teaching portfolio

 

Clusters: 1 (Standards 1 - 5) | 2 (Standards 6-9) | 3 (Standard 10)

Standards: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

 

Standard 10 - Commit to reflective practice and ongoing professional renewal

 

In order to improve my teaching practice, I must engage in honest reflection. Ultimately I am the best person to judge the success of my learning practices and by reviewing my actions and using feedback from other colleagues I can target areas that require reinforcement. I will seek out and engage in professional development from experts in these fields which will help me strengthen my skill set (Churchill, Ferguson, Godinho, Johnson, Keddie, Letts, Mackay, McGill, Moss, Nagel, Nicholson & Vick, 2011). Research demonstrates that effective learning communities emphasise reflective collaboration amongst teachers (Lingard & Mills, 2003), and that a link exists between reflection and professional development in creating quality learning experiences (Lingard, Hayes & Mills, 2006).

 

As part of my professional experience at a catholic boys school, I taught a single lesson on modularity in programming initially to a grade 11 IPT class of twelve students, and subsequently a grade 12 IPT class of 23 students. The first lesson was my first chance to teach in the practicum experience.

 

I met with my mentor teacher after the initial lesson. He commented on numerous problems with the lesson, in particular my rapport with the class and my ineffective use of questions to guide the lesson (artefact 1). I reflected on the feedback and identified that the most important changes to be made were the questions. I re-examined my guiding questions from the first lesson (artefact 3) and edited them to be more specific and explicitly state how I would interact with the students (artefact 4).

 

After the lesson with the grade 12 class the next day, I met with my mentor again to reflect on the lesson. His comments were extremely positive, particularly on the use of the questions and rapport with the class (artefact 2). I felt that the lesson was a success and since then I have focused on ensuring my guiding questions are as specific as possible. This helps students understand what I require and allows me to focus extra time on building rapport with them.

 

As a new teacher, you must be honest with yourself. The above example demonstrates how it was easy for another teacher to identify my faults. Since this occasion however, I have been able to reflect using the Productive Pedagogies framework to identify elements such as intellectual quality and connectedness which did, or did not contribute to the learning experience’s goals. Encourage other teachers to observe you in action as they may offer advice not previously considered. Honest reflection opens up opportunities for professional renewal, strengthening your practice.

 

References

Churchill, R., Ferguson, P., Godinho, S., Johnson, N.F., Keddie, A., Letts, W., Mackay, J., McGill, M., Moss, J., Nagel, M.C., Nicholson, P., Vick, M. (2011). Teaching: making a difference. Australia, Milton: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. 

Lingard, B., Hayes, D., & Mills, M. (2006). Teachers and productive pedagogies: contextualising, conceptualising, utilising Pedagogy. Culture and Society , 11 (3), 339-424.) 

Lingard, B., & Mills, M. (2003). Teachers and school reform: Working with productive pedagogies and productive assessment. Melbourne Studies in Education , 44 (1), 1-18.