagogy is also crucial in the way that it helps contribute to the understanding of the

challenge that is presented to some teachers who must adopt more unique and holistic teaching

pedagogies so as to help include ATSI people in the Australian educational system. The adoption of unique

and holistic teaching pedagogies is crucial in maintaining the ATSI people engaged in the Australian

educational system since they are seen to be the most disadvantaged and marginalised population in the

educational system as evidenced in “Government officials at all ranks are aware of the need for sustainable

and manageable change practices in Australian Indigenous education” (Fullan, 2005.) It is for this reason

that the Australian curriculum has implemented cross-curriculum priorities, so as to bridge the ‘gap’

between the literacy and numeracy levels of ATSI and non-ATSI people in schools.

One of the ways that these cross-curriculum priorities has been Implemented by NESA is through their

acknowledgment of the importance of the issue in The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

document, strand 1.4 which identifies that teachers must “demonstrate broad knowledge and

understanding of the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of

students from ATSI backgrounds” as well as strand 2.4 which states that “broad knowledge of,

understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and language must

be demonstrated” (2017). Ultimately, both these strands that are specified in the APST demonstrate the

changes that the NSW curriculum has implemented in order to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander students are more engaged in their learning by relating their learning to their culture, identity and

themselves.
Some examples of these cross-curriculum priorities and high quality teaching pedagogies implemented

throughout Australia includes the employment of a special numeracy program in Western Australia where

teachers would teach and incorporate ICT with ATSI traditional learning in order to maintain ATSI student

engagement (Boaler, Jorgensen and Sullivan, 2013). Another example can be seen at the Maningrida

College in Darwin where Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander language and culture is commonly incorporated

in order to maintain student interest in their learning as well as significant improve their numeracy and

literacy skills (Godhino, Webb & Winkel 2014). Ultimately, the implementation of these various methods

reveals a perfect balance of cross-curriculum priorities and high quality holistic teaching pedagogies which

helps to make learning for ATSI people to be more engaging and beneficial.

Another key area which ensures high quality and professional teaching in Australia despite the challenging

of teaching as a professional field is the delivery of assessment at all schools nationwide. According to

educational experts, assessment can be defined as “a systematic process for gathering data about student

achievement,” (Dhindsa, Omar, & Waldrip, 2007, p. 1261). Ultimately, the aim of assessing students in

schools is to measure the standings of students to see if they have fulfilled their learning requirements as

well as provide feedback to teachers about areas which may need improvement and experts agree that

‘Learning would not be possible without assessment as it is required to understand the progress of

students (Driscoll, 2000). Although many experts agree that standardised testing as a form assessment is

one of the least effective ways to check for learning, The National Assessment Program’s - Literacy and
numeracy exam (NAPLAN) is an exam that occurs every year and is enforced by NESA with its purpose being

to assess students in a standard fashion and to make school systems accountable for improving student

achievement. This remains controversial however as the exam fails to take into consideration the differing

levels and learning abilities of students. It is also important to note that NAPLAN has highlighted a gap

between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children.

Ultimately, it can be seen through the explanation of the four key areas of learning

and teaching including teacher professionalism, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment

that they all contribute to ensuring that teaching remains a professional landscape.

Together, the four key areas also help to address the many challenges that present

themselves in the teaching landscape, especially the challenge of adopting unique

teaching pedagogues in classes to maintain ATSI student engagement.

Reference List

Professional Standards Council. Professional Standards Councils.

https://www.psc.gov.au

NSW Department of Education. (2017). NSW Department of Education.

https://education.nsw.gov.au
The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2015). The Australian

Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. https://www.aitsl.edu.au

ACARA. (2011). Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.

https://www.acara.edu.au

Carroll, K. (2020, March). Curriculum [Designing teaching and Learning, Lecture].

Western Sydney University.

Wolk, S. (2008). Joy in School. Educational Leadership, 66(1), 8-15.

Hattie, J. (2003, October). Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence?

ACER Research Conference, Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved from

http://research.acer.edu.au/research_conference_2003/4/

Fullan, M. (2005). Leadership and sustainability: System thinkers in action. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Sullivan, P., Jorgensen, R., Boaler, J. (2013). Transposing reform pedagogy into new

contexts: complex instruction in remote Australia. Mathematics Education Research

Journal , 25(1), 173–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-013-0069-4

Godinho, S., Woolley, M., Webb, J., & Winkel, K. (2015). Sharing Place, Learning

Together: Perspectives and Reflections on an Educational Partnership Formation With

a Remote Indigenous Community School. The Australian Journal of Indigenous

Education, 44(1), 11-25. doi:10.1017/jie.2015.11

Dhindsa, H., Omar, K., & Waldrip, B. (2007). Upper Secondary Bruneian Science Students' Perceptions of

Assessment. International Journal of Science Education, 29(10), 1261-1280.