Essay on Foundations of Teaching 1

Unit: Designing Teaching and Learning

Unit Code: 102086
Due Date: 05-04-2019
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Assignment Essay

”Not just anyone can teach. I know from personal experience that many people have given it a

go, but frankly, they just can’t do it. Teaching is a vocation and a profession. Through the

Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, teachers and leaders in Australia have set very

high standards about what someone needs to achieve to teach in an Australian classroom.”

-Lisa Rogers, former CEO of AITSL.

Consider the quote from Lisa Rogers above. Write a 2,000-word critical discussion about

whether teaching is a both a vocation and a profession.

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Teaching is an honorable profession, but it is definitely not suitable for everyone. It can truly be

quoted here that “Not just anyone can teach” (Molloy, 2019). Teaching is a profession that has

its own limits and boundaries, its own requirements and professionalism. In Australia, the whole

setup has been designed in a way that ensures people involved in education are focused and

dedicated to their professions. Leaders and teachers in Australia have set high standards

regarding what needs to be acquired in order to teach in an Australian classroom. It can be

considered as a very dedicating profession and thus in order to be a good teacher, a person needs

high levels of patience. It requires dedication and both short and long term goals. The four

foundation concepts of teaching include the standards set by Australian Government for

professional teachers, the comprehensive national curriculum, the quality teaching model set

by New South Wales Government and the national assessment plan for literacy and numeracy.

I agree to the notion that teaching is not a suitable profession for a naïve and inept person. This

essay will entail these four foundations set by Australian institute of teachers and leaders to

maintain the high standards of teaching within classrooms (Hattie, 2003).

Teacher professionalism APST (Australian Professional Standards for Teachers) is a public

statement of the elements of a quality teacher. These standards explain the job of teachers and

make clear the fundamentals of high-quality, operative teaching in this era schools that will

enhance educational consequences for students. The standards help in attaining high quality in
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teaching by rendering a framework that make it easy to understand the practice, knowledge and

professional engagement needed across the teaching profession. They illicit a comprehensive

language and understanding of discourse between teachers organizations, teachers educators,

teachers, professional associations and general public. The APST (Australian Professional

Standards for Teachers) consists of seven Standards that sketch out the responsibilities and

requirements of teaching profession. These standards are interdependent, interconnected and

overlapping. These standards are gathered into three domains of this profession including

professional engagement, professional knowledge and professional practice. Practically teaching

includes all three domains. These are briefly discussed below.

The first one is professional knowledge. Teachers appeal on a frame of professional research and

knowledge to reflect to the requirements of their students inside their learning contexts. Teachers

should be well aware of the backgrounds of their pupils as knowing the distinctive characteristics

of individual student will help in understanding the individual needs of a student. This helps in

understanding the experiences of students that are being brought up into their classrooms and

that may impact their continued learning. Teachers should know the way to structure or frame

their lessons to fulfill the social, intellectual and physical development and traits of their students

(Simon & Hicks, 2006). They should know that contents of their curriculum and subjects. They

should know and comprehend the basic structure, concepts and enquiry processes pertinent to

programs they impart. Teachers should understand the basic constituents of developmentally

appropriate and effective strategies in their teaching and learning programs and use this

information to develop meaningful content for students. Teachers, by introducing effective

techniques may develop numeracy and literacy in students. Thus, they are able to utilize
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communication technology and information to expand and contextualize the breadth and modes

of students’ learning process (Hudson et al., 2016).

Professional Practice domain involves practicing the teaching skills and knowledge. The teachers

have the capacity to create and maintain inclusive, safe and challenging learning environments

and implement equitable and fair behavior management strategies. The communication

technologies they use should be sophisticated. Educators possess a collection of functioning

teaching approaches and exercise them to enforce ingenious teaching lessons and courses. These

teaching practices are hence frequently evaluated to make sure that the knowledge needs of

pupils are well fulfilled. They use and interpret student assessment information to evaluate the

difficulties they may have in comprehending core concepts and thus amend the teaching

methodologies or develop more comprehensive mechanisms to enable the students to perform

much better. The teachers function efficiently throughout the learning and teaching cycle,

comprising organization for learning and evaluation, evolving learning programs, evaluating,

teaching, rendering response on student knowledge and informing to parents/ guardians.

Professional engagement domain entails the way teachers’ exhibit effective learning. For the

purpose, teachers need to recognize their personal learning needs and analyze, expand and

evaluate their professional learning both individually and collegially. Teachers should display

professionalism and respect while interacting with their colleagues, students, community and

parents. The teacher’s engagement process should consist of knowledge transfer inside and

beyond the schoolroom to augment the learning environment for learners. They should

understand the linkage between home, school and public in the intellectual and social

progression of their students.

