EDP4200 The Reflective Practitioner

Introduction and Outline of the Rationale

The professional standards and liability of teachers are nationally regulated and are mentioned in the laws and standards of the national government both for schooling as well as for the teacher education process, all across the world (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). Quality and the standards form the building blocks of several educational policies and their developments all around the globe and raise important questions regarding the role of maintenance of professional standards of teaching in the realm of the educational systems of the nations. Teachers play a basic role in providing education and learning to students, however, in order to cater to the learning needs of a variety of students, and for a variety of reasons, teachers should be provided with adequate opportunities to develop themselves, for meeting the changing needs and preferences of the education system. Therefore, the Australian Teachers are required to engage with the Australian Professional Standard for Teachers to maintain their quality of teaching by following the guidelines mentioned in it, as well as the career-long professional learning to develop themselves in the context of the contemporary era of teaching (Torrance & Forde, 2017). The rationale for the paper is to identify the ways in which professional teaching can be imparted, as well as the role of the Australian Professional Standard for Teachers to establish one's own professional learning requirements.

Comparison and Contrast of the Rationale

Culturally responsive and reflective teaching refers to a research-driven approach that aims at striking meaningful communications and relationships with the students learning in school as well as their cultures, personal experiences, and languages (Jackson, 2015). These relationships and links assist the students in dealing with a wide curriculum and draw connections and relevance between what they learn theoretically at school with their real-life experiences and perspectives. Culturally responsive and reflective teaching is a way to enhance the academic capabilities and achievements of students by integrating their culture within the realm of the classroom. This form of teaching allows the recognition of the students' common goals, emotions, and cultural intersections. This helps in understanding their learning style in accordance with their cultural backgrounds. The process of learning the students in their true selves allows the teachers to identify the techniques that can be utilized to instruct them. A culturally responsive and reflective teacher is also responsible for maintaining high standards in class and good behaviors while maintaining and following their customs and traditions in the teaching-learning process. This type of learning also instills a sense of belongingness among the students and makes them take ownership of their learning. It also puts the teacher more in the role of a facilitator rather than a specialist, thereby, making the students feel included and confident.

Finally, the most important aspect of this type of teaching is that it allows teachers to assess their individual belief systems. By becoming more inclusive and acknowledging various cultural identities and backgrounds, the teachers are able to enhance their quality as human beings as well as teachers (Wlodkowski & Ginsberg, 2017). This helps them to cater to the students that belong from various cultures and ethnic backgrounds and customize teaching techniques according to their requirements. This also allows the teacher to improve their quality of teaching techniques. However, in the case of an extremely diverse classroom in which students from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds have gathered together, it is difficult for the teacher to standardize a particular curriculum and teaching technique to enhance or even continue the teaching-learning experience efficiently.

Identification of Professional Development Opportunities

Both the opportunities, that is online webinar for recognizance of the twice-exceptional students as well as the online webinar for data interpretation are equally important for professional teaching development and for meeting the learning requirements of the students with variable needs. The online webinar for identifying the twice-exceptional students is an exceptional opportunity for the identification of Twice-exceptional learners by professionals and teachers who possess the capacity to perform exceptionally well when compared to other students in their curriculum from the same age group. Twice-exceptional learners often remain unidentified at school because their exceptional abilities tend to hide their capabilities (Kaufman, 2018). This seminar provides opportunities for the guidance officers, special education teachers, teacher aides, school leaders, prep-year 10 classroom teachers, and other supporting staff to learn and identify the learning requirements of Twice-exceptional learners with disabilities, to develop the understanding and knowledge of the giftedness as well as the disability, explore and develop new ways to understand the features and characteristics of twice-exceptional students, identify differentiated teaching practices how to develop opportunities for tackling the challenges, and exploