EDC2200 First Nations Education
Assessment 2: Written response
Overview:
In this assessment, you are to produce a Teaching Philosophy Statement (Part A) that explicates your values, attitudes and beliefs about the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners, their histories, cultures and languages. You are to articulate your role as a classroom teacher in ascertaining and ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, cultural identities and linguistic backgrounds are acknowledged in your teaching and learning, the classroom setting and school context.
Your learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing will undoubtedly be a lifelong endeavour (Ma Rhea, Anderson, & Atkinson, 2012). As a result, you will need to access professional learning throughout your career to ensure that you are consistently catering for the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners as well as building your knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages.
In the second part of the assessment, you are to reflect on your Professional Development as a Preservice teacher and your teaching philosophy statement from Part A. In this section you are asked to describe how these understandings may impact and contribute to your ongoing development of skills as an Initial Education student and potential Graduate Teacher with a particular focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and histories and cultures.
In the final component of the assessment, you are expected to demonstrate your understanding of the need to evaluate resources and how they can be applied to teaching by producing a Learning Activity.
Task Outline:
This task has three components.
Part A – Teaching Philosophy (500 words) 10% weighting:
You are to develop a statement of your philosophy as a classroom teacher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners. The teaching philosophy should include a narrative about your conceptions of teaching and learning in regards to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students; a description of how the teaching and learning of Indigenous students requires understandings of how cultures, cultural identities and linguistic backgrounds influence Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ educational engagement, participation and outcomes; and, justifications for the values, beliefs and goals shared. To do this, you are to critically reflect on the learning undertaken throughout this course and discuss how the key concepts of the course have impacted upon your thinking for future practice and promotion of reconciliation.
Learning Objectives: APST 1.4, 2.4
Part B – My Professional Learning (500 words) 10% weighting:
As Initial Teacher Educators (ITEs), there is a need to engage in ongoing professional learning to demonstrate and enact your understanding of working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners as well as embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures into the curriculum.
In Part B of this assessment, you are to reflect on your Professional development as a Preservice teacher and your Teaching Philosophy Statement (PART A) and describe three sources in which you can continue building your knowledge and understanding after the completion of this Course. You are to show how these sources could contribute to the ongoing development of your skills, knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages as well as for promoting ongoing reconciliation and enable teaching strategies that support cultural and linguistic needs that foster student engagement. You will need to demonstrate how the professional learning aligns with your Teaching Philosophy and will inform your future career.
Learning Objectives: APST 6.2
Part C – Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students and Communities (1500 words) 40% weighting:
- In Part C, you are provided with lesson plans from a variety of units of work based on a variety of disciplines including English, Maths, Science and HASS, catering for Early Childhood/Primary and Secondary classrooms.
- You are to select ONE of the lesson plans provided. You are to critique the chosen lesson plan and determine the appropriateness of the teaching and learning, activities and resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners. Be sure to include your chosen lesson plan as an Appendix.
- Then, you are to describe and discuss an alternative pedagogical approach that caters for Indigenous students illustrating how it addresses Indigenous learning styles and promotes Indigenous Knowledges.
- You are then to select and evaluate two alternative and culturally appropriate resources that could be included within the lesson.
- Finally, you are to plan a learning activity using one of the selected resources from (iii) demonstrating how you would include or consider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the teaching and learning, how you would utilise the resource and the alternative pedagogical approach from (ii) providing a minimum 20 step-by-step process.
Learning Objectives: APST 3.1, 4.1
When referencing within the text, you are to use APA referencing.
See: https://www.usq.edu.au/library/referencing/apa-referencing-guide
WORD LIMIT: 2500 words, +/- 10%
References:
- Ma Rhea, Z., Anderson, P., & Atkinson, B. (2012). Improving teaching in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education: Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Melbourne: Autralian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/improving-teaching-in-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-education-professional-development-and-the-australian-professional-standards-for-teachers-monash-university.pdf?sfvrsn=55e7ec3c_0.
- AITSL. (2014). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list