Excellence in Professional Practice Conference

DAY 1: Sunday 17 March 2013

KEYNOTE1: 9.10am - 10.30am

School Improvement through Evidence-based Practices

Presenter: Professor Geoff Masters, CEO, ACER

RESOURCE: Keynote 1 Presentation pdf:1.12mb

Findings from international research provide insights into practices of highly effective leaders, highly effective schools, highly effective teachers and highly effective systems. The challenge for us as a profession is to continue to identify and promote ‘evidence-based best practices’. This keynote will discuss what is required at the school level to promote improved teaching and learning.

SESSION 1: 11.00am - 12.15pm

SESSION 1 | Doing it Our Way: Using the Australian Curriculum as a platform to transform literacy pedagogy in the Middle School

Presenter: Sherrie Davis, Palm Beach Currumbin State High School, QLD

Focus: Middle Years (Years 6 to 9)
Specific Domain: English
General Capabilities: Literacy

RESOURCES:

Handout 1: Powerpoint presentation PDF 1104KB

Handout 1: Planning PDF 338KB

Handout 3: Teaching PDF 396KB

Handout 4: Narrative PDF 399KB

Handout 5: Transformation PDF 399KB

Handout 6: Check List PDF 182KB

Adopting a generic resource like the Curriculum to Classroom (C2C) units and assessment tasks has undoubtedly made Australian Curriculum implementation easier in Queensland. However, it is the adaptation of this resource to individual school contexts that has been the real challenge for our teachers in 2012.

How do we capitalise on the opportunities this curriculum transition offers to build teacher expertise and improve students’ outcomes?

This presentation takes a look at the Australian Curriculum implementation journey at Palm Beach Currumbin State High School. The school has more than 2000 students and 120 teachers and as such has had to confront the issue of fluently managing such a huge transition for a large number of staff and students.

Sherrie will share how the school used the process of adapting C2C resources to transform explicit literacy teaching in the middle school and how this process helped teachers refine their alignment of assessment with explicit literacy teaching and how it shaped the professional development program in which they engaged.

For Palm Beach Currumbin State High School, a smooth and effective transition to the Australian Curriculum was always going to be about seeing the opportunities it offered for building the capacity of teachers to deliver explicit pedagogy aimed at improving achievement for their own students.

SESSION 1 | Teaching the Australian Curriculum using Captioned Multimodal Texts and Audio Visual Resources

Presenter: Anne McGrath, Media Access Australia, NSW

Focus: Whole School
Content level: Years 4 to 8
Specific Domain: English
General capabilities: Literacy, ICTs

RESOURCES:
Presentation Summary: 134KB
Handout: 446KB

Effective teaching of the Australian Curriculum requires both students and teachers to use a range of technologies, the internet and supporting online resources to address diverse learning needs. Of particular interest is the use of multimodal texts promoted in the Australian Curriculum, for example, in digital/online form.

Recent research, which will be referenced in the presentation, supports the benefits of the use of captioned audiovisual content to improve students listening, reading comprehension, incidental vocabulary acquisition and information recall.

The focus of the presentation will be the use of captioned multimodal/audiovisual resources to teach skills and concepts for students with diverse learning needs.

Specific reference will be made to Australian Curriculum Content Descriptions and how the use of captions, as a teaching and learning tool, can assist teachers with implementation strategies. Participants will work with segments of lesson plans to further their understanding of the innovative use of captioned multimodal/audiovisual resources, to teach skills and concepts.

Participants are encouraged to BYOD (bring your own device) to the session.

SESSION 1 | Building Teacher Capacity to Embrace and Implement Change

Presenter: Donna Evans, The Glennie School, QLD

Focus: Middle
Content level: Years 6 to 9
General capabilities: Implementation and change management

RESOURCE:

Teachers are working in a rapidly changing professional environment and, whilst critical to the successful implementation of curriculum reform, are often overlooked in the change agenda. Too often, large scale and mandated reform happens outside the teacher’s sphere of practice. For real and sustained reform to occur, teacher voices are critical.

Donna’s doctoral research explores what a group of primary and middle years teachers in a Queensland, co-educational, independent school, are saying about their planning, design and implementation experiences as they engage with Phase 1 of the Australian Curriculum.

Research indicates that teachers with higher levels of self efficacy (from Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory) are able to engage, mediate and enact change more effectively resulting in increased definable learning outcomes for the students they teach.

Donna will explain the research which explores these teachers’ perceptions of their own self efficacy in the early phase of design and implementation of Science, Maths and English in the Australian Curriculum. The challenges presented by the research relate to ways that policy makers, education authorities and educational institutions can use teachers’ experiences to build teacher capacity and embed sustained and meaningful change across broader educational landscapes, particularly through practices of collaboration and professional learning communities.

