Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Masterofteachingsecondaryavidacp-Report2015 Final
Masterofteachingsecondaryavidacp-Report2015 Final
School/ Setting
Address
Phone
Partnerships Coordinator
ACP Mentor(s)
Chris Mooney
Amee Dunn
Nicole-Marie
Rowena Bautista
PST Name
Matt Carroll
PST Name
Kate Norman
Campus: FootscrayPark
PST Name
Footscray Park
Hsamuhen Tun
Page 1 of 4
PST Name
2. Provide evidence of how project aims were met or not met and why with reference to relevant
educational theory/or literature or policy cited in the plan.
The aims of AVID are as follows:
A. Create a non-traditional classroom setting wherein the academic and emotional needs of every student are
achieved.
This aim was achieved by having an AVID tutorial in an open cafeteria environment. Each tutorial session consisted of
three smaller tutorial groups with a tutor (the PSTs). The Department of Education and Training has six Principles of
Learning and Teaching, one principle is the learning environment is supportive and productive (2015), in every AVID
tutorial lesson, students are encouraged by their tutor to participate, to have various teaching strategies when
students have little motivation, and to give students a mini break when the presenter is feeling stuck.
B. Empower students by making them the centre of decision-making regarding their educational goals.
Students lead one another with collaborative group discussions and questioning to determine the answers to the
presenter's question. Tutors and the AVID teacher are merely guides in this student-centered activity.
*NOTE: Collaborative discussions and the inquiry process are the keys to tutorials, not necessarily coming up with
the exact answers. There will be times students might leave tutorials with their questions unanswered and this is
okay. If a student comes to the conclusion that they cannot answer their question, it leads them to realize they must
seek further help from their teachers, parents, etc.
C. Allowing students to take the initiative and outline their willingness to learn and set long-term goals for their
overall success and improvement.
D. Provide student supports to the students from teachers and trained tutors.
E. Developing a curriculum focusing in academic reading and writing.
F. The highly reliance of Socratic (highly order thinking) process in all subject or topic discussions.
Page 2 of 4
3. Comment on progress according to your Action Plan and advise of any changes to this plan and these
reasons for any changes.
As part of being reflective practitioners we have added a section on how the project impacted on our teaching or what
we have taken away from it that we can apply to our practice.
With student outcomes, we were not able to assess final SAC results because our placement ended before the end of
term. Our outcomes, in relation to students, are based on improvement of ongoing work and feedback from our ACP
mentors and our observation of improved questioning, organisation of notebooks, and TRFs.
4. Evaluation
Evaluate the success or otherwise of the outcomes with reference to the evaluation methodology described in the
plan.
As mentioned, the long term goals of the AVID program are to increase tertiary education participation and, in doing
so, better equip students with the tools they need to be successful in their studies. Evaluation of these long term goals
are obviously hard to quantify, however, there are many ways in which we were able to determine successes and
failures, for both the students and ourselves.
EVALUATION OF STUDENT OUTCOMES
As tutors we had the unique ability as educators to take a step back and observe the group without having to take the
lead ourselves. This afforded us the opportunity to evaluate student performance and participation through
observation.
We were able to observe:
A-ha moments
The most obvious chance to evaluate the success of a tutorial is when the student has an A-ha moment. The A-ha
moment is achieved when, through the questioning of their peers, the student manages to clarify their point of
confusion for that session.
Page 3 of 4
Identify what elements from AVID we can implement into our practice
Tutors have integrated a variety of AVID skills and practices into their classrooms. Socrative questioning has become
a favourite in the English classrooms. Cornell notetaking skills have been implemented in the History classrooms and
in all of our classrooms Costas Level of Thinking Questions are explicitly taught and used. Our classroom teachers
have made note of our expanded tool sets.
Professional learning development that builds explicit skills
Through AVID training and continual mentor and colleague feedback sessions we have built a variety of skills listed
below.
5. Professional Skills Utilised
Evaluate student production to determine needs for future sessions using tutorial worksheets, notes,
consistency of use of higher level question, success of student led tutorial and discussions to compare
against the AVID expectations. This evaluation is done independently and then honed in tutor team meetings
and discussion.
Professional Skill #2
Planning
Analysing data gathered from our team meetings and tutoring sessions to plan sessions that target areas of
need. A frequent issue was the type of questioning students were asking were not high enough and they
didnt follow the AVID model of engaging and leading the session without tutor interference. They couldnt see
the value in running it correctly. So our tutoring team modeled what a good student led session and a poor
student led session looked like and had the students evaluate us, giving constructive feedback. It is one
example of how we planned according to student need based on evidence.
Professional Skill #3
Communicating
During meetings we communicated honestly regarding student progress and areas of concern in addition to
our own areas of weakness and need for advice. For example, changing groups to mix up skill levels and
also to create groups that propelled each other was necessary. Our team expressed concern, agreed on a
unified approach and implemented the approaches. We then evaluated them again at the end of the session
to see if our ideas were working.
Professional Skill #4
Team work
Team work is an integral part of the AVID program. Encouraging the students to work in teams, give
constructive advice, hold back explanations but lead through questioning and lean on each other to ultimately
solve problems honed our own skills as team players. In our team meetings the AVID style seeped in and we
could see the types of questions and our communication in team work was improving along with our ideas.
Professional Skill #5
Problem Solving
This skill is strongly aligned with team work for this particular project. In improving the way we participated in
a team we also improved the way we problem solved as a group. On a more individual note, we noticed more
resilience as we reminded our students and ourselves to use Costas higher level of questioning. Problem
solving became less daunting and the level of possible solutions were improved.
Professional Skill #6
Reflection on practice
After each session we met as a group to reflect on what we had done, how effective it been and what to do
better, differently or the same in following sessions. We also discussed outside of the sessions what
principles or practices we could use in our own teaching practice outside of the AVID classroom. Reflection
was cemented in our minds as critical skill and practice.
Professional Skill #7
Interpersonal Skills
With every AVAD tutorial, adaptability and self management skills was required. Each tutors need the ability
and willingness to cope with uncertain and changing conditions while facilitating the session such as
responding to students who are misbehaving and not participating in the tutorial. Tutors also had to adapt to
handling the various roles, such as being a preservice teacher, completing university assignments and equally
putting in time to be available for an AVID tutorial. Tutors had to adapt to the different personalities,
communication styles, and cultures. Tutors also needed the ability to work in virtual teams; to work
autonomously; and to be self-motivating and self-monitoring
Master of Teaching (Secondary)
Page 4 of 4
Section A
Professional skills displayed by the preservice teacher in the completion of the project
(ACP Mentor Teacher (or nominee) to complete)
e.g., problem solving, negotiating, project management, planning, team work, time
management, evaluating, communicating, reporting, researching. Also, whether expected
outcomes, as identified in ACP Plan, were met.
Date
Page 5 of 4
Please Tick
Victoria University may use this information to advertise and report on the work of Project Partnerships
Note
Preservice teachers must ensure that all signatories (above) receive a copy of this ACP report. Each preservice
teacher in the ACP team will submit a copy of this signed report to their Approaches to Teaching and Learning 1
lecturer in the seminar in the week beginning 12th October, 2015.
This report is downloaded from the PP Website at http://education.vu.edu.au/partnerships/
Page 6 of 4