Assignment 2: Pedagogy – 2400 words

Part A: Articulation of pedagogic planning

I was placed in a special school for placement, the class consisted only of nine students however all
students had some form of mild intellectual disability. Two students had Down Syndrome, one
student had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and the others were all on the Autism Spectrum. All
students were aged between nine and ten yet all were working on a disability level C, D or
foundation level. This strongly influenced and impacted on my lesson planning and teaching
strategies. I was given the opportunity to teach an entire unit of mathematical measurement, and
was given full control of the class. Due to the nature of the school, students and structure of the
timetable, I was not given much of an opportunity to teach any other subjects.

The most challenging aspect of planning these lessons was considering student behaviour. It is
impossible to know how the students will behave, often some of the student’s mood can change
from positive to negative within seconds. Whilst this is the same in every school, bad behaviour days
can be far more challenging, severe and complex to deal with than in a mainstream school. Bad
behaviour days in a special needs classroom can result in someone getting seriously hurt if not
handled correctly. If one student is having a bad day, it disrupts the whole class. Thus, creating an
overall low level of concentration. Despite, behaviour management being one of the schools’
greatest challenge the school has a wide range of strategies however, what works one day and on
one student, will not necessarily work again or on another student. Thus, I had to take into
consideration the student behaviours not only when planning lessons, but when teaching and
approaching the students.

Another challenge faced when planning is creating a lesson that thoroughly engages students but
still supports the curriculum and student learning. It becomes difficult to implement a challenging
lesson that promotes learning however isn’t too challenging that it disengages and discourages
student participation and learning. Thus, closely working with my mentor teacher and
communicating my planning to ensure the lesson created was appropriate for the students.

In the early days of my placement it was noticed that students payed little attention when gathered
in a circle for discussions, but became thoroughly engaged and generally interested when digital
technology was used. Thus, this influenced greatly on my planning and teaching of concepts. It was
noticed that when videos were played in class, students engagement seemed to increase. Thus,
when planning to teach new concepts finding a YouTube video explaining those concepts was much
more beneficial than explaining the concepts myself. Whilst the use of using YouTube videos and
digital technology in class is currently a controversial topic in the media, in this classroom videos are
somewhat more effective than explicit teaching. The use of videos captured the attention and
engagement of the students, a YouTube video explaining the concepts, even if it is word for word
what a teacher would say, the video is more visually engaging than watching a teacher at the front
of the classroom even if the video was made by a qualified educator.

Another consideration taken when planning the lessons was the use of worksheets. Student learning
and engagement became much more beneficial to the students when they were hands-on and the
work was made relevant. Students appeared to be disengaged and often would get up walk around
or draw on the back of the page if a worksheet was given to the student. Despite an obvious lack of
engagement in my eyes, my mentor teacher was big on work sheets, thus, a compromise was made.
The activities I planned and created were hands-on but a worksheet was given for students to write
or draw their findings. An example of this was comparing lengths. Students were asked to find
objects within the room to compare, but were then asked to draw each object in either the longer or
shorter box.

Part B: Evaluation of pedagogic practice

Throughout my pedagogic practice, multiple elements from multiple different theorists have been
displayed. To best evaluate my practice, each theorist or framework will be broken down with
evidence of how I have adapted that theory into my own pedagogical practice or areas of the
framework or theorist I wish further engage with in my own pedagogical practice.

Constructivist theory is the theory that learners ‘construct’ knowledge rather than absorbing
knowledge Hinchey (2010) suggests that as teachers we need to design ‘experiences’ that allow for
students to develop and construct their own understanding of the data given. I have adapted
constructivist theory into my own pedagogical practice through creating lessons that require
students to construct their own understandings and ideas. Each mathematics lesson had some form
of hands-on component, regarding students constructing their own ideas about measuring length
students were required to explore and compare the sizes of objects. Through visually comparing
objects around them that are relevant to students, students could construct their own ideas of what
object were bigger, smaller, longer or shorter. The use of visually witnessing relationships between
two or more objects enabled students to construct and create a deeper understanding of
mathematical concepts. Students were not shown how to measure the objects, students needed to
construct their own method and ways of measuring objects to create their own understandings.

5e’s

The 5e’s Instruction model highlights five key components to effective teaching and student
learning; Engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate.

