102086 Designing Teaching & Learning

Assignment 2: QT Analysis Template

Evaluate the lesson plan according to the following NSW Quality Teaching model elements.

Evaluation score – refer to NSW QTM Classroom Practice Guide for each element
Comments incl. evidence for evaluation score (2 sentences)

1 Intellectual quality
1.1 Deep knowledge
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Deep knowledge is the focus on a small amount of key ideas or concepts that appear
5 within subjects, KLAs and topics, and also on the relationships between and among concepts.
This is present in the lesson plan, as the main focus is on identifying the meaning, purpose and
context of historical sources, however they do have to go out and find these sources which leads a
bit out of the key element.
1.2 Deep understanding
1 – 2 – 3 –4 – 5 Comments: Deep understanding is when students are able to show they have a profound and
meaningful understanding of the focus ideas, as well as the relationships among and between the
more central ideas. This is shown when the students are allowed time to organise notes with their
peers and collaborate how they will develop their assessments around key ideas with the teacher,
in which they can demonstrate their deep understanding.
1.3 Problematic knowledge
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Problematic knowledge requires students to find various solutions from different
5 perspectives in order to show was knowledge is constructed and open to question. This is shown
where students are asked to gather knowledge from multiple primary, secondary, text and website
sources. They then share their notes with their peers, providing even more perspectives, and with
this new and extra information they organise their findings.
1.4 Higher-order thinking
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Higher-order thinking requires students to constantly reorganise, analyse, evaluate,
5 organise, apply and synthesise knowledge and information. This can be seen in a number of areas
of the lesson plan, such as organising information gathered in the groups, sharing notes with peers
and then developing and organising their findings. They then have to evaluate this information to
see how reliable and useful it is.
1.5 Metalanguage
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Metalanguage is where knowledge is named and analysed as a specialist language,
5 and the lessons have constant commentary on language use as well as the various contexts of
differing language uses. This can be seen through the lesson plan, where students have to
determine whether sources are primary or secondary, as well as making sure the information
being researched relates to the key concepts.
1.6 Substantive communication
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Substantive communication is where students are engaged in conversation regularly,
5 that relates to the concepts and ideas they are learning about. This can be in many forms, such as
written, oral or artistic. This is very common throughout this lesson plan, as students are
constantly working in groups and sharing information between peers relating to the key concepts,
then organising the information gathered.
Quality learning environment
2.1 Explicit quality criteria
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Explicit quality criteria means students are given the criteria that shows the quality of
5 work they are to produce, and that criteria is a regular reference point for the assessment and
development of student work. This is clearly shown in the lesson plan where the teach explains
the success criteria and learning intention, and the key elements of this criteria are explained and
brought up throughout the lesson.
2.2 Engagement
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Engagement shows that most of the students are seriously engaged assessment
5 activity or lesson, and display sustained interest and attention for most of the time. This is shown

