EDET200 - Effective Teaching 3: Engaging Learners and Managing Learning Environments

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

(EDET101 Effective Teaching 2: Curriculum, Planning and Pedagogy and LNTE111 Literacy and Numeracy Test ) OR (EDET101 Effective Teaching 2: Curriculum, Planning and Pedagogy AND LNTE100 LANTITE - Literacy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students AND LNTE101 LANTITE - Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students )

Incompatible

EDET211 Effective Teaching 3 Positive Environments to Engage Young Learners , EDFX343 Education Studies and Professional Experience 3: Creating Quality Learning Environments

Unit rationale, description and aim

Includes: 15 days placement in an educational setting

Well-managed learning settings that are engaging, inclusive and safe promote the achievement of learning outcomes. Teachers must be able to apply effective practices to create positive learning environments that meet learners’ needs and foster participation.

This unit develops the professional communication, management and organisational skills that are needed to create positive learning environments, engage students in learning and guide learner behaviour. Pre-service teachers will examine contemporary research, policies and key theories on understanding and positively guiding children’s and young people’s behaviour. They will explore a range of strategies to establish positive learning environments and manage behaviour, including physical arrangement of the classroom and communicating clear expectations for behaviour and learning. Pre-service teachers will apply these to the critical analysis of real-world case studies. They will synthesise theories, policy and practice to develop a holistic approach to building positive learning environments, positively guiding learner behaviour and managing challenging behaviours.

The aim of this unit is to enable pre-service teachers to acquire and develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to effectively promote positive behaviours and wellbeing and ensure meaningful engagement in learning. These skills will be applied during a 15-day professional experience placement.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Graduate Level

On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should have developed the following industry specific knowledge based on the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Graduate Level standards:

Content

• Students will have the opportunity to study some or all of the content of this unit in the particular context of their teaching specialisation (refer to the section on ‘Professional Experience: Teaching Requirements’, below) 
• Contemporary research and theories relating to effective management of a diverse range of learning settings, e.g.:
• Cognitive and Behaviorist models 
• Psychological or needs-based models: Dreikurs, Glasser’s Choice Theory 
• Bill Rogers’ Decisive Discipline 
• Canter and Canter’s Assertive Discipline 
• Ford’s Responsible Thinking 
• Kounin’s Engagement Model and Basic Skills 
• Marzano’s Teaching Effectiveness 
• Developing proactive engagement and management plans, 
• Strategies for creating safe and positive learning environments and promoting physical, psychological and social well-being:
• Establishing positive teacher-student relationships 
• Communicating high expectations 
• Engaging students in setting shared rules and procedures to help develop students’ ownership of their own behaviour 
• Strategies for promoting class cohesion 
• Strategies for establishing an inclusive and collaborative classroom culture for diverse learners, including students from EALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds
• The physical environment: effective layouts 
• Practical strategies for promoting learner self-motivation and self-direction 
• Strategies and techniques applicable to diverse learners 
• Working collaboratively with specialist teachers, ESL and Community Language teachers, and school community liaison personnel supporting students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
• Factors contributing to undesired behaviours:
• Learner related variables 
• Home and social group variables 
• Classroom and teacher variables 
• The impact of changing technologies and social media 
• A range of practical strategies for responding to low-level undesired behaviours:
• Providing appropriate and timely feedback: Positive reinforcement 
• Unobtrusive, non-punitive interventions 
• A range of practical strategies for managing challenging behaviour:
• Student-teacher conferences 
• Learning and behaviour contracts 
• Moving beyond the classroom 
• Educational system policies and practices 
• Engaging with professional colleagues 
• Engaging sensitively and confidentially with parents/carers 
• Re-building relationships 
• Cracking the challenging class 
• Analysis of real-world case studies involving critical incidents of learner behaviours and teacher/school responses 
• Engaging parents and caregivers in the educational process 
• Policy, curriculum and legislative requirements that underpin learner well-being and safety 
• Maintaining safe online environments: anti-bullying and cyber-bullying 
• Strategies for protecting teacher safety and well-being: building resilience and self-care. 

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. This includes direct teaching, reading and preparation of assessments, and a professional experience placement.

