Part A

Write an essay on Education?

The essay is all about the teaching plan adopted by Australian teacher and different factors which teaching plan is dependent. As stated by Barber (2010), effective teaching always require proper planning and while planning a teacher decided what to teach and which methods should be adopted for teaching. The factors on which teaching plan and methods depend are syllabus, needs of student learning, that is literacy level and improvement area of a student. In Australia teaching plan is to be decided by taking into consideration national professional standard for Australian teachers (Barber, 2010). The essay is having brief analysis of the factors which affect the teachers plan and methods which they are going to adopt for teaching (Aitsl.edu.au, 2015).

Syllabus

As recommended by Australian Curriculum Lessons (2014), before planning their teaching plan and methods, teachers of Australia needs to evaluate the syllabus and their students’ literacy level. In Australia education, curriculum standard and quality of teaching is decided by Board of Studies teaching & Educational Standards NSW. Syllabus helps teachers as well as students to know what they are going to teach and on what students have to focus. Again as recommended by Aitsl, syllabus helps teacher in developing proper communication among the students and teacher while teaching process (Yates, 2015). Teachers of Australia before starting main educational course decide syllabus to systematize their thoughts and approach towards their subject or topic. Syllabus helps teachers as well students know the focus area regarding subject (Barber, 2010). The essential elements of good syllabus are as course or subject topic, teaching schedule and plan and methods which teacher would be adopting for teaching. Syllabus decided by teacher help them in providing the framework which will be used in teaching. Yates (2011) commented that teaching process initial step is planning syllabus and providing it to all students so that they can find the area of learning. On the other hand syllabus helps students to know their improvement areas on which they have to focus more and the level of literacy in all the subject or topic which is going to be taught in whole learning process.  

Australian Curriculum Lessons (2015) mentioned that before deciding the syllabus, it is very much necessary for teacher to analyze the level of literacy of students regarding each subjects and topic which they will include in syllabus. As stated by Barber (2010), every student learning capability is different and the level of literacy regarding subjects and topic are also different of every student, so teacher before starting new learning session should analyze the disability area of each student so that it can be given special attention. Mental level of every student is different from each other, so teacher before planning any learning plan should evaluate each and every student learning disabilities, command over any subject if they are having, favorite subject or topic which they like studying more. Learning session can only be started when teachers are well known with their students learning needs and requirement. Every student has different learning needs and learning requirement as their stated by Barber (2010), mental level of each student is different. It is also the fact that learning needs analysis helps both teacher and student to identify their area of interest, improvement and others, every teacher adopt their own methods for leaning needs analysis some common methods used by teacher are 360 degree appraisal method, critical incident review, questionnaire, face to face interview and other (Boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au, 2015). If a teacher is unaware of students learning needs then they cannot plan proper teaching plan.

Syllabus

As said by Forthe (2012), past assessment data analysis method will help teacher to know students past performance in subjects, it will also help teacher to know about the strength and weaknesses of students regarding the subjects. Past assessment help teacher to know about their students area of interest and the subject which they like more. Lesson plan decided by teachers are dependent of students area of interest, level of literacy of student and disability in any subjects (Yates, 2015). Teachers can collect their students past performance record by evaluating their past class exams, projects and other class activities performance. Forthe (n.d.) stated that if teacher has to plan effective teaching lesson they have to evaluate students past performance outcomes, level of literacy, learning disability and other factors. Past assessment data collected method help teachers to know in-depth about their students and behavior regarding studies which help teacher while planning effective learning session. Collecting past assessment outcomes data will help to decide teachers their priority regarding subjects as per students’ disability in subjects. As commented by Leonard (2012) to decide present learning plan teachers have to analysis and evaluate the past outcome of students in every subject. Teacher does past assessment data collection to prioritize their subjects and know their students background, interest level in different subjects, level of literacy and other factors.

National professional standard help Australian teachers in developing their learning plan, practices which they will follow while teaching and other. Every teacher has to follow the standards mentioned by National professional standard of Australia for teaching (Leonard, 2012). As stated by Yates (2015), these standards help teacher to analyze their quality of teaching and the standard, if any disability or lacking behind factor is found teachers can easily change their learning plan. National professional standards for teachers provide frameworks which help them while planning their learning plan and activities (Barber, 2010). It helps teachers in knowing the professional practices, activities, which teacher will perform while their learning process. As mentioned by Mazawi & Sultana (2010), learning plan can only be effective and good if it follows all the standards and rules mentioned by National professional Standard for teachers in Australia. National Professional standards for teachers define what Australian teachers have to do to make their learning plan effective for each and every student under them. Different strategies are mentioned by national professional standard which help teachers to design their effective learning plan. National professional standard for teachers work as book of rules and regulation which every teacher and education organization of Australia have to follow.  

