EDUC 4206 Emily Revell

Professional Experience 4: Teacher as Inquirer 110111559

Professional Inquiry Project Report

Focus
From a reflective process of gathering evidence against each area of the The Australian Teacher Standards
(AITSL 2017) it was determined that the Professional Inquiry Project (PIP) would be centred around
‘Professional Practice - Standard 5 – Assess, providing feedback and report on student learning – 5.3 Make
consistent and comparable judgements’ (AITSL 2017, p. 16) with a specific focus of how authentic
assessment strategies, that create opportunities for improved learning and continual growth, can be used to
make consistent and comparable judgements of student learning?

The purpose of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL 2017) is to inform of the quality of
knowledge, practice and professional engagement that is required of teachers at the different stages of their
careers, and is used by accreditation and registration authorities.

Recently in the media there has been scrutiny over high-stakes testing, such as the National Assessment
Program – Literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN), where suggestions have been made that they are having
negative impacts on the curriculum, pedagogy and the students’ educational experiences (Polesel, Rice and
Dulfer 2013). With an assessment program such as NAPLAN, that has such a large infiltration in Australian
schooling, it is important to understand how assessment can be made to be authentic, whilst following site
schools’ individual Assessment and Reporting Policies.

Researching theoretical perspectives of assessments lead to some key findings. Authentic assessments were
said by multiple authors to be fair, ethical, transparent, valid and reliable (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le
Cornu 2011 and Brady & Kennedy 2012). Approaches of involving multiple assessment strategies that
capture the quality of a students’ work, capture normal daily performance and reflect the learning and
teaching of the classroom and real world beyond. The focus is for the purpose of student learning and
assessment and curriculum must be authentically and inextricably linked (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le
Cornu 2011).

Justification of teaching behaviour & curriculum area focus

Developing skills in negotiating different assessment methods, in line with the school and government
assessment policies, theoretical perspectives and personal pedagogy, is a challenge relevant in today’s
educational context. The opportunity for growth in knowledge, practice and professional engagement, with
the guidance of a mentor teacher, will provide as an attribute to a graduating teacher.
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The PIP was conducted in the curriculum area of mathematics. The placement site used a Natural Maths
Strategies (Baker 2006-2007) approach, which supported the planning of hands-on lesson activities that
follow a sequence: of mental routines at the beginning of every lesson, a problematized situation lesson
followed by a strategy lesson. Each lesson ends with time for reflection where children share their
understandings and strategies and the story of the lesson summarises their learning.

Context and curriculum area

The placement site is a government primary school (DECD) located 20km North of Adelaide and caters for
approximately 330 students from reception to year 7. The school is characterised by high levels of student
participation and learning achievements, parental involvement, and extra curricular activities in the areas of
Performing Arts and Physical Education.

The composite Foundation/Year 1 class has 26 students who are predominantly in Year 1 (23 Year 1’s and 3
Receptions) and is located in an Early Years Unit. The teacher works collaboratively with early years’ teachers
to plan term overviews, themes, weekly and individual lesson plans. The class represents multiple cultural
diversities and has a number of children who are EALD. A small group of children who require literacy
support attend a ‘Mini lit’ program with an ESO Monday to Thursday for 1 hour each morning. There are no
children within the class who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders or who have Individual
Education Plans (IEP’s).

During the placement block it was important to maintain consistency within the curriculum for the benefit of
the children. The PST maintained the terms overview and planned for maths lessons in the Australian
Curriculum strand of ‘Measurement and Geometry’ with a focus on the sub-strand ‘Units of Measure’.

Design & data collection techniques

A unit was planned for the first week of the placement block in the curriculum area of time. In planning the
unit, a combination of different resources and teaching methods were utilised to support differentiated
learning and followed the lesson sequence suggested by ‘Natural Maths Strategies’ (2006-2007). Following
the final summative assessment, data collection techniques were implemented for the Inquiry.

Data was collected throughout the placement block so that it could be influential to subsequent unit plans
and create opportunities for reflective and reflexive practices and supporting the continual growth of
knowledge, practice and professional engagement across all teaching standards, and in particularly areas of
assessment. The methods for data collection include mentor teacher interviews (Appendix 1), a PST journal
(Appendix 2) and student feedback surveys (Appendix 3).

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Data results & analysis

Stage one:
In the interview the teacher gave positive feedback suggesting that the assessment methods were authentic
and purposeful. The teacher commenting ‘I believe it was accessible to all students and their current
learning. The students were able to demonstrate their learning and Emily was able to get a clear
understanding of their current achievement.’ In areas of improved practice, it was identified that ‘an effort
to improve her assessments based on the children’s learning needs and abilities’ would be an area of focus
for future assessments.