SESSION 1 | The Deadly Medley: Pooling our talents to embrace Indigenous teachings

Presenter: Evan Willis, Pullenvale State School, QLD

Focus: Primary
Content level: Years 4 to 7
Specific Domain: History
General Capabilities: Critical and creative thinking
Cross Curriculum Priorities: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures.

RESOURCE:
Presentation Overview: 64KB
Presentation Slides: 1933KB

Pullenvale State School has established a community agreement between the school and the University of Queensland, along with other external organisations, to support Indigenous pre-service teachers and to create quality resources and learning opportunities for our children.

The Deadly Medley has identified three strategies to enhance Indigenous perspectives within the teaching and learning framework at Pullenvale:

the PEARL program, promoting ‘pearls of wisdom’ that generate meaningful engagement with Indigenous perspectives in Years 4 and 5
mentoring of Indigenous pre-service teachers at the school, promoting cultural diversity in an otherwise homogenous school and assisting the role models to succeed in areas that are traditionally challenging
through the assistance of the NAB Schools First program, creating a suite of oral histories that will be available for all schools to access and promote Indigenous perspectives.

Evan’s presentation will outline the processes and negotiations that took place to support these initiatives and engage community support. The teaching and learning details of the PEARL program will be outlined as will the success stories behind the support for the future creation of the oral histories resources.

SESSION 2: 1.15pm - 2.30pm

SESSION 2 | The World is My Classroom

Presenter: Anne Mirtschin, Hawkesdale P12 College, VIC

Focus: Whole School
Specific Domain: Intercultural understanding, Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia|
General Capabilities: ICT

RESOURCE: PDF 59KB

Anne’s session will discuss and demonstrate global classrooms where students and teachers connect, collaborate and create beyond physical classroom walls.

In a time where technology is flattening our world, it is important that global education takes on increasing importance in the classroom. Learning is becoming increasingly virtual, global and 24/7. The innovative use of technology allows us to learn with the world both synchronously and asynchronously, taking learning beyond the textbook and giving students the opportunity to connect in authentic ways with the cultures and people they are learning about.

There are great opportunities for creating real connections to learn with and collaborate through enriching and engaging projects. Anne will demonstrate some popular web2.0 tools that allow connection, communication and collaboration, including video and web conferencing, virtual classrooms, wikis, twitter, blogs, Moodle and others. Some amazing and exciting classroom stories will be shared including examples of blended and flipped classrooms and vertical learning, with connections to Asian schools being emphasised. Discover where to source global projects, find local, Asian and global partners, the challenges to be aware of and key factors for success.

SESSION 2 | Challenge to Opportunity: A small school's journey through the Australian Curriculum

Presenter: Naomi Meerwald, Darlington State School, QLD

Focus: Prep to Year 7
Specific Domain: Mathematics, English, Science and History

RESOURCE:

Darlington State School is a small rural school catering for 16 students in all year levels from Prep to Year 7.

As a single classroom the implementation of the Australian Curriculum presented various and unique challenges, each of which have been turned into opportunity.

This presentation outlines Darlington State School’s implementation of the Australian Curriculum in Maths, English, Science and History in a small school with a teaching principal. Naomi will address challenges and solutions in student groupings, curriculum organisation, and documentation and templates the school has developed, while building the capacity of staff, students and community. Naomi will share how they:

implemented a systematic curriculum and differentiated learning across eight year levels in a multi-age setting and still provided effective teaching
ensured improved student outcomes and promoted a culture of learning through the Australian curriculum; and
targeted resources for maximum output within the school setting.

This presentation shares Darlington’s journey, which began in 2010, and the positive outcomes it has had on students, staff and the wider community.

SESSION 2 | A New Curriculum: A new beginning

Presenter: Yvonne Patterson, Gray Primary School, NT

Focus: Prep to Year 6
Specific domain: English, Literacy
General capabilities: Building Teacher Capacity

RESOURCE:
PRESENTATION: pdf 475KB

HANDOUTS

This workshop will demonstrate a way to use the Australian Curriculum to develop a whole school approach to the ‘assessment of writing’ from Foundation to Year 6. It is about building on the good practices that already exist, and aligning them with the National Curriculum to develop a way forward. The approach actively involves students in their own learning journey and incorporates the student voice. In conjunction with the teacher, students review their individual learning progress and make informed decisions about the next step in their learning path. The steps in learning are explicit and incremental. Students have a measure of control, ownership and responsibility for their own learning progress. As each student experiences success, so they are motivated for the next stage of their learning. Participants will engage with student work and sections of the National Curriculum to provide practical experience in developing and using materials based on the new English Curriculum.

