Name: Keegan Doherty

Student Number: S00153812

EDFD218 Teaching and Learning: Preparing for the Context of the Field.
Critical reflection 1

Date: 3rd March, 2014

In preparation for our first week of placement, we as pre-service teachers, were challenged to begin
to think like teachers outside of the school environment through developing and learning the
processes involved within lesson planning.
Lesson planning must begin with a purpose. This is what I, as the teacher, am hoping to achieve in
the time period of a lesson. This was a completely different mindset to what I am used to doing
during my time at school and more so university. Being so accustomed to learning via a set
curriculum, it was now my turn to begin in developing engaging task for students to follow. This
means considering time or task sequencing, classroom resources and organisation, closure of lessons
and extensions of lessons for those students that complete the set task earlier than expected
(Groundwater-Smith, Cusworth & Dobbins, (2004)). This weeks lecture focussed on Blooms
Taxonomy, which contributes to lesson planning as it is a classification system used to define and
distinguish different levels of student cognition, or in other words the processes of how we think.
This must be considered when creating a lesson plan as it acts as a guide to the development of
assessments, curriculum and instructional practices such as questioning strategies.
This also meant assessing components of what I believed makes a good teacher or for good
teaching. Marsh asserts that a beginning teacher has to be both an optimist and a realist (Marsh, C.,
(2008)). This means that teachers must see hope that all students, despite their upbringings and
social background, can achieve their goals and strive for individual student success as well as
realising possible flaws in individual students behaviour that can be developed either socially or
intellectually.

Commented [K1]: 1.2 Linking theoretical underpinnings

(Blooms Taxonomy) to my practice when planning for
lessons means I am taking into consideration the needs of
the students within my class and how they best learn. This
includes how I plan to assess students, instructional practices
and curriculum links.

Name: Keegan Doherty

Critical reflection 2

Student Number: S00153812

Date: 10th March, 2014

Continuing from the first weeks learning, the focus of this is the induction of lesson planning and
writing of our own lesson plan. Before writing a lesson plan however, there were many
considerations I needed to keep in mind in order to cater for the needs and assessments of the
specific year level I was going to observe on placement. This also meant considering the domains of
AUSVELS under the Australian Curriculum Assessment Authority and Reporting Authority (ACARA).
It was surprising to see that my placement was to be in a grade 5/6 classroom, not only due to last
placement being in a grade 3/4 class, however more so when designing a lesson plan I had keep in
mind the task had to cater for students whos learning in a particular field may be lower than
expected (possibly at a grade 3 to 4 level in some accounts) but also challenging enough for students
leading into their secondary years of education. The AUSVELS domain types for which the lesson was
to be planned around are as follows:
Physical, personal & social learning such as health and physical education, personal learning
and interpersonal development
Discipline based learning such as arts, English and humanities
Interdisciplinary learning such as communication, design and creativity & technology
The particular stage of learning I would need to focus my lesson plan on would be the years 5-8
stage, which focusses on building breadth and depth. This means broadening not only students
knowledge, but awareness of different stands and sub-strands in subjects, as well as creating a
deeper and thorough understanding of these topics.
All of these considerations are outlined and in high detail throughout ACARAs online resources, with
their mission being to improve the learning of all young Australians through world-class school
curriculum, assessment and reporting (ACARA, (2014)).

Commented [K2]: 1.1 This demonstrates I am

considering the phsycial, social and intellectual
developments of my students when planning lesson content
in ways that support full student participation.