In the PST journal, a reflection on the formative and summative assessment methods occurred. By gathering
the assessment samples (Appendix 5), analysing them and then debriefing with the mentor teacher, the PST
was able to see areas for improvement. Worksheets used as a formative assessment strategy (Appendix 4),
was in reflection limiting to the children’s ability to demonstrate higher order thinking. It was discussed that
by using methods such as task cards, which provided students with a description of a problem, and then
allowing children to record their findings in their books, provided greater scope for identifying their current
level of understandings whilst also providing opportunity for higher order thinking and potentially
demonstrate abilities above the C grade level.

The children were provided with opportunity to give feedback through a survey where they were asked
simple questions about the assessment. This provided opportunity to reflect form the students’ position.
Questions such as ‘Did you understand what to do in the task?’ and ‘Do you think you did well in the
assessment?’ were used to collect data relevant to theoretical concepts of authentic assessment. The results
of the survey indicated that the students’ feedback positively reflected on the assessment as being authentic
in that it was fair, ethical and transparent, with one child commenting ‘It is fair because everyone will do it’.

In discussing the purpose of summative assessments with the mentor teacher, some areas of reflection
arose with suggestions that a summative assessment may occur at the end of a block of learning rather than
following each individual unit. This would provide opportunity to observe if the children have internalised
the concepts where they have become concrete knowledge and can be recalled and applied to different
situations at different times. Based on this opportunity to moderate the assessment, it was decided that
formative assessment strategies would be of greater benefit to teaching and learning during the PST block.

Stage two:
In stage two the focus was to create authentic assessments which supported higher order thinking and
utilised multiple methods of formative assessment based on findings from the PIP data. Data for stage two of

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the inquiry was collected following a maths unit of capacity which was implemented in the third week of the
placement block so allowed for time to evaluate and implement improved strategies. The methods of the
mentor teacher interview, PST journal and student feedback survey were again collected.
The data identified that improvements had been made to create assessments that were authentic. An
example of this was by activating the students’ prior knowledge during the mental routine with the aim to
determine the students’ current level of understanding, and using that information to ensure the learning
task was of an appropriate level of difficulty (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu 2011). The unit began
with a problematised situation which allowed for open-ended opportunities to approach the problem.
During this lesson informal observations were made and work samples were collected (Appendix 6) and used
to develop a strategy lesson, which addressed misconceptions.

The interview with the mentor teacher revealed that the implemented changes were successful in their aim
to provide opportunity for the assessment of different levels of ability ‘Having a balance of hands on
experiences and writing tasks to inform student learning is essential when developing a grade’.
In reflection, the PST could see how the changes to planning and practice improved learning outcomes for
students. Student feedback gathered from the survey (Appendix 7) confirmed that they had a greater
understanding of the task (90%), thought it was fair (70%) and believed that they did well in the task (75%).

Reflection
The process of being a reflective and reflexive practitioner has been a rewarding experience. It enabled the
PST to experience personal development in knowledge, practice and professional engagement in
preparation of transitioning to a graduate teacher. The support provided by the mentor teacher for the
Inquiry was particular useful as they were able to give feedback and advise in all areas of development and in
particularly assessment. I believe that the experience of engaging with the PIP has demonstrated how
reflection and reflexive practices can enhance performance for a practicing teacher and create a greater
level of job satisfaction.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the PST has demonstrated the ability to develop and engage in a professional inquiry, with the
aim to gather evidence against the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL 2017) at a graduate
level in the area of Standard 5.3 (AITSL 2017, p. 16). In this process an understanding of the importance of
being a reflective and reflexive practitioner has been understood and skills have been developed to support
ongoing practice. The Inquiry process has strengthened the PST’s position of ‘good’ pedagogy and has
provided evidence of how authentic assessment strategies, that create opportunities for improved learning
and continual growth, can be used to make consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.

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Reference List

ACARA 2015, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), F-10 Curriculum,
Mathematics, Foundation to Year 10 Curriculum v7.5, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting
Authority, viewed 21 April 2017, < http://v7-5.australiancurriculum.edu.au/mathematics/rationale >.

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership 2017, Australian professional standards for teachers,
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, viewed 30 July 2018,
<https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards>.

Baker, A & Baker, J 2006-2007, Natural maths strategies, Blake Education, Leichhardt, N.S.W.

Brady, L & Kennedy, K 2012, Assessment and Reporting Celebrating Student Achievement, Pearson, Victoria.

Groundwater-Smith, S, Ewing, R, & Le Cornu, R 2011, Teaching: Challenges and Dilemmas, 4th edn, Cengage
Learning, Victoria.

Polesel, J, Rice, S and Duffer, N 2013, ‘The Impact of high-stakes testing on curriculum and pedagogy: a
teacher perspective from Australia’, Journal of Education Policy, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 640-657.

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Appendices
Appendix 1: Mentor Teacher Interview
Time

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Capacity

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Appendix 2: PST Journal

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Appendix 3: Student survey sample – stage 1

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Appendix 4: Student work samples – worksheet time

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Appendix 5: Student work samples - Summative assessment time

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Appendix 6: Student work samples – capacity

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Appendix 7: Student survey sample – stage 2

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