By: Marko Ignjatovic

SID: 18952533
 in both the lesson guide and the video, as the students are tasked to work in groups which makes
them more engaged and motivated to work, and the students are shown to always be paying
attention and never look distracted by anything else.
2.3 High expectations
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: High expectations is when conceptual risk taking is rewarded and encouraged, and
5 students have been presented with high expectations. There are a lot of high expectations in this
lesson plan, as the students are left to answer many key inquiry questions, and work in groups to
do research on several sources. This group work put high expectations on the individuals as they
don’t want to let their peers down and are expected to build up information form one another.
2.4 Social support
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Social support is the support given to students to aid with learning, as well as a mutual
5 respect between everyone in the learning environment, including teachers. It makes the classroom
an area that is free from negative personal put-downs or comments. This is clearly shown in the
lesson plan and video, where the teachers acknowledge that there is a very diverse range of
students, and they do their best to differentiate the tasks, to include everyone and give everyone an
equal opportunity.
2.5 Students’ self-regulation
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Students’ self-regulation requires students to demonstrate initiative and autonomy,
5 and are expected to require minimal attention from teachers. Although students in the lesson guide
and video are doing group work, they are demonstrating initiative and autonomy within their
groups, as they are required to step up and organize their groups and their research without the
constant aid of a teacher or educator.
2.6 Student direction
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Student direction involves students taking control over the activities related to their
5 learning, and also the ways in which the activities are performed. In the lesson plan, students are
not fully given control over the activities as they are given questions and task, however in their
groups, they are given freedom to research and gather information in whatever way their group
finds most effective.
3 Significance
3.1 Background knowledge
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Background knowledge requires the inclusion of knowledge that students have
5 gathered prior to the lesson, whether through school or their personal lives. Though it is difficult
to see whether the students have prior knowledge in the area, the teachers do mention that the
students have been improving now that they have an understanding of what to look for, which
shows students may have found it difficult at the start as they didn’t have background knowledge,
but are now building on what they’ve learnt in this class.
3.2 Cultural knowledge
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Cultural knowledge involved bringing cultural knowledge from a range of diverse
5 social groupings into the learning. Unfortunately for this lesson plan and particular syllabus
outcome, it is difficult to incorporate cultural knowledge. The students do however work in
groups which include peers of different cultural backgrounds, and they also incorporate google
translate to make the information useful for the student that needs the extra assistance.
3.3 Knowledge integration
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Knowledge integration related to the integration of knowledge from different subjects
5 the students are studying, and demonstrated the links between these subjects. This can be seen in
this lesson plan through subjects such as IT and English, as the students are required to use
computers as part of their research, as well as read and understand information from a variety of
texts and determine whether they are reliable whilst still focusing on key words and ideas.
However, this is still very limited.
3.4 Inclusivity
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Inclusivity involves the encouragement of all students to participate and be vocal in
5 the classroom lessons, in order to present their ideas and opinions, which would be valued by the
peers and educators. This is shown in the classroom through group work and the sharing of notes,
however this too is limited through social barriers which were attempted to be overcome with the
inclusion of google translate, however the student was still excluded from the group research.
3.5 Connectedness
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Connectedness refers to the amount of information and learning in the classroom that
5 also related to the students’ lives outside of school, allowing them to better deal with real-life
issues and share work with people outside the classroom. This is also not very present in the

By: Marko Ignjatovic 2

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 lesson, however students do learn how to do better research on computers, and are also better
equipped with collaboration skills for working in groups.
3.6 Narrative
1–2–3–4– Comments: Narrative refers to the lesson taking an approach that follows a sort of narrative of
5 steps that lead to the outcomes, which is beneficial to the students understanding of the
information being taught. This is shown in the lesson, as there is a clear direction of the tasks that
lead from the students getting a better understanding of how to find information to the students
doing their own research and discovering new information.

Identifying Areas for Improvement

Identify the four NSW QT model elements you are targeting for improvement.

QT model
1)Problematic knowledge 2)Background Knowledge
3)Student direction 4)Inclusivity

By: Marko Ignjatovic 3

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 Lesson Plan – Ancient Rome

Syllabus: HT 4.5 Stage: Stage 4 Topic: Ancient Rome

identifies the meaning, purpose
and context of historical sources

Outcomes Assessment Students learn about Students learn to

Syllabus: HT 4.5
identifies the meaning,
purpose and context of
historical sources
Informal formative Sources and evidence in Evaluate sources,
assessment. History. summarise key
information and use the
information process
steps.

Note: Not all activities may be captured by the video. Assume they were covered by the teacher.

Time Teaching and Learning Actions

5 min Lesson Preliminaries/Administration
 Settle students into the classroom.
 Mark the roll.
 Success criteria and learning intention explained.

10 mins Direct Instruction

 Welcome students and explain the how students are going to research sources about the
development and historical features of Ancient Rome.
 Introduce students key inquiry questions such as
 Who is?
 When did this happen?
 How did this change or develop the society?
 Who was it meant for?
 Why did this happen?
 What effect did this have?
 Key historical terms and concepts.
30 mins Research and group work
 Students in groups of 5 explore and use a scaffold to collect evidence from a range of
primary, secondary, text and website sources (including posters).
 Students then compare this information to one primary source they’ve seen in their own
lives, and discuss the differences.
 Students engage with ICT and share notes to develop and organise their findings.
 Students consider the reliability and usefulness of the information from the sources, and
compare this to the source they chose from their own lives.
 Adjustment- EALD student to use Google translate to assist with note-making and
information skills.
10 mins Questioning
 Students peer share and organise their notes.
 Collaborate on how they will develop their assignments around key ideas, terms and

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 concepts with teacher.
 Teacher leads brief class discussion to summarise and clarify how they have used the
Information Process Skills to identify, summarise, organise, analyse and evaluate
sources about Ancient Rome.
5 mins Direct Instruction
 Teacher consolidation of the learning and success criteria.

How am I measuring the outcomes of this lesson?