Name: Keegan Doherty

Critical Reflection 3

Student Number: S00153812

Date: 17th March, 2014

During the first week of placement, it was interesting to see the theory learnt during my time in
lectures and tutorials actually being put into practices. Particularly this weeks focus of learning
about the art of questioning and communication.
As a pre-service teacher (PST), communication is one of the most important factors of becoming a
teacher and it was insightful to observe how the teacher of the classroom I was allocated to,
managed to effectively communicate her message to the whole classroom. Questions are used to by
teachers to prompt the students to think and respond to the content of teachers messages. My
teacher used questions countless times throughout the day, not simply to challenge students with
work, however also as a form of exemplifying and further emphasising the importance of a particular
task. For example, when doing an assessment in the classroom, the teacher outlined the importance
of reading the paragraph several times before responding to the comprehension questions. Once
the teacher let the students begin, immediately several students started to write answers rather
than read, which noting this the teacher questioned a particular student what she had said before
starting the comprehension. This was followed by asking another student what the importance of
reading the passage was in relation of the task. This acts not only to reinforce the message of the
teacher and task set, but gives students a chance to voice their own questions, opinions, thoughts as
well as the opportunity to self-correct oneself or another student.
The teachers techniques when questioning students were also very clear and precise. Methods such
as allowing adequate time for students to think (up to 6 seconds), rephrasing the question to clarify
for students and prompting the student by repeating herself several times.

Commented [K3]: 1.1, 1.2 and 1.5 Using Questioning

and prompting as a main teaching strategy to both challenge
students current conceptions, as well as provoking thought
and discussion of ideas.

Name: Keegan Doherty

Critical Reflection 4

Student Number: S00153812

Date: 24th March, 2014

Going into the second week of placement, I am already starting to build relations around the school
environment including teachers, staff and students. It was interesting to learn about ethics and
teaching as a profession seeing myself, like all PSTs are beginning to develop relations to different
people within the schooling environment.
It is important to maintain a high level of professionalism in the industry of teaching as it is referred
to as the process whereby members of a profession aspire to increasingly meet the criteria of their
group. This may seem like a different role for teachers because observing on all my current
placements so far, the teacher knows each student and family on a personal level, which is required
of them so they are able to assist the childs learning and strive for the student to reach their
goals/full potential their life has to offer them. Teachers hence hold a unique position of trust and
influence through these relationships with students, parents, colleagues and the community.
The teacher I am currently observing in a grade 5/6 classroom environment, assured me that we (as
teachers or PST) must be friendly to students but not their friend. This was an interesting concept to
me as it means that a teacher must demonstrate integrity by acting in the best interest of the
student, respect through care and compassion towards each individual as a student and
acknowledging parents as a partner in the education of their child.
This was illustrated on placement through one particular student that needs the extra assistance of
the teacher, as he needs to improve his language and mathematical skills, which the teacher assigns
extra work for him and constantly communicates to his parents of his strengths/weaknesses and
things he needs to improve at home. In this way, the teacher does not need to constantly be
checking on this particular student in the classroom setting, as the parents are playing an active role
in the education of their child.

Commented [K4]: 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 Demonstrates my

recognition of noting how the teacher caters for this student
with learning difficulties and highlights the benefits of
building strong relationships with parents/carers, as parental
support is an essential aspect of a childs social and
intellectual development.

Name: Keegan Doherty

Critical Reflection 5

Student Number: S00153812

Date: 31st March, 2014

In our final week of placement before the school holidays, our focus of the week was surrounding
teaching handwriting and communication in the classroom. The specific aims of initial handwriting
programs are the development of adequate muscular coordination, writing hand preference,
suitable pen hold and the ability to draw basic shapes and lines.
During placement, these instructions can be seen in action within the grade 5/6 environment with
students trying to focus on not only improving the clarity and legibility of their writing, but also
incorporating looping or joint writing. Children best learn handwriting by modelling the actions of
the teacher, which students in grade 5/6 have already developed the basic skills of handwriting,
hence the teacher is trying to challenge students to become faster, more efficient and fluent writers.
Having the chance to discuss the techniques of handwriting within the classroom with the teacher,
whom has previously taught lower primary levels, explained that as teachers we must be aware of
how the child holds the pen (pen grip) and how the child places the paper, posture and the utensil or
stationary the child is using. Lower primary levels tend to use pencil as they can erase and correct
grammatical mistakes to improve their writing technique and literacy skills. It was interesting to note
despite not being a handwriting issues as such, that even within the grade 5/6 environment, that
some students although are able to identify all 26 lower and upper case letters, many have
misconceptions of when to place the capital letters and need constant reinforcement of when they
should be used.