Throughout my lessons, I adapted these components into my own pedagogy here are some
examples;

Engage: “Stimulate interest and curiosity, promote questioning and connect learning to real world
experiences” (State Government of Victoria, Australia, 2017)

Creating lessons that incorporate hands-on experiences helped to stimulate student’s curiosity and
interests through allowing students to explore concepts hands-on with objects that interest them.
Through allowing students to explore their curiosity and interests helped to promote questions of
concepts. One student in the class questioned “what if we used water instead of sand” to measure
capacity, this student engagement in the tasked influenced the student’s curiosity of wanting to
know if there would be a difference.

However, despite success in this lesson, some lessons student engagement was low due to other
students’ disruptive behaviours that resulted in majority of the lesson focus being solely on
behaviour management of some students. For example, before starting the activity on parts of the
day, I had planned to read a book about a chicken’s day which highlighted all the different parts of
the day throughout the book. What I had thought would be a fun engaging book as the students of
this class enjoy having stories read to them, had quite the opposite effect. Instead, I spent the half
the time trying to manage the student’s behaviour as the whole class was unsettled. There were
students yelling, students who wouldn’t stay in their seats and students who were focused on things
in their hands (doll) who would refuse to put the item/s away. This made it incredibly challenging to
influence and guide student learning. Thus, I feel I should have started the activity first and then
come back to the book and hope that students had of settled throughout the activity.

Explore: “Presents challenging tasks to support students to generate and investigate questions,
gather relevant information and develop ideas” (State Government of Victoria, Australia, 2017)

Through students engaging in the tasks and generating questions, these questions then needed to
be investigated by the student to promote learning growth. The student who raised the question of
“what if we used water instead of sand” needed to explore this conceptual curiosity. The student
was encouraged to explore and see for themselves if there would be a difference. The student
quickly realised that there was not a difference, but did quickly discover when you pour water from
one container to another, water goes everywhere. Through this hands-on engagement of exploring,
the students could develop ideas of capacity and how it does not change thus, creating and
supporting student learning growth.

Evaluate: “The teacher provides feedback and assists students to evaluate their progress and
achievements”

This is an aspect of my personal pedagogy I wish to improve. Throughout my teaching round I feel
that the feedback I gave to students was limited. Further in-depth feedback is needed to further
enhance student learning growth. In addition to providing adequate in-depth feedback, I need to
allocate set time at the end of the lessons for students to evaluate. I as a teacher need to engage
with the students to help and support students in their evaluation of their learning. I need to assist
student evaluation more through providing questions that highlight to students their own strength
and areas for improvement so that student can enhance their own learning.

To do this, in the future I will engage and encourage students in individual personal reflections, but
will also engage the class in a whole class reflection/evaluation. In the future at the beginning of a
set unit of work/topic will encourage students to create their own learning goals or what they want
to learn throughout the unit and then provide students will allocated time to evaluate and reflect on
their learning at the end of the unit/topic.

Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT)

POLT highlights six principles of student learning. POLT argues that students learn best when:

The learning environment is supportive and productive.

The school I was placed in was incredibly supportive, not only to their students but to the student’s
parents/carers and staff. Due to all students within the school having a mild intellectual disability,
support was high on the school’s agenda, this reflected and filtered down to the students learning.
One student in the class had recently moved from overseas to come to the school because they felt
unsupported in their country of origin. Since moving the school, teacher, child and the child’s
parents have worked closely together to support the child’s needs to promote learning growth. Not
only does support promote the students cognitive and conceptual learning, the student’s self-
confidence also increases.

All teachers within the school demonstrated high level of individual support, teachers did this
through building ‘positive relationships’ and ‘knowing and valuing’ each student. Something I was
able to do whilst on the ten-day teaching round but not to the same extent as the teachers within
the school. Many of the students within the class and school had been diagnosed with anxiety, thus
students need an environment in which they feel supported and safe to be productive learners.
 Productive Pedagogies:

Knowledge Integration: “Attempts are made to connect two or more sets of subject area
knowledge” (Queensland Department of Education, 2002)

The class inquiry topic for this term is ‘Space’ however due to the topic being so large and the class
being thoroughly intrigued by the topic, space was then linked into multiple other aspects of the
curriculum. In English, a class book was chosen for the week based on space. The book was very
informative and students engaged with the book enhancing their learning and knowledge of space.
For the whole week, activities such as writing stories and quizzes on space were planned to link
space to other areas of the curriculum, this was done to engage students and make the connection
between space and other areas. Space was also incorporated into physical education; students were
taken by bus to a local park which they then engaged in ‘moon walking’ activities and ‘talking on
mars’

these activities involved students walking on the different surfaces of the park using stilts and using
tin cans with string between them to talk to each other.