This unit applies a social constructivist approach to develop pre-service teachers’ understanding of planning and assessment and skills in applying effective pedagogies. They will have the opportunity to build on their understanding of teaching strategies through critical reading, lecturer modelling, active engagement, rehearsing and discussion in tutorials. Skills of professional communication and the ability to work collaboratively will be practised through group activities, culminating in presentations to the class. This provides opportunities for pre-service teachers to continue to build their communication and teaching skills, and to build their confidence in managing groups, in a safe and supportive environment prior to applying these skills in a relevant educational setting. Teaching skills of positively engaging learners and managing behaviour, and the ability to locate and synthesise information will be developed through designing engagement and management plans appropriate for a specific class context. Placement in a school will enable engagement with experienced practitioners and make links between theory and its application to learning environment.

To support this strategy teaching and learning approaches may include, but are not limited to:

• Weekly face-to-face lectures and/or online lectures (synchronous and asynchronous)
• Hands-on tutorials and discussions that promote peer learning;
• Self-directed reading and research
• Collaborative learning opportunities.

Differentiated instruction will be provided, through tutorial arrangements, so that students will have the opportunity to study some or all of the content of this unit in the particular context of their teaching specialisation.

The unit is hosted on a Learning Management System (LMS) site with resources and online links, announcements, and a discussion board to post questions and reflections that promote the connection between content and educational experiences.

Mode of delivery: This unit may be offered in different modes to cater to the learning needs and preferences of a range of participants.

Multi-mode

Learning activities are delivered through a planned mix of online and in-person classes, which may include full-day sessions and/or placements, to enable interaction. Activities that require attendance will appear in a student’s timetable.

Online unscheduled

Learning activities are accessible anytime, anywhere. These units are normally delivered fully online and will not appear in a student’s timetable. 

Online scheduled

All learning activities are held online, at scheduled times, and will require some attendance to enable online interaction. Activities will appear in a student’s timetable.

ACU Online 

• In ACU Online mode, this unit is delivered asynchronously, fully online using an active, guided learning approach. Pre-service teachers are encouraged to contribute to asynchronous weekly discussions and receive regular and timely feedback on their learning. 

Professional Experience: teaching requirements

Within this Effective Teaching unit pre-service teachers will undertake, individually, a professional experience placement comprising 15 days in an educational setting.

• Each Primary pre-service teacher will have a nominated teaching specialisation (such as English, Mathematics, Religious Education, Science/Technology, Health and Physical Education, Creative Arts, Languages). The placement must allow the pre-service primary teacher to consolidate the content of this unit in the particular context of the primary teaching specialisation.
• A pre-service teacher preparing to teach across Primary and Secondary will undertake this professional experience in a Secondary setting.
• A pre-service teacher preparing to teach within a Special Education setting BEd(Primary and Special Education) or BEd(Secondary and Special Education)] will undertake this professional experience with students with disability in an Inclusive/Special Education setting under the supervision of a mentor.
• A pre-service Secondary teacher will be placed in a secondary setting that will support practice teaching in at least one their two secondary teaching areas.
• Pre-service teachers will develop the habit of critically reflective practice through guided reflection upon their observations of class and educational settings. In collaboration with supervising teachers and other professional colleagues, they will further develop teaching skills through assisting in the delivery of high-quality teaching episodes and taking responsibility for teaching whole classes. They will critically reflect upon their teaching and self-audit their progression and attainment of key teaching skills and standards.

The recommended arrangement of the 15 days is:

• Maximum of 5 days prior to the commencement of the block, for example, one day a week, by negotiation with the education provider
• Minimum of two weeks (10 days) of continuous engagement. (The “Block”).

Recommended Teaching Experiences

The following engagements are recommended across the 15-day placement for school settings. They provide a scaffolded, praxis-oriented approach to building experience, competency and confidence, and are designed to align with on-campus content. These engagements are to be discussed, negotiated and planned with the supervising teacher/s.

Days 1 – 5 (Single days or incorporated into the block): Proposed Teaching Expectations

Days 1 – 2: Orientation, observation and assisting the supervising teacher/s

Days 3 – 5: Observation and assisting the supervising teacher/s, plus planning and implementation of two teaching episodes per day.

