Course: PKIC

Assessment Task 2
Due Date: 20/05/2015

Professional
Philosophy
S0230170

Tyrone Tornabene

Intro:
Teachers are some of the most influential people in our lives which are often the base for our
induction on many topics that we may later hold principal beliefs. My professional
philosophy is a vision based upon beliefs and values that I hold to implement into practice
and aim towards my master plan, wherein lies the ideal of my perfect classroom (Arthur et
al., 2005).
Learners:
I believe in the image of an agentic child that is capable and competent that with the
scaffolding of an educator can co-construct their own learning. Agentic children are active
social participants in their own education and lives that co-construct childhood with adults,
making sense of their world through interacting equally in it (Sorin, 2005). The source image
of the agentic child was popularized by the Reggio Emilio movement (Sorin, 2005).
I will create a classroom of meaningful learning by ensuring that curriculum goals and
assessment tasks move students away from the low end pyramid of Blooms Taxonomy of
remembering all the way up to creating (Blooms, 1990). A constructivist theory of learning
focuses upon sharing control with the students, authentic activities and assessment,
developing a classroom of teachers who bounce off each others knowledge as well as
developing assessment which focuses highly on learner responsibility (ODonnell et al.,
2010). Constructivism aligns well with the image of the agentic child on the concept that
students co-construct their learning and take responsibilities in their learning journeys.
Vygotskys Zone of Proximal Development is essential to extending the skills a child is
capable of beyond independent work level (DET, 2006). I will encourage students to learn at
a pace both at their independent level and beyond in order to extend their conceptual
understandings through higher order thinking and construct new understandings based on
prior knowledge.
Behaviour management practices that allow learners to make decisions about their own
behaviour through choosing their own rules will take ownership of their environment,
creating a safe place to learn because they helped to create it (Glasser, 1999). Classroom
management should also follow Deweys behavioural theory of democratic practices with
both intrinsic rewards and appropriate equitable consequences (Hersey, Blanchard and
Johnson, 2012). I currently implement William Glasser and Deweys theories within my
classroom, where the students developed the rules and drew specific procedures to follow.
Demonstrating belief in childrens ability to be responsible for their own learning is essential
for many to believe in their capacity to learn. This is an equitable view of children because
every child can be capable of learning at their own ability level and can be supported to
extend their learning. The image of the agentic child encourages diversity and inclusiveness
because the children are sharing the power of learning with the teacher and are seen as equal
social members in the classroom with their own rights and responsibilities (Sorin, 2005).
Families and society:
Transformative education is necessary to adopt to society and children. Every cultural group
constructs learning differently and thus their view of school and education are different
(Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu, 2011). As society progresses and understands

how learning works best and the view of the child changes, the policies and frameworks for
schooling have adapted on a local, national and global scale.
Societys pattern of education started as the schooled child of the industrial era where
children were threats that required punishment to the late 1800s where children became
research objects and finally to children of the nation in which the rights of children were
recognized (Arthur et al., 2012).
The purpose of formal education is to bring together the various cultural groups and families
in an attempt to enable children equal opportunities in post-school life and develop
understandings of various social groups outside of their own.
Changes in how society views children will inevitably affect how teachers educate them and
how families take part in the educative process of their children. A classroom climate that
encourages parents to be a constant part of their childrens education has been proven in a
partnership study to increase school attendance, student capabilities and the expectations set
by the teacher (Henderson, Berla and Harris, 1994).
In my classroom I would encourage families to embrace the six roles as set by this study;
classroom volunteer, paraprofessional, home teacher, adult educator, adult learner and
decision maker (Henderson, Berla and Harris, 1994). Families may be limited due to the
varying family circumstances in contemporary society but could be supported to embrace at
least some of these roles at home, if they cannot participate in the school environment. I will
engage in community events with the school and make my classroom an understanding open
environment with positive communication systems for easy access of all families.
Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment:
I believe that my role as a teacher is to assist children in becoming competent learners
regardless of curriculum demands. Mandated systematic curriculum is funnelled down
through many different channels before it even reaches the teacher and becomes a political
paradigm. Supporting a shared vision for curriculum allows teachers to work more
collaboratively through moderation and creating whole school goals for subject areas (CESE,
2015). Resources such as C2C are not mandatory and can be used to pick and sort the parts
that are specifically useful to the classroom context I am working in and the students I am
teaching. My hidden curriculum modelling is primarily concerned with ethics, manners,
equity, creativity and thinking as well as building an archetype of community of learning
within the classroom.
Challenging goals must be developed for students to feel responsibility for learning and
extend their Zone of Proximal Development (DET, 2006). Students with disabilities are very
often capable of achieving the curriculum standards when adjustments are made in their
approach to classroom tasks and assessment (ACARA, 2015). Brokering a differentiated
curriculum is essential to enabling all learners to participate in the content and assessing them
at their ability level and displaying a sense of equity and inclusiveness.
Assessment must be measurable and work on three levels; assessment as learning, assessment
of learning and assessment for learning. Diagnostic, formative and summative assessment
provides a range of different ways for students to demonstrate their knowledge and
understanding. It is essential to praise effort on logical thinking processes and developing

intuitive questions not achievement to maintain learning as an effort-based process rather