Learning Outcome Method of measurement and recording

HT. 4.5 Informal questioning of student understanding as the lesson
progresses.

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Justification:

When examining the Ancient Rome lesson plan through the NSW Quality Teaching Framework, it

was clear that there were a few areas of the lesson plan that could benefit from a few small

adjustments. These adjustments would be implemented with the aid of the quality teaching

framework, as it features teaching practices that are linked to improving students learning outcomes

(Holmes, Howley, Kepert, Osborn, Prieto & Roberts, 2015). The four chosen quality teaching

model areas that are being focused on are problematic knowledge, background knowledge, student

direction and inclusivity.

The element of inclusivity is intended to be aided by the addition of posters and images to the

‘research and group work’ section of the teaching and learning actions. The addition of posters and

images allows student to uncover what a source is trying to say, without having to read it, but rather

using general knowledge which also links into background knowledge. This aids with inclusivity as

it allows the student who has difficulties with English, to have her opinions heard as she now has

equal understanding of the source, as there would be no or limited writing within the source, and

the images would work to create a sort of cross-language understanding. This link to the quality

teaching model as it will lessen the traditional equity gaps in performance (Williams & Wilson,

2012), which exist due to these practices becoming rare in most practice (Hayes, 2006). This is

done by rather than having a source that has a lot of writing, it is now just an image, which can

have an equal amount of understanding for both the English as a second language student, and the

rest of the class.

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Another change to the lesson plan, was the addition of a source chosen by the students that is from

their own lives, and then a discussion of the differences between the sources then and the sources

now. An example would be a student who enjoys soccer finding a source about one of their

favourite players. The student can then compare the answers to the focus questions they were given

earlier to get a better understanding of different sources and how reliable and useful they are. This

has a dramatic effect on background knowledge as it brings in a strong connection to knowledge the

students have encountered prior to the lesson and from their daily lives. This link to the quality

teaching model as it also enhances student engagement and motivation (Williams & Wilson, 2012)

by making it more relatable to their own lives. This also link to inclusivity, as the students are able

to bring their own personal knowledge to the groups.

By bringing their own source into the lesson, students are also introduced to more problematic

knowledge, as it gives them a new perspective to gather knowledge from as it is no longer just

information from the past, but also how it compares to current sources. This is important as

problematic knowledge links to the encouragement of students to address multiple perspectives

(Ladwig, 2005). There is also a change in the direct instructions where one of the key inquiry

questions was changed to “who was it meant for?”. This encourages the students to also look at the

source from the creator’s perspective to try and get an understanding of their targeted audience.

This adds further depth into the problematic knowledge for the students, as well as giving them

more information in the topic they’re learning.

The quality teaching model is aimed at improving the students learning through addressing the

quality of the teachers’ classroom practices and environment (McKeen, Pearson & Webb, 2008). A

very effective way of doing this is by allowing the students to have some sort of direction or control

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over the lessons and learning, which is where the element of student direction comes in. By

allowing students to get more control, through allowing them to choose a source of their choice

from their lives, students are more likely to get involved, enthusiastic and motivated by the work, as

they can relate to it more and feel a sense of control over their learning, which benefits in the

development of skills such as development of confidence and independent study habits (Rushton,

2008).

Overall, it is clear that a few minor alterations to the lesson plan, that are linked to the quality

teaching framework, students can be provided with many more benefits that aid them in their

learning and development in the classroom.

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Reference:

Hayes, D. (2006). Teachers and Schooling Making A Difference : Productive pedagogies,

assessment and performance.

Holmes, K., Howley, P., Kepert, A., Osborn, J., Prieto, E., & Roberts, M. (2015). Quality Teaching

Rounds in Mathematics Teacher Education. Mathematics Teacher Education and

Development, 17(2), 98-110.

Ladwig, J. G. (2005). Monitoring the quality of pedagogy. Leading and Managing, 11(2), 70-83.

McKeen, K., Pearson, P., & Webb, P. (2008). Developing Cognitive Abilities through Games: A

Conundrum? Australasian Journal of Gifted Education, 17(1), 30-37.

Rushton, K. (2008). Cooperative Planning and Teaching for ESL Students in the Mainstream

Classroom. TESOL in Context, 18(1), 21-28.

Williams, C., & Wilson, S. (2012). Achieving both intellectual quality and relevance in classroom

learning experiences: Some conceptual challenges. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural

Politics of Education, 33(4), 471-484.

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