Block Practicum: Days 6 – 15: Proposed Teaching Expectations

Days 6 – 10: Observation and assisting the supervising teacher/s, plus planning and implementation of two teaching episodes per day. Build to teaching half a full-time load including taking responsibility for whole classes and managing routines and transitions

Days 11 – 15: Observation and assisting the supervising teacher/s, plus planning and implementation of teaching half a full-time teaching load. Build to teaching .75% of a full-time load including, opportunities to take responsibility for whole days. Practicum reflection, self-auditing and evaluation.

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment load and weighting of the assessments in this unit have been designed to incorporate professional experience. The written assessment load in this unit has been adjusted accordingly.

A range of assessment procedures are designed to allow pre-service teachers to progressively demonstrate achievement of the unit learning outcomes and to develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements. The Education Studies units in this course focus on developing an understanding of, and skills across the professional knowledge, practice and engagement domains needed to meet expectations of ACECQA criteria and the APST: Graduate level.

The two assessment tasks are sequenced to allow feedback and progressive development. Through completing Task 1 pre-service teachers have the opportunity to work collaboratively to demonstrate knowledge of theoretical models of behaviour management and the complexities of managing challenging behaviour, through a group critical analysis and presentation. In Task 2 pre-service teachers apply their knowledge of theories, policies and practical strategies in the development of a plan for engaging learners and managing behaviour in a specific educational context. The placement facilitates connections with the ‘real world’ of learning and teaching, thereby preparing pre-service teachers for their role as teachers.

Minimum Achievement Standards

The assessment tasks and their weighting for this unit are designed to demonstrate achievement of each learning outcome. In order to pass this unit, students are required to submit all assessment tasks, meet the learning outcomes of the unit and achieve a minimum overall passing grade of 50%.

In addition, pre-service teachers must attain a Pass in the two hurdle tasks. These are the preparation for the Professional Experience Placement (PEP) and the Professional Experience Assessment (PEA).

Assessment in EDET200 includes a Critical Task Assessment Task 2: Rationale and plan for engaging learners, fostering positive behaviour and managing challenging behaviour. This task is core to the demonstration of a number of Australian Professional Teacher Standards. Pre-service teachers must demonstrate mastery of every summative Graduate Teacher Standard identified and attain a score of at least 50% in Task 3 in order to pass this unit.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Required text(s) 

Australian Curriculum https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) www.acara.edu.au 

Relevant State and Territory curriculum and policy documents

De Nobile, J., Lyons, G., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2021). Positive learning environments: Creating and maintaining productive classrooms. (2nd ed.). Cengage Learning Australia. 

Recommended references 

Blatchford, P., & Russell, A. (2019). Class size, grouping practices and classroom management. International Journal of Educational Research, 96, 154-163. 

Chaplain, R. (2016). Teaching without disruption in the primary school: A practical approach to managing pupil behavior (2nd ed.). Routledge. 

Clarke, M., & Pittaway, S. (2014). Marsh's becoming a teacher (6th ed.). Pearson Education Australia. 

Duran, D., & Topping, K. (2017). Learning by teaching: Evidence-based strategies to enhance learning in the classroom. Routledge. 

Ewing, R., Glass, C., Kervin, L., Gobby, B., & Le Cornu, R. (2020). Teaching: Dilemmas, challenges and opportunities (6th ed.). Cengage Learning Australia. 

Glynn, T. (2017). Building an effective teaching environment. In K Wheldhall & R Riding (Eds). Psychological aspects of earning and teaching. Ch 2, pp. 40-59. Routledge. 

Rogers, B. (2015). Classroom behaviour: A practical guide to effective teaching, behaviour management and colleague support (4th ed.). Sage Publications Ltd. 

Stronge, J. H. (2018). Qualities of effective teachers (3rd ed.). Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). 

Wubbels, T., Brekelmans, M., & Mainhard, T. (2016). Teacher–student relationships and student achievement. In Kathryn R. Wentzel, Ed, Handbook of social influences in school contexts (pp. 137-152). Routledge.