Skill Review Sheet Questioning

Graduate Standards - AITSL

Professional Practice: 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 5.2 Plan and implement effective teaching and learning
Please complete all forms and include in your ePortfolio

Question Type
Do you feel your
questions were clearly
structured and readily
understood by the
students?

All my questions were clearly structured to serve a particular

purpose: either to introduce the concept I was planning to teach; to
inspire students to extend their knowledge scope; or to reinforce
students understanding of what I was talking about.
Question that introduces the concept:
What matters when measuring and assessing an angle? To
introduce the concept of trigonometric functions as the ratios of two
side lengths of a triangle.
Question to extend their knowledge?
Given that a trigonometric function is a ratio of two side lengths of
a right triangle, how many basic trig. functions can we have if we
know a right triangle has 3 sides? Permutation Law says 6 basic
trig. functions.
Question to reinforce students understanding of the content:
What is the definition of sine, cosine and tangent in a right
triangle? Draw the triangle with correct labeling to answer the
question.

Did you use a variety of

question types?

I used both closed and open questions to provide options for

answers to seek the assurance of understanding from my
students. Open questions are used to seek deep thoughts or
opinions about a particular concept, formula or theory.

What balances was there Given the limited time frame, I would skip quickly from one
candidate to another until I heard the key words that were related
between the various
to the answer of the question. Then I would definitely give
questions types?

confirmation to the candidate for motivation and then took the

opportunity to give a clear answer to the question that I asked. My
clear answer to the question balanced out the intervals between
different questions.

Consider both why and

when you made use of
the different question
types?

Types of questions that I would ask depended on what answer I

wanted to seek. I used closed or open questions to provide options
for answering to seek the assurance of understanding from my
students. Open questions are used to seek deep thoughts or
opinions about a particular concept, formula or theory.

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

Distributing and Directing Questions

Did you recognise any
pattern in the distribution
of your questions
amongst the students?
Consider reasons for this
pattern?

How have you directed

questions to the group?

The distribution of my questions amongst students really

depended on the extent of the students engagement of the
topic and diversity of the students. I found male students
proactively answered my questions more than female
students. Sometimes silence could happen and this
indicated the majority hadnt got the concept right so it was
important to re-phrase my ideas and questions.

Questions were usually given verbally and firstly directed to

the students who have initiative to answer. However if I found
my questions were always answered from the same group, I
would particularly ignore them and told you were too smart
so please gave the chance to other people. So everybody
should have the equal chance to well participate the class.
Yes I have.

Have you used wait

time?

Did you make eye

contact with the group as
you directed your
questions?

Eye contact was the key in asking a question and seeking

the answer. I used it for every question that I asked in my
lessons.

Reactions to Students Responses

How do you deal with
correct responses? Do
you qualify any praise
given?
How do you deal with
incorrect responses?
How do you deal with
students who stumble
and grope for an answer?

Absolutely gave my confirmation with words like excellent,

awesome answer, yes you are correct, exactly, absolutely,
you are very intelligent, etc. I use these affirming words to
motivate my students to extend their knowledge scope and
stretch their current limit. I mean to discover their potential.
For incorrect answers, I would respond with words like not
quiet right but a good try, not exactly but that makes a little
bit of sense, no that is not the answer to this question
unfortunately, etc. I would quickly skip from one to another
til I heard the key word to the question then I would address
the key word with a louder voice, higher pitch and slower
speed so students could rethink the right answer from the
key word.

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

Do you keep eye contact

with the students until
they have completed an
answer? Do you cut
students off and go onto
the next point before they
have finished
responding?

I kept my eye contact with students until they had completed an

answer. I would let my students complete their answer but most
likely stop them if I found a quick break and also knew the answer
wasnt right. If students mentioned something I found was correct,
however, it was not directly related to my current question, I would
still let them finish and tell them VERY GOOD, I will cover that
later on.

I often asked questions and the right answers to those questions

What use do you make of lead to introducing new concepts. If the answers were not yet
sufficient to bring out the next topics, I would add or redirect other
the students responses
questions on top of the initial one just to provide enough
to develop the teaching
foundation to present the next teaching point.

point? Have you

redirected any questions
in order to add to an
initial response?

Are you the only

evaluator of the students
answers?

In my mathematics teaching, I was the only judge because nobody

knew the answer better than myself for my questions. I was very
confident about my professional knowledge. This was the key in
teaching mathematics.