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The standard descriptors and focus areas recognize the constituents of quality teaching at every

career stage. They establish agreed features of the multifaceted course of teaching. An

operational teacher has the ability to apply and assimilate knowledge, professional engagement

and practice as framed in the Standard Descriptors to develop teaching environments where

learning is appreciated (Hayes et al., 2005).

In Australia, there exists a national curriculum, “The Australian Curriculum”, which offers

teachers, schools, parents, community and the students with a precise understanding of the

learning needs of students. Thus it renders a homogenous learning mechanism for all

communities. This curriculum encompasses foundation to year 10 academics including the

content of curriculum to be taught, a standardized achievement criteria that has to be met by each

student and the relaxation for teachers to modify and personalize the learning process and

respond to the interests and needs of students effectively (Hattie, 2003).

Non-government, territory and state education establishments are responsible for conveying the

Australian Curriculum, comprising decisions regarding the classroom resources and practice and

implementation timeframes that balance teaching of the national Curriculum. It includes eight

key subjects i.e. mathematics, English, Humanities, Science, Social sciences, Health and

Physical Education, Technologies, Languages and the Arts. It includes seven general

competences (Killen, 2013). These competencies include numeracy, literacy, creative and critical

thinking, social and personal capability, communication and information technology, ethical

understanding and intercultural thinking. It includes three cross-curriculum priorities. These

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include Sustainability, Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia, Torres Strait Islanders and

Aboriginal Cultures and Histories. This curriculum is designed to satisfy the requirements of

students by rendering a contemporary, relevant and engaging curriculum that is based on the

educational objectives of the Melbourne Declaration. It was decided by the Melbourne

Declaration that, three core areas were needed to be tackled in order to provide benefit to

individuals as well as Australia as a whole. These core areas included general capabilities,

learning areas and cross-curricular priorities thus framing a three dimensional model. These key

areas hence have become priorities in the Australian Curriculum that provide students with the

language and tools to engage with the world and better understand it at various levels. These

priorities will encourage the communications between students, communities, and teachers and

these learning areas (Formosa & Dixon, 2004).

In academic pursuit, Pedagogy refers to the study of the way skills and knowledge are exchanged

within an educational context and it reflects the interactions that happen during the learning

process. As mentioned afore the first and foremost foundation laid by Australian government in

instituting strong framework for quality education by setting the standards for professional

teaching (Sutherland, Howard & Markauskaite, 2010). These standards assist the preparation,

sustenance and progress of teachers. The NSW Quality Teaching model was initially introduced

in 2003. Soon after its inception, the leaders and teachers soon realized its potential for

enhancing the personal and the overall teaching quality within the school and how the idea of

shared quality teaching may impact the whole school environment (Education.gov.au., 2019). It

provides a lens with which the quality of practical teaching can be assessed all across the school
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environment, at various stages as well as in particular subject areas. It has been presented below.

(New South Wales Department of Education and Training, 2003)

The NSW Quality Teaching model includes eighteen elements and three dimensions. This

model provides the ability to understand deeply the constituents of quality in teaching. The

dimensions of quality learning environment, intellectual quality, and significance render the

necessary framework to ponder about and discourse all features of teaching, supported by an

arduous research base (Call, 2018).

All learners’ needs can be met by enhancing the intellectual quality of the educational programs

developed and facilitated. Upon establishing a quality learning environment, it is ensured that all

students are well supported to engage in their personal learning process and thus become lifelong

learners. In order to show the significance of students learning dots can be joined. This therefore

ensures that within the classroom learning and teaching both are viewed as inter-connected and

significant to each individual student within the classroom. By engaging with the Quality
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teaching model, teachers can ascertain their performance within their classrooms. This

framework has been incorporated in all learning and teaching programs to make sure that quality

education is being delivered all over the school and serves as a means of providing teachers with

a stage for critical analysis and reflection of present teaching practice, and thus can be utilized

for seeking guidance in planning of assessment and classroom practices (Department of

Education, 2008).

The NAPLAN or National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy pertains to a series of

examinations based on basic skills that are undertaken each year to Australian students. Students’

skills like language (grammar, spelling and punctuation), writing, reading and numeracy are

undertaken by the ACARA or Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. This

assessment program is superintended by the Council of Australian Governments Education

Council. NAPLAN is being administered in all territories and states in the month of MAY each

year since its inception. It is a component of the NAP that has been utilized to report and monitor

the achievement of students in a consistent and comparable way. Since it’s the one and only

examination that can be considered as cohort national examination that students have to

undertake therefore, it is the only examination that can render nationally comparable information

regarding numeracy and literacy throughout the country (Anderson, Ewing and Gibson, 2019).