Part C:
In the diagram below is my developing pedagogical framework. In the diagram is everything I hope
to be as an effective teacher. My pedagogical beliefs are that every person is capable of learning,
and every person has the right to access and participate in education. I also hold the pedagogical
positon that as educators it is our duty to prepare and give students the life skills needed for the
future, preparing them for jobs that might not even exist yet. As technology is already and continues
to be a large part of our society, I thus believe that as educators we not only need to have a great
understanding of how to use technology, but we must also adapt and implement technology into the
classroom. Similarly, student learning should be interesting and closely linked to real world
experience to help students see the value of the task.

Challenging
Enthusiastic
Creative Learning
Promote questioning

Supportive, positive student –

teacher relationships
Open ended tasks to accommodate
all student learning needs and levels
My personal
of abilities
High Expectations Pedagogical
Framework
Encourage critical thinking
& problem solving In-depth feedback

High usage and implementation

of ICT
Group learning
Fun, engaging, hands-
Reflection & Evaluation
on lessons
Inclusive.
References:
Hinchey, PH 2010, 'Rethinking what we know: positivist and constructivist epistemology,' Finding
freedom in the classroom: a practical introduction to critical theory, Rev ed, Peter Lang, New York,
pp. 33-56.

State Government of Victoria, Australia (2017). Engage. [online] Education.vic.gov.au. Available at:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/e5engage.aspx [Accessed 24 May
2017].

State Government of Victoria, Australia (2017). Evaluate. [online] Education.vic.gov.au. Available at:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/e5evaluate.aspx#link80 [Accessed
24 May 2017].

State Government of Victoria, Australia (2017). Explore. [online] Education.vic.gov.au. Available at:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/e5explore.aspx#link17 [Accessed
24 May 2017].

State Government of Victoria, Australia (2017). Principle 1. [online] Education.vic.gov.au. Available

at: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/principle1.aspx [Accessed 24
May 2017].

Queensland Department of Education (2002). Productive Pedagogies: Classroom Reflection Manual.

1st ed. Brisbane: Education Queensland, p.12.
Appendices:

DEAKIN UNIVERSITY: LESSON PLANNING TEMPLATE: School of Education

Date: 20/4/17 Student Group: Wilson

Mentor Teacher: Glyn Wilson School: Ashwood

Duration of the lesson: 45 minutes Class size: 9

Title of lesson/activity: Meausrement and Length – Comparing Length Scavenger hunt!

Intended Learning Outcomes/Learning Students will be able to estimate, check, and compare objects within the classroom.
intentions:
 What will the students be able to know and
do by the completion of this lesson?

Success Criteria: Students will successfully be able to identify which object is smaller or larger
 How will you know that the students have
successfully achieved the learning
outcome/intention?

Prior Learning and Experiences: No known prior knowledge

 How will students’ prior learning and
experiences be used in this lesson?

Links to the curriculum (Victorian Curriculum) (LEVEL C)

and to the curriculum planning of the school Compare two objects based on measurement attributes of length (VCMMG044)
 - comparing and matching objects based on their having the ‘same’ or ‘different’ length, for example pencils,
shoes or food items that are the same length
- recognising length in shared experiences by comparing objects directly and indicating differences between
objects
- using measurement language such as long or short to communicate significant differences between objects
(LEVEL D)
Respond to contexts involving ‘heavier/lighter’ than and ‘holds more/less’ than (VCMMG061)

- using measurement language such as longer and shorter, or heavier and lighter, to communicate
differences between objects
- using direct comparison to compare objects based on their length, mass or volume

Resources, Materials and Organisation:  Blocks

 What additional human and physical  Tape measure
resources will be required for this activity?
 Fraction Stripes
 What specific teaching materials will need to
be prepared?  Popsicle
 How will ICT be utilised in the lesson?  Multilink cubes
 What OH&S factors will need to be considered  Work Sheet
for this activity?