SESSION 2 |Meddling in the Middle: Purposefully improving learning

Presenter: Linda Shardlow, Methodist Ladies College, VIC

Focus: Secondary Mathematics
Content level: Years 9 to 12
Specific domain: Mathematics
General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking
Cross curriculum priorities: Sustainability

RESOURCE:Presentation: pdf: 7,450KB

Who are my students becoming by spending time with me and who am I becoming as a teacher? John Hattie says: "Know thy student, know thy impact, know learning and progression in thy subject, know progress, then attainment." (Visible Learning for Teachers). This presentation will explore the ways in which I have tried to adopt a more interventionist approach to the teaching of mathematics in order to better scaffold learning for my students in both the analytical and affective domains. What can be done to elicit and engender deeper thinking, greater self-efficacy-including ownership and self-regulation, less anxiety, and a greater willingness to use errors instructionally? I will examine what dispositions are beneficial in order to develop 'learning power' in both our students and us as teachers. How can the current research in neuroscience, mindsets and the 'flipped classroom' benefit learners in a mathematics classroom? And what evidence do we need to collect to show that we have made a difference to our students' learning?

SESSION 3: 2.30pm - 3.45pm

SESSION 3 | ICT Capability: It’s (not) about the device – when reality and expectation collide in the Australian Curriculum (Expert Session)*

Presenter: Phil Callil, President, Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association

Focus: Whole School
General Capabilities: ICT

RESOURCE: Presentation.pdf: 1.312kb

ICT capability involves students in learning to make the most of the technologies available to them, adapting to new ways of doing things as technologies evolve and limiting the risks to themselves and others in a digital environment.
This presentation will give an overview of the ICT General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum and what that might mean for ICT innovation, vision and practice in promoting learning with Australian students.

Phil will address a number of questions.

What vision should educators be aspiring to with ICT in 2013?

How much has the iPad phenomenon really changed learning in Australian schools?

What are the key strengths of the ICT General Capabilities?

Are there implementation challenges and what are some of the possible solutions?

SESSION 3 | Critical and Creative Thinking across the Domains (Expert Session)*

Presenter: Alma Tooke, Methodist Ladies College, VIC

Focus: Whole School
General Capabilities: Critical and creative thinking

RESOURCE: Presentation. pdf. 3,883kb

It is very important for students to develop capability in critical and creative thinking as they learn to generate and evaluate knowledge, clarify concepts and ideas, investigate possibilities, consider alternatives and solve problems.
Alma will explain why critical and creative thinking are integral to activities that require students to think broadly and deeply using skills, behaviours and dispositions such as reason, logic, resourcefulness, imagination and innovation in all learning areas at school and in their lives beyond school. Critical and creative thinking are not interchangeable but strongly linked, bringing complementary dimensions to thinking and learning.

SESSION 3 | Numeracy: Contexts outside the Mathematics classroom (Expert Session)*

Presenter: Cath Pearn, ACER

Focus: Whole School
General Capabilities: Numeracy

RESOURCE:Presentation 622KB

Numeracy encompasses the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that students need to use mathematics in a wide range of situations. The Numeracy learning continuum identifies the related mathematical knowledge and skills, and contextualises these through learning area examples. As Cath will explain, when teachers identify numeracy demands across the curriculum, students have opportunities to transfer their mathematical knowledge and skills to contexts outside the mathematics classroom. These opportunities assist students to recognise the interconnected nature of mathematical knowledge, learning areas and the wider world,S and encourage them to use their mathematical skills broadly.

SESSION 3 | Supporting development of Asia-relevant capabilities through the Australian Curriculum (Expert Session)*

Presenters: Dr Eeqbal Hassim and Pamela Stewart, Asia Education Foundation

Focus: Whole School
General Capabilities: Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia

RESOURCE: Presentation Pdf: 2,971KB

Eeqbal and Pamela will explain why the priority on Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia will ensure that students learn about and recognise the diversity within and between the countries of the Asia region. They will develop knowledge and understanding of Asian societies, cultures, beliefs and environments, and the connections between the peoples of Asia, Australia, and the rest of the world. Asia literacy provides students with the skills to communicate and engage with the peoples of Asia so they can effectively live, work and learn in the region.

*Expert Sessions will be held on Sunday 17 March 2013, Concurrent Session 3: 2.30 – 3.45pm. The sessions aim to bring to life a number of the General Cababilities that all teachers will need to be aware of, and have a good understanding of, how these general capabilites relate to their classes and Domains.