Pre-requisites

CF604 Faith, Reason and Justice
ED621 Ecology and Management of Learning Environments: School Observation (5 days)
ED631 Curriculum, Assessment and Data: School Observation (5 days)
A combination of 8 units from the student’s Major and Minor
Successful LANTITE Results (Coded as NLTEST and NNTEST)

Co-requisites

ES610 Primary English
ES611 Primary Mathematics

OR

ES620 Secondary Specialisation 1 - Curriculum and Pedagogy ES621 Secondary Specialisation 1 - Assessment and Reporting

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:

• Apply strategies for analysing assessment and other data and use them to: identify evidence of student learning and learning needs; evaluate teaching programs; modify teaching practice; and inform curriculum design and teaching strategies for improving student learning

• Apply knowledge of curriculum, assessment and reporting to design learning sequences and lesson plans that include a range of teaching strategies and resources including ICT to engage students in their learning, and that define learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics

• In the context of a placement apply a range of differentiated teaching, assessment, recording and feedback strategies, and appropriate resources, including ICT, in response to the learning strengths and needs of diverse students; and organise classroom activities, providing clear directions and using a range of communication and classroom management strategies that support the engagement, safety and well-being of diverse students

• Plan and apply strategies to support consistent, comparable judgments of student learning, including the use of assessment moderation, collaboration and assessment design

• Demonstrate and apply knowledge and understanding of assessment purposes and strategies including formal and informal diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment, and the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback that promotes student learning, including a Christian perspective

• Create and critically evaluate assessment tools that provide reliable evidence of student learning

• Show understanding of, and apply, a range of strategies for reporting learning progress and achievements to students, parents/carers, and other stakeholders in education, and the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement

• In the context of a placement critically reflect on your own and others’ teaching practices, seek, evaluate, and apply advice and feedback from experienced teachers in order to evaluate and improve your teaching practice, and demonstrate increasing knowledge and understanding of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and The Victorian Teaching Profession Code of Conduct, and their application to professional practice and identity

Unit Description

Building on what was covered under ED631, this unit further develops your understanding of assessment and evaluation and how they relate to curriculum, planning and improving practice and learning. The unit engages with educational theory and research related to the integration of assessment processes, evidence of learning, data interpretation and curriculum design for evaluating and improving teaching programs and students’ learning outcomes. Students will also learn how to engage with the Victorian Curriculum F-10, Senior Secondary (Years 11-12) and Australian Curriculum in designing appropriate assessments of learning and planning for teaching.

You will develop your understanding of, and capacity, to use a range of formal and informal assessment strategies, including the use and analysis of multiple forms of data, assessment moderation processes and their application to assessing and improving student learning outcomes. The unit covers the purpose and processes of designing activities that provide valid and reliable evidence of learning, designing rubrics that clearly define criteria and communicate achievement standards, and the processes of data analysis to determine student learning and needs. You will examine key issues confronting education and education policy makers, exploring a range of influences on contemporary education policy such as the role of data, and the place of national and global organisations in the policy making process, measuring impact through standardised testing at national level such as NAPLAN, and at international level including such assessments as PISA and TIMMS. The unit covers how to make evidence-based decisions, and apply differentiated practice in response to assessment outcomes.

Through this unit, you will examine the purposes of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their learning in order to improve their work, set learning goals and self-regulate their learning and progress. The unit covers the purposes and processes of keeping accurate and reliable records of students’ progress and learning outcomes, and a range of reporting processes in order to report learning outcomes to a range of stakeholders, including parents, students, school leaders and external professionals. You will synthesise your knowledge and understanding and relate it to professional practice and your development as a teacher.

The professional experience component of this unit entails attending a placement school (primary or secondary respective of the course being completed) for a block of 15 consecutive days. Under the supervision of an experienced teacher you will apply and develop your teaching practices, beginning with a week’s orientation, observing and assisting in the classroom, and gradually progress through team teaching, teaching small groups to teaching whole classes for whole lessons. You will continue to focus on learning through regularly observing and reflecting on experienced teachers’ practices. The same placement school will be attended for this unit and one of ES712 or ES713 (BEd Primary), or ES626 (BEd Secondary).

You will attend preparation classes prior to the professional experience placement and a debrief class after its completion. During the placement your supervising teacher will provide you with advice, support and feedback to support your progress and improve your practices, and will assess your teaching against the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the graduate level. You are required to incorporate digital technologies in your teaching, learning, preparation and assessment practices displaying improving personal proficiency. As you progress through the Professional Experience, you are expected to demonstrate increasing competence and professional growth and become well immersed in school life.

Topics

• A Christian response to assessment, evaluation and curriculum design
• Different forms and purposes of formal and informal assessment including diagnostic, formative and summative assessment and the key elements to assessment for learning, of learning and as learning
• Instruments for measuring impact on student engagement, participation and learning
• Assessment moderation, standards and rubrics
• Understanding and using ‘big data’ such as NAPLAN, PAT, PISA, and TIMMS
• Theory of effective learning; quality assessment for the 21st Century and making evidence-based decisions
• Data analysis, recording and reporting
• Strategies and purposes for providing timely and meaningful feedback for learning
• Using data for evaluating and improving teaching programs and modify teaching practice to improve students learning against the Victorian Curriculum F-10, Senior Secondary (Years 11-12) and Australian Curriculum
• Strategies for engaging parents/carers: what they want and need to know
• Preparing for professional experience in school
• How to seek and use feedback to improve practice
• Reflecting and debriefing on your professional experience in school

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Unit offerings

Face to face: Semester 1, 2024 (Every Year, Semester 1)

Please note

The Unit Offerings listed above are a guide only and the timetable for any year is the final authority. The College may vary offerings based on demand, regulatory requirements, continual improvement processes or other conditions.

This unit may be available in different modes of delivery i.e. online and face-to-face as listed above. The unit content will not differ between these modes of delivery. There will possibly be a difference in the schedule and/or the prescribed assessment tasks, however both will cover and assess the same content.