Teaching Strategies and lesson structure: What you as teacher will do? What are the students Timing
doing?
Prompts for your planning: Beginning
Pose questions on what students may Students will be listening 10 minutes
 How will the lesson and ideas be introduced already know about length. and answering questions
and made relevant to the students?
 How will you engage the class?
Ask students what shorter and longer
mean
 Ask where we should place the item to
detrermine if the object is shorter or
longer
 What specific teaching and learning strategies
will you use for the lesson?
 What exactly will the students be required to Introduce the scavenger hunt
do and what will be your role?
 How will you create a collaborative learning
Middle
environment and how will the classroom be
arranged to support this? Students will be finding 25 minutes
 How will you include all learners? What Hand the sheet out to the students objects around the room
Curriculum and Pedagogy adaptations or and will be comparing
modifications will be required? Split the class into groups of three, the objects.
 How will you differentiate learning
allocate them to different sections of the
opportunities for diverse learners?
 How will you ensure the students are on-task room Will verbally say whether
and what strategies will you use to support an object is shorter or
positive behaviour? Encourage them to compare objects longer before drawing
the object box of shorter
Question them on longer and shorter or longer.
 How will you draw ideas together and conclude
the lesson?
 How will you conclude the learning experience/
learning findings?

Conclusion
Students will take turns 10 minutes
Interactive White board game on shorter in choosing which item
vs longer. on the screen is longer
or shorter
 https://www.mathgames.com/skill/K.42-
long-and-short

Reflection and Self Evaluation:

 What aspects of the lesson seemed to be most The lesson worked well, all students were engaged in the activity.
valuable? The work sheet needed some modifications as students were confused when after they
 What aspects of the lesson could be improved
compared the items where to were supposed to draw each item. This was due to having 2
and how could they be improved?
 What follow-up will be required from this columns in the one heading.
lesson?

Mentor Teacher’s reflection

(See guiding questions below)
 DEAKIN UNIVERSITY: LESSON PLANNING TEMPLATE: School of Education

Date: 26/04/2017 Student Group:

Mentor Teacher: Glyn Wilson School: Ashwood

Duration of the lesson: 45 minutes Class size: 9

Title of lesson/activity: Parts of the day

Intended Learning Outcomes/Learning Students will be able to identify familiar events that occur in their life and what part of the day they occur in.
intentions:
 What will the students be able to know and do by
the completion of this lesson?

Success Criteria: Students will successfully place the event in the correct category of Morning,
 How will you know that the students have successfully afternoon, evening or night.
achieved the learning outcome/intention?

Prior Learning and Experiences: Students have an understanding of time (O’clock and half past)
 How will students’ prior learning and experiences be
used in this lesson?

Links to the curriculum (Victorian Curriculum) and to
the curriculum planning of the school
Level C: Identify familiar events that occur at different stages of a day (morning, afternoon, evening, night)
 sorting images or symbols according to whether they occur during the day or the night
 using visual schedules to complete activities within an event and events within the day, and manage
time throughout the day
  interpreting language, images and communication associated with day such as morning, afternoon,
and night
 indicating an event as long or short

 recognising and responding to daily routines by selecting an image from a schedule to indicate an
activity has finished or is about to begin

LEVEL D: (VCMMG062)
Identify and sequence regular events that occur during the school day and comment on their duration
(short/long)
 creating and following a visual schedule based on the school day’s events
 ordering events based on duration, for example, ‘I can do more at lunch time than recess’

 comparing and labelling events as long, short, quick

 understanding the purpose of a clock and some of its features

 using timers and a clock to explore and compare time and duration of events

Resources, Materials and Organisation:  Laminated flash cards

 What additional human and physical resources will  Work sheet
be required for this activity?
 Cluck O’clock book
 What specific teaching materials will need to be
prepared?
 How will ICT be utilised in the lesson?
 What OH&S factors will need to be considered for this
activity?

Teaching Strategies and lesson structure: What you as teacher will What are the students Timing
do? doing?
Prompts for your planning:
Read the story Cluck O’clock
 How will the lesson and ideas be introduced and made Ask questions throughout
relevant to the students? the book:
 How will you engage the class?
“6 until 8 we sit in our
nests” Is that a long time?
How long is it? How many
hours?
Beginning
Listen to the story 10 minutes
Start thinking about time
and if the things we do in
our day are long or short
and what time/part of the
day do they happen?