Name: Keegan Doherty

Student Number: S00153812

EDFD218 Teaching and Learning: Preparing for the Context of the Field.
Critical Reflection Summary

Date: 5th April, 2014

During my time in EDFD218 and the three weeks of placement in a grade 5/6 classroom
environment, it has been interesting to see the teaching theories and instructions I have learnt over
the past 2-years being put into practice within the classroom. The experiences gained over
placement have also made me consider what I believe contributes to becoming a good teacher and
what is good teaching.
It has become clear that before a teacher can even walk into a classroom environment, they must be
prepared. Lesson planning is a key influence for constituting good teaching as it outlines the many
points to consider when/before instructing a lesson. These points include:
Purpose What the teacher aims to achieve in the lesson and reason for doing so?
Task engagement How can the teacher hook the students? How to involve all students
to be interested in the lesson?
Resources and organisation What is going to be needed to successfully complete the
lesson?
Evaluation and reflection Allocating time for questions and for students to reflect how
successful/difficult the lesson was.
Following up How can the lesson be continued to provide an effective learning experience
for students?
When devising my own lesson plan, these were the key considerations I needed to keep in mind,
whilst managing to keep the work relevant to the year level and cater to all learning capacities.
Communication was an area I not only aimed to improve when writing my lesson plan, but is a large
contributor to effective teaching. Observing during my placement, the teacher was able to speak to
the children in a clear precise manner when giving instructions as well as when asking questions
giving the student plenty of time to respond. Giving children an adequate amount of time to respond
to a question allows them to consider all features of what a question is asking of them, as well as
giving students an opportunity for self-correction of an answer. During placement, I was given the
opportunity to take a small group of students to discuss words with similar phonetics that are spelt
differently. In this lesson, I was able to ask my own questions to the students using the techniques
discussed in EDFD. This meant following asking a question to students, I would pause giving the
student time to think, prompt the student by repeating key words of the question, rephrase the
question if the student was experiencing difficulties and then continue by adding cues to the answer
to assist the child.
I also had the opportunity to assist a child that has a learning difficulty during placement. Having
asked the student questions, it was clear that I needed to reword my question several times in
different ways for him to understand what I was actually asking him to do. This was a rather new
concept for me to learn because although I was changing the wording of a question, I needed to
maintain the meaning and message of the question without actually providing any prompts of the
answer. This was a new experience however after working with the same student over weeks and
developing a relation with him, not only did I begin to cater for this, but it also became an easier task
each time.
Over the three-weeks of observation placement next semester, and the three-week teaching block, I
plan to further enhance my student communicational skills with a particular focus of speaking in a
clearer and more precise voice when giving instructions as this is a skill that I have identified could
use improving. I also plan to further enhance my lesson planning skills during the three-week
teaching block.

Commented [K5]: 1.2 Reflecting upon my own teaching

experience as to what strategies were effective for student
learning and what implications I may have had with
particular strategies or lesson content. Time management
and questioning proved to be one of the most influential
learning tools throughout my placement in the 5/6 setting as
students responded positively to class discussions and
auditory prompts.
Commented [K6]: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.5 and 1.6 I had the
opportunity to work one-on-one with a student that had
mental learning difficulties, associated with poor memory
retention. Despite being highly capable and had a deep
understanding of literature, he struggled in the areas of
developing social skills and mathematics (particularly the
concepts of time). I often found myself needing to reword
questions and using visual prompts to draw information and
encourage deeper thinking from this student. Overall the
experience was highly rewarding and beneficial for the social
and intellectual needs of the student.

Name: Keegan Doherty

Student Number: S00153812

Bibliography:
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Report Authority. (2014). Retrieved from:
http://www.acara.edu.au/default.asp
Marsh, C. (2008). Becoming a Teacher Knowledge, Skills and Issues. National Library
of Australia. Forest: NSW.
Groundwater-Smith, Cusworth & Dobbins. (2004). Teaching Challenges and
Dilemma. 2nd Ed. Harcourt Brace, Australia.