Lesson plan

The lesson plan chosen for this assignment is foundation science plan which is as Integrated and Interactive Science Unit. This lesson plan was included in science learning plan to make students aware of all the fields which are related to science and important of science (Mazawi & Sultana, 2010). As stated Morphew (2012), integrated and innovative science plan was developed as part of classroom theme. This lesson was included in classroom so that all students are aware of animals, plants and other living things in the environment. The main responsibilities of teacher were to organize different activities and events so that students come to know more about their environment and surrounding.

Student learning needs

 The four factors on which learning plan depend are syllabus, student learning needs, past assessment data collection by teachers and National professional standard for teachers. It is the fact that to make any learning plan effective teacher have to decide proper syllabus after analyzing the students area of interest and level of disability regarding the subject (Nswteachers.nsw.edu.au, 2015). The lesson plan chosen is Integrated and Interactive science unit which is having proper syllabus regarding various subjects as science, technology, mathematics, English and etc. Every subject is having its own focus area and the syllabus or course length is decided as per their focus area. The  length of integrated and interactive science unit is of nine weeks in which every student will be assigned with different task, the task allocate will be regarding animals, plants, surrounding and environment (Barber, 2010). The learning plan chosen is focusing all three factors which are as syllabus of the plan, student learning needs and national professional standards for teachers but it is lacking in only one factor i.e. past assessment data collection of students (Yates, 2015). To implement past assessment data collection method by teachers in this learning plan teachers have to initially collect all the data regarding each student from the various social activities conducted in which they participated. As stated by Swartz (2013), past assessment data will help teacher to know the expertise area of each student and later by using this information they can assign activities to them (Splash.abc.net.au, 2015). The activities involved in integrated and interactive science lesson plan are as students will be provided with living and non living thing book which they have to complete and then students have to plant different trees and write down its role in environment protection.

Conclusion

Teaching plan depends on different factors which are as syllabus of the study, student needs for learning, past assessment data collection done by teachers and National professional standard for teachers (Yates, 2015). There are many other activities involved in this plan which will help students to know about animals, plants, other living creatures as well as non living creatures.

References

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Aitsl.edu.au,. (2015). Standards | Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. Retrieved 22 March 2015, from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list

Australian Curriculum Lessons,. (2014). Integrated and Interactive Science Unit on Living Things for Years F/1/2 – Australian Curriculum Lessons. Retrieved 22 March 2015, from https://www.australiancurriculumlessons.com.au/2014/08/17/integrated-and-interactive-science-unit-on-living-things-for-years-f12/

Australian Curriculum Lessons,. (2015). Australian Curriculum Lessons – Lesson Plans, Teaching Resources and more. Retrieved 22 March 2015, from https://www.australiancurriculumlessons.com.au/

Barber, L. (2010). An education. Bath: Windsor.

Boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au,. (2015). About BOSTES – Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards NSW. Retrieved 22 March 2015, from https://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/about/

Forthe, D. (2012). Technology, policy, and school change: the role of intermediary organizations. Los Angeles, California: University of Southern California.

Forthe, D. Technology, policy, and school change: the role of intermediary organizations. University of Southern California.

Leonard, S. (2012). Professional Conversations: Mentor Teachers’ Theories-in-Use Using the Australian National Professional Standards for Teachers. AJTE, 37(12). doi:10.14221/ajte.2012v37n12.7

Mazawi, A., & Sultana, R. (2010). World yearbook of education 2010. New York: Routledge.

Morphew, V. (2012). A constructivist approach to the national educational technology standards for teachers. Eugene, Oregon: International Society for Technology in Education.

Nswteachers.nsw.edu.au,. (2015). BOSTES Teacher Accreditation – Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Retrieved 22 March 2015, from https://www.nswteachers.nsw.edu.au/publications-policies-resources/publications/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/

Splash.abc.net.au,. (2015). News and Articles – ABC Splash. Retrieved 22 March 2015, from https://splash.abc.net.au/newsandarticles/?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=Corp_Innovation-Splash%7cLessonPlan_AdWords_:lesson%2520plans%2520for%2520teachers_b_g_41271758239_&gclid=Cj0KEQiAneujBRDcvL6f5uybhdABEiQA_ojMgkFVGO0p_qot2H-2gbtKV4z0dzF7qXAlA33xIW0Z5yQaAjgD8P8HAQ

Swartz, J. (2013). David Nunan: Syllabus Design. Per Linguam, 5(1). doi:10.5785/5-1-451

Yates, B. (2015). Learning Needs Analysis. Assetproject.info. Retrieved 22 March 2015, from https://www.assetproject.info/learner_methodologies/before/learning_analysis.htm