Pose questions about time

 What specific teaching and learning strategies will you
use for the lesson? of day:
 What exactly will the students be required to do and  What is evening?
what will be your role?  What sort of things
 How will you create a collaborative learning do we do during our
environment and how will the classroom be arranged
day?
to support this?
 How will you include all learners? What Curriculum
and Pedagogy adaptations or modifications will be
required? Split the children into
 How will you differentiate learning opportunities for groups of 2-3
diverse learners?
 How will you ensure the students are on-task and
what strategies will you use to support positive Middle
behaviour?
Pose questions about when In groups students, will 25 minutes
they might do that task discuss and place each of
 How will you draw ideas together and conclude the
activity in their day the cards into the correct
lesson?
 How will you conclude the learning experience/ part of the day
learning findings? How do we know that our
activity happens at that
time? When finished, children will
complete a worksheet
 (Is it dark? Is the sun just
coming up? Is the sun just
going down?)

When completed children

will be given a worksheet

Conclusion

Students will be engaging in 10 minutes

Ask children to re-join the discussion with myself and
circle and talk about what their peers discussing what
time they do certain part of the day they do a
activities certain activity

Reflection and Self Evaluation:

 What aspects of the lesson seemed to be most
valuable?
 What aspects of the lesson could be improved and
how could they be improved?
 What follow-up will be required from this lesson?
The story was a good tool to get students thinking about time, it also gave me an
insight into what students already know about time. Students could say there were 2
hours between but one student could convert those 2 hours into minutes. However,
students were generally unsettled throughout the whole story.

All students were engaged in the card game, however prior preparation of sorting the
cards into groups so they were not mixed up would have made things easier.
 Due to an unsettled class the work sheet was not given as students would not have
could focus on it.

Mentor Teacher’s reflection

(See guiding questions below)
Date: Student Group:

Mentor Teacher: Glyn School: Ashwood

Duration of the lesson: 45 Class size: 9

Title of lesson/activity:

Intended Learning Outcomes/Learning Students will be able to make comparisons between which object holds more or less.
intentions:
 What will the students be able to know and do by
the completion of this lesson?

Success Criteria: Students will successfully be able to tell me which object from the sandpit will hold
 How will you know that the students have successfully more sand and will be able to estimate how many of another object (cup) go into the
achieved the learning outcome/intention? bucket

Prior Learning and Experiences: Students have an basic understanding of measurement.

 How will students’ prior learning and experiences be
used in this lesson?

Links to the curriculum (Victorian Curriculum) and to

the curriculum planning of the school

Resources, Materials and Organisation:  Sandpit

 What additional human and physical resources will  Shovels
be required for this activity?
 buckets
 What specific teaching materials will need to be
prepared?  cups
 How will ICT be utilised in the lesson?  sandpit toys
  What OH&S factors will need to be considered for this
activity?

Teaching Strategies and lesson structure: What you as teacher will What are the students Timing
do? doing?
Prompts for your planning: Beginning

 How will the lesson and ideas be introduced and made Show a video on volume to Students will be watching 10 minutes
relevant to the students?
introduce the concepts and listening to the video
 How will you engage the class?
engaging in questions
used in the video

 What specific teaching and learning strategies will you

use for the lesson?
 What exactly will the students be required to do and Middle
what will be your role?
 How will you create a collaborative learning
25 minutes
environment and how will the classroom be arranged
to support this? I will be walking around the Students will go outside to
 How will you include all learners? What Curriculum sandpit probing questions the sandpit and will begin
and Pedagogy adaptations or modifications will be about which object the measuring and comparing
required? student thinks will hold items based on which
 How will you differentiate learning opportunities for more object holds more sand.
diverse learners?
 How will you ensure the students are on-task and
what strategies will you use to support positive I will then encourage them
behaviour? to think about how many
shovels, cups, buckets does
 it take to fill the other
 How will you draw ideas together and conclude the container.
lesson?
 How will you conclude the learning experience/
learning findings? Conclusion
Ask students if they enjoyed Students will be talking
the activity about they what they 10 minutes
learnt or found interesting
Ask students what they
learnt Students will engage in
the video
Play a video that shows a
misconception of liquid
(taller cup holds more)
Reflection and Self Evaluation: The lesson worked well, students were excited about going outside and learning In
 What aspects of the lesson seemed to be most the sandpit.
valuable?
 What aspects of the lesson could be improved and
The videos incorporated into the lesson worked well and students were engaging in
how could they be improved?
 What follow-up will be required from this lesson? the questions throughout the video.
Mentor Teacher’s reflection
(See guiding questions below)