Yes, I did communicate the learning objectives clearly to the

students. It didnt mean I could always complete as planned, so I
Did you communicate
clearly to the students the would clearly tell my students I would cover that at the beginning
of the next lesson and I had to do as I said. One example was I
requirements of the
didnt quite get the proof of the cosine rule right and in order to
lesson?
complete the rest of the content rather than getting stuck at the
cosine rule proof, I made a clear statement that I would come back
to the proof the next day. I did pre-write the proof on the
whiteboard before the next class began and proved it successfully.

Overall Comments

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

Skill Review Sheet Management

Graduate Standards AITSL
Professional Practice: 4. Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
4.1 and 4.2

Planning for Effective Management

Was your lesson plan
effective for managing
the class?
e.g. How did the
students react to your
lesson overall and to
your planned activities?
Did anything unexpected
happen?
Did you provide a variety
of activities?
Were you satisfied with
your timing, particularly
for the end of the
lesson?
Did you feel you were
able to change things if
needed?

Yes my lesson plan was effective to manage the class. I believe

my engagement with my students came from well prepared
content that made them want to learn.
My lesson was very different from other teachers as a result of my
beliefs in teaching mathematics that I argued in the reflection. I
favoured a direct teaching method with explicit instruction rather
than group activity or self-practice. In addition, my lesson was
planned for a full 60 mins rather than 20 mins, so for students to
digest the amount of information contained in my lesson was really
challenging. I realized the issue, so I was still working on how to
reduce my lesson intensity wisely while still providing a sufficient
coverage of the curriculum.
Contingencies happened all the time such as I suddenly forgot
how to prove the cosine rule even though I have proved it
hundreds of times before. It proved anything could happen in a
class: rather than trusting my brain power, I would choose to trust
my pen and the notes on a piece of paper. A good lesson I have
learnt so far.
I didnt give a different variety of activities except questioning.
Group activity in the learning of mathematics is very counterproductive unless it is aimed at modeling techniques. I favored
direct teaching with clear instruction.
Like any novice teacher, I was trying to cover too much content in
one lesson to demonstrate that I was capable of teaching to
university level. Well I really thought I could be an excellent
teacher, so in the future I need to reduce my content so I allocate
time for students to do more examples. But this will be arguable
depending on how much curriculum is required to be covered
during each school term at the school where I plan to work for.
I moved from an urban area to Karratha for the internship so it
proves that I am a very adaptable person. Ive faced challenges
and changes every day in my life so the answer to this question is
yes. Yes, that I am able to change to cater to my students needs. I
always put my students at the centre of my teaching. My job as a
teacher is to identify their needs, teach to satisfy their needs and
then stretch their limit to make them progress to the next level.

Was your organisation of

I strongly recommend all mathematics teachers in Australia to use

mathematica or mathlab to write the courseware. We are in the

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

materials and resources

efficient and effective?

digital age and we teachers should keep our teaching methods

updated rather than still borrowing the medieval method to teach
mathematics.

e.g. Did you and the

students have everything For every full length lesson that I planned, I wrote the course ware
and then distributed it at the beginning of the lesson.
you needed?
Did you plan how and
when you would
distribute and collect
materials?

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

Were you aware of

classroom procedures
and school disciplinary
policy? How much did
you know about your
students?

Unfortunately I was so tied up to complete the intensive

EDN550 I didnt have time to research the classroom
procedure and school disciplinary policy directly myself. I did
ask around the experienced teachers but the answers I got
from them were they didnt know either. It seemed my school
was lacking a clear flow chart in terms of the classroom
management procedures. When disruptive behavior
happened, I wasnt so sure to which extent my management
would be legitimate. It was extremely frustrating.

Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom

How did you demonstrate

to the students that you
valued them, and enjoyed
the teaching/learning
process?
e.g. Tone of voice, facial
expression, sense of
humour, introduction to
students and topic.
Which aspects of your
teaching style do you feel
helped you maintain
class attention?
e.g. Variety of activities,
class or group
discussion, pace of
lesson, interest at class
level.
Did the students know
what was expected of
them?

Were you able to redirect

energies of attention
seeking students? Did
the students have
enough to do?

As a male teacher from China, I didnt have a good dynamic

range of the tone of voice. However, I did increase my pitch
or slow down to articulate when necessary to address my
point. I change my words to respond to my students such as
excellent, awesome answer, yes you are correct, exactly,
absolutely, you are very intelligent, not quiet right but a good
try, not exactly but make a little bit sense, no that is not the
answer to this question unfortunately, etc.

