Clara Dziedziczak – 18319297

Professional Practice 2

Professional Practice 2 – Reflection – Clara Dziedziczak

Key Moments Reflection:1000-word reflection on Professional Practice 2

1. What was significant? What were three key learning moments which transformed
your thinking about teaching and learning practice? Describe the teaching moment and its
significance to you. (330)

My Professional Practice at Sarah Redfern High School was a very valuable experience. I
came to realisation that despite negativity and discourse around a particular school, you
never really know what it is like in reality until you are actually there. Sarah Redfern High
School is full of diverse learners with different strengths and abilities which presented a
number of challenges to engage students and motivate them to engage in the learning. At
Sarah Redfern, year 9 and 10 are combined into a Stage 5 cohort for science as well as for
several other subjects too. This had many challenges in designing resources and catering to
different levels of ability in all classes. On this Professional Practice I had the opportunity to
teach 3 different stage 5 classes which gave me the chance to focus on strategies such as
differentiation for different levels of ability and engagement techniques.

The first transformational learning moment was in taking one of the lower ability Stage 5
classes. This class was very disengaged and didn’t want to do work, so my attempts at direct
instruction, whole class explanations or discussions with students were not successful with
this class. Instead I focused on smaller activities and small group work, so students were
able to discuss, and I was able to move around the room to assist students in smaller groups
and ensure they were on task.

Secondly, learning how students respond to non-verbal cues was a pivotal moment in my
experience. By building up relationships with students and knowing their names, I was able
to employ some non-verbal classroom management strategies that assisted with keeping
the class calm whilst not having too many disruptions.

Lastly, the experience that had the greatest impact on my thinking about teaching and
learning, was the trip to Tamworth that I was lucky enough to participate in. This experience
shaped my opinion about rural and remote teaching and showed an exceptional example of
how Aboriginal Education could be implemented in a school context.

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2. What you learnt. How have these three key leaning moments changed the way you
think and practice teaching? (330)

Through my experience these three key learning moments have shaped how I think about
and practice teaching in many different ways, two particular common themes are
relationship building with students and the ability to be adaptable and flexible.

With the lower ability Stage 5 class, I was struck with the importance of building up genuine
relationships with students to gain their respect and implement effective classroom
management strategies. This experience has taught me that even though it is important to
get through the content, it is also almost equally as important to get to know the students in
the class, not only so that instruction and activities can be catered to individual student
needs, but also to have a safe and positive classroom environment, being aware of student
dynamics and how different students work together (AITSL, 2017).

Learning how to implement non-verbal cues was something I felt I was able to practice and
develop more deeply on this experience. Through developing relationships with the
students individually rather than on a whole class level, I could gain their respect, aiding
immensely when trying to quieten the class and run class discussions. I could just signal at
the student what I wanted them to do and most of the time this worked in stopping the
disruptive behaviour.

Lastly through the Tamworth experience my thinking about teaching practice was changed
through observing how Peel High School implemented Aboriginal Education so richly into
the curriculum and the impact that this had on Indigenous students. This example opened
my eyes to how students were able to take ownership of their culture and were so excited
to share their knowledge with us. This changed my thinking about how Aboriginal Education
should not necessarily be separated from education. Education should be all encompassing
and should be striving to cater for all students. Whilst at Peel High School I also had the
opportunity to see how the school implemented the “Schools of the Future” project. This
was inspiring to see how large classrooms with upwards of 50 students could work
effectively for student learning and engagement.

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3. Why did it work/didn’t work? What strategies worked well in your teaching? What
strategies did not work and why. Support this section with reference to pedagogical
theory. (330)

Whilst this experience allowed me to develop my skills as a teacher and try out new things,
this Professional Placement was not without its challenges. There were a number of
strategies that I tried with different classes that did not work, that had previously worked
really well for other students. Particularly with the lower ability stage 5 class, I found that
attempting to do class discussions and whole class activities did not work at all as I would be
fighting for student attention and often students would not want to share their responses
with the whole class. Instead with this class I tried a number of other approaches based in
pedagogical theory such as active learning strategies and collaborative group work (DeWitt,
Alias & Siraj, 2014). With this class, these strategies proved to be more effective at engaging
disruptive students as students were able to direct their own learning and I was able to
move around the classroom to different groups of students to explain key concepts and
ensuring that they were on task. Collaborative group work also worked well with a number
of my other classes too. Students enjoyed working with their peers and this motivated them
to stay on task and be engaged with the work.

Differentiation strategies were also a crucial part of my teaching on this experience. As a lot
of the classes were mixed ability students from both years 9 and 10, I had to ensure I was
designing resources and making the content accessible to all students at whatever their
level of ability (Dixon, Yssell, McConnell & Hardin, 2014). By allowing students to choose
how they presented information and providing scaffolding, students had more freedom in
how they engaged with the material and were able to complete activities that achievable to
their ability.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Sarah Redfern High School and feel as
though I have grown in my teaching and really had the opportunity to refine my behaviour
management strategies as well as differentiation techniques.

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References

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2017). Australian Professional
Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-
professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list
Dewitt, D., Alias, N., & Siraj, S. (2014). The design and development of a collaborative
mLearning prototype for malaysian secondary school science.Educational Technology,
Research and Development, 62(4), 461-480.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/10.1007/s11423-014-9340-y

Dixon, F. A., Yssel, N., McConnell, J. M., & Hardin, T. (2014, 06). Differentiated instruction,
professional development, and teacher efficacy. Journal for the Education of the
Gifted, 37, 111-127. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/docview/1534291388?accountid=36155

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