The Australian students’ results in NAPLAN are substantial measure of the assessment of

national education system as these scores exhibit that performance of young Australians and thus

enable in assessing the performance of teachers in equipping these students with critical

numeracy and literacy skills. This test encompasses both national and the territory and state

level. Testing and particularly NAPLAN, render information regarding the way students are

progressing within their schools as well the way they are performing in comparison to their peers
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all across Australia. NAPLAN data also helps the government in making resourcing decisions

thus helping in directing funds to the priority areas. It helps teachers by providing access to the

outcomes of students for each question which then can be further utilized by them in developing

appropriate treatment strategies for the enhancement of outcomes. NAPLAN helps the parents by

rendering information regarding the performance of children against the national standards and

not only confined to classroom. Similarly NAPLAN helps students by providing the opportunity

to demonstrate their learning skills on a national level (Zionts, Shellady & Zionts, 2006).

While going through the four foundations that are necessary to provide high quality education in

Australia, it has been evidenced that teaching is not a job for everybody. It requires thoughtful

understanding of the concepts as well as the understanding of the standards that have been set

(Tuinamuana, 2011). In order to be successful in teaching, a person needs to be adaptive,

flexible, patient and considerate. Therefore it is correctly that teaching is not everybody’s cup of

tea as it requires incorporation of these basic four foundations in order to be effective in

delivering their role as a teacher and benefitting the community as a whole. Professional teaching

hence requires the transfer of knowledge in the most efficient manner. Until and unless a person

knows the basics of conveying their thoughts and concepts while keeping in consideration the

individual needs of students, he/she cannot be able to teach (Gough, 2019). .

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References

Anderson, M., Ewing, R., & Gibson, R. (2019). Retrieved from https://sydney.edu.au/education-
portfolio/ei/synergy/pdfs/2633.pdf

Call, K. (2018). Professional Teaching Standards: A Comparative Analysis of Their History,

Implementation and Efficacy. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 43(3), pp. 93-
108.

Education.gov.au. (2019). National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy | Department

of Education and Training. Retrieved from https://www.education.gov.au/national-
assessment-program-literacy-and-numeracy

Formosa, L. & Dixon, R. M. (2004). The NSW DET's Quality Teaching Framework and the
realities of a special education classroom. In P. Jeffery (Eds.), AARE International
Research Conference (pp. 1-8). Coldstream Victoria: AARE Inc..

Gough, E. (2019). Topic 3. Introduction to the Quality Teaching Framework (QTF) and the
Australian Prof…. Retrieved from https://edufolios.org/emilygough/2018/08/09/topic-3-
introduction-to-the-quality-teaching-framework-qtf-and-the-australian-professional-
standards-for-teachers/

Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence? Background paper
to presentation at ACER Research Conference, Melbourne, October 19-21.

Hayes, D., Mills, M., Christie, P. & Lingard, B. (2005). Teachers and schooling making a
difference: Productive pedagogies, assessment and performance. Sydney: Allen &
Unwin.

Hudson, S., Hudson, P., Weatherby-Fell, N. and Shipway, B. (2016). Graduate Standards for
Teachers: Final-year Preservice Teachers Potentially Identify the Gaps. Australian
Journal of Teacher Education, pp.135-151.
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Killen, R. (2013). Foundations for effective teaching. In Effective teaching strategies: Lessons
from research and practice (pp 1-44). Victoria, Australia: Cengage Learning

Molloy, L. (2019). Not just anyone can teach. Retrieved from

https://www.aitsl.edu.au/secondary/news-and-media/not-just-anyone-can-teach

New South Wales Department of Education and Training. (2003). Quality Teaching in NSW
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Simon, H., & Hicks, J. (2006). Opening doors: Using the creative arts in learning and teaching.
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Sutherland, L., Howard, S., & Markauskaite, L. (2010). Professional identity creation:
Examining the development of beginning preservice teachers' understanding of their
work as teachers. Teaching and teacher education, 26(3), 455-465.

Tuinamuana, K. (2011). Teacher professional standards, accountability, and ideology:

Alternative discourses. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36(12), 72.

Zionts, L. T., Shellady, S. M., & Zionts, P. (2006). Teachers' perceptions of professional
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