My in-depth knowledge of mathematics helped me to

maintain class attention. I questioned a lot. I also connected
mathematics with science, sometimes even science fiction to
draw attention from my students, such as dimensions, black
holes, wormholes, light years and time travel. I borrowed
these concepts from physics to explain the mathematics
topics. It proved to be very effective to engage with students.

Yes I always gave clear and explicit instruction. If you read

my lesson plan, the most frequently appeared words are:
Clear and Explicit. They are the key words in my teaching
pedagogy.

The feedback from my students of 11Math_ATAR was my

course was very intensive and challenging to digest. But they
all acknowledged that I knew my content very well. So my
students never felt bored in my class. On the contrary, it was
full of challenges.

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

Dealing with Minor Misbehaviour

Were you aware of what
was happening in all
parts of the classroom?
Did you know what each
student was doing?

I was aware of exactly what was happening in all parts of the

classroom, such as free chatting, eating chewing gum, listening to
music with earphones, inappropriate conversations and jokes
amongst students, mimicking teachers expressions, tones, etc.

Did you take any action

when you observed poor
behaviour? Why? Why
not?

Well I wasnt clear about the classroom management procedure

and policy hence I wasnt so sure how much I was empowered as
the student teacher. Plus I was attending the class with my buddy
teacher who is legitimately accountable for managing the
classroom. If I spoke up before my buddy teacher did, would they
think either I was so inexperienced or I was accusing my buddy
teacher of not knowing how to manage his or her class? I mainly
sat and observed. Always I would seek permission if I wanted to
deal with the disruptive behaviours.

Did you use non-verbal

cues? e.g. Contact,
pause, gesture,
movement toward
student/s concerned.

I learned the power of silence from my mentor teacher. So I did

borrow her technique to manage the noise and free chatting in the
classroom. Rather than raising my voice to make students stop, I
paused and kept silence for 5 seconds, then I noticed the noise
phased out.

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

Schools as text looking at the whole

school
Understand the importance of effective communication with students
and colleagues to develop positive relationships.
Graduate Standards AITSL 6.3 and 7.1
Describe the school in
terms of its
demographics,
appearance and
resources (be general
here and do not name
the school).

What were the roles and

responsibilities of the
teaching staff you
observed?

From my observation, 20% of students in my school have

aboriginal background, 10% of students have South East Asian
background such as Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia etc., 50% are
European Australians and the rest are European New Zealanders.
The school looks new with plenty of open space, good airconditioning, whiteboards and projectors, internet, great library and
great staff meeting room. The regional leisure centre next door to
the school simple makes the school the best place for the physical
education in the whole state.

The main role of the teaching staff in the mathematics department

is to teach. To assess and to manage students behavior and to
report. They are on duty as well.

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

What did you observe

non-teaching staff doing
to support teaching and
learning in the school

They organise the operation of the school on a daily basis.

From trivial things to dispatching correspondence, allocating
keys, welcoming parents, distributing uniforms and
answering general enquires to organizing functions, events
and community activities.

Students
You will have observed
One example below demonstrated how I supported diversity
the diverse nature of your
classes. How was this
Diversity is required in this classroom for the
diversity supported?
students with disruptive behaviour based on
the information provided by my buddy teacher:
o 32 students in the classroom and the
ratio of female to male is around 1:1.
Less than 10 students have South East
Asian backgrounds or aboriginal
background compared with the majority
being European Australians and New
Zealanders.
o All students demonstrated the
understanding of the preliminary
knowledge through quiz sessions prior to
and in the middle of the lesson.
o Disruptive behaviour from a few students
can impact negatively the learning
atmosphere of the whole class, hence a
classroom management strategy and
diversity should be considered to reengage the misbehaved students.
Being student centered and giving direct teaching
with explicit instructions is my main strategy,
facilitated by an increased inquiry-based teaching
method given a high degree of class participation.

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

10

Function of Schools
Did you observe the
connection of your
schools with the broader
community? How did this
happen?

What do you think the

function of school is?

I have heard lots of stories from my colleague, who is the intern for
the Physical Education department in my school. According to her,
our school organizes lots of sports activities and invites all in the
community to participate.

The function of school is not only provider students the basic

education catering to their future career needs but also contribute
to the community by giving future adults the skills to succeed.

EDN550ProfessionalExperienceInformationforPreServiceTeachers2015

11