than achievement based.
Constructivism encourages maintaining learning as constructing knowledge through authentic
real life experiences (DET, 2006). Authentic assessment is a task that engages learners
knowledge and skills in meaningful ways (Lynch and Allen-Knight, 2010). Assessing
learners in authentic ways is essential in making the students see the real world application
for their learning (Mueller, 2005).
Quality assessment focuses around the four key areas of intellectual quality, authenticity,
credibility and accessibility (DETE, 2003). The assessment tasks I will implement will be
quality tasks by creating assessment that challenges each learner individually, is authentically
applicable and give students more freedom in the application of their learning. I will
implement self and peer reflection on assessment to develop a culture of thinking within the
classroom (Lynch and Allen-Knight, 2010).
Explicit teaching is an effective pedagogy within the classroom that builds upon knowing the
learner, responding to the learner, implementing focussed lessons and concluding with a
reflection and review of what was learned (Edwards-Groves, 2002). Explicit teaching can
involve constructivist thinking practices by ensuring the assessment is authentic and the
curriculum goals are met in each childs Zone of Proximal Development. I believe it is in the
nature of teaching to have various pedagogies that conflict depending on the context and the
current educational frameworks in place.
I demonstrate KAGANs collaborative learning through many of my lesson plans via shared
discussions and inquiry based learning followed by reflection of the thinking processes that
students undergo in order to achieve success. Key elements for success in collaborative
learning are positive independence, individual accountability, promoted interaction,
interpersonal skills and group processing (Kagan and Kagan, 2009).
The gradual release of responsibility is the focus for my approach to teaching new content to
students where the teacher initially models, shares small responsibility with students, guides
them and then shifts the responsibility scale to the student through independent learning
(Fisher and Frey, 2013). My approach to literacy is based around this framework, especially
in the implementation of literacy programs through modelled, shared and guided reading. I
also have used this framework for the creation of texts in English where I have modelled
thought processes during writing of a text and eventually shifted the responsibility of writing
the text to the learner.
The three educational message systems should be interlinked through the backwards mapping
process. The curriculum descriptors are outlined first in order for the teacher to understand
the necessary knowledge and skills required for students to demonstrate in their assessment
task which then helps to inform the best pedagogical approach to the teaching of the content
(Wiggins and McTighe, 2005).
Educator Roles and Responsibilities:
Teaching is a political act where educators must broker and consider the childs ecological
systems on a micro, meso, exo and macro level developing a balance between heredity and
environment (Arthur et al., 2012). I will take part in a professional life that exemplifies all of

the values I wish to instil within my students such as dignity, integrity, honesty, care, justice,
respect and a love of intellectual endeavour (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011).
Teachers were once the source of all knowledge and the leader that the community turned to
and never doubted. In the postmodern society, teachers are and will be open to far more
scrutiny from society. I believe that teaching can be like the art of acting except the screen
never goes off and just like celebrities, all of our actions are followed and documented.
A professional educator advocates for education and teaching as a profession, updates their
practice, critically reflects about ethical practices, expands their knowledge and pedagogical
approaches to teaching and becomes an activist for their students despite restrictions set by
numerous stakeholders (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu, 2011). I will do this on a
macro and micro context attending PD, reflecting on ethical dilemmas, attending staff
meetings and community events and continually updating my practice to suit my group of
learners.
There are various ethical guidelines such as the teachers Code of Ethics (QCT, 2014), school
Code of Conduct, Student Protection policy (DETE, 2015) and even the Ethical Response
Cycle (Newman & Pollnitz, 2002). Educators are required by the Disability Discrimination
Act (1992) and the Disability Standards for Education (2005) to support students with
disabilities to access curriculum (ACARA, 2015). There are other laws that teachers must
abide by such as the Child Protection Act (1992), Wrongs Act (1958) and duty of care to all
students. These laws and guidelines hold teachers accountable to everything they do inside
and outside of the classroom, identifying them as ethical role models.
Dilemma:
I find it difficult to listen to only one religious faith being given dominance over all others as
an atheist and somebody who believes in giving everyone the choice of a faith of their own
choosing. The School Education Act 1999 Sections 66-71 states that the curriculum and
teaching in any public school in Australia is not to promote any particular religious practice
(DET, 2015). However, every week there is a religious session for half an hour where
students, who, only with parent permission, participate in Christian religious faith instruction.
I find this difficult to listen to or encourage as it is in my opinion promoting a religious
practice while I believe that religious education should be a rounded education of all
religions; not just one. I am forced to confront my own ethics in this situation and fight an
internal battle against my role and responsibility of the teacher. I could either stay silent or
provide opportunities for further education for students.
A strategy I could use to work around this is to implement small cultural and religious
informative pieces of information where possible throughout the other KLAs. These
informative additions would not be to promote but provide a rounded education of a subject
area that I feel is lacking in equal religious instruction.
This strategy demonstrates a capacity to abide by laws but also to follow ethical principles
whilst attending to my own personal beliefs in a small albeit powerful manner. Through
considering the ERC (Newman and Pollnitz, 2002) and taking a professional look at my
dilemma, I am able to make a decision that demonstrates professionalism through dignity,
integrity and justice.

Conclusion:
A caring and reflective teacher is an effective teacher. Through reflection, monitoring student
problems, attending equitably to all students and setting challenging goals, I can deliver an
education that advocates for inclusion. I will create a democratic classroom, where all
students opinions are valued and they help to create their own culture of learning.
There is a famous story about Thomas Eddison and how he tried over 1000 different ways to
invent the lightbulb. When asked, Thomas responded with, I have not failed. I've just found
1000 ways that won't work. It is my key function to bring a love of learning to all of my
students because even if academic success is minimal, a desire to persist in learning will
enable students to embrace lifelong learning and a culture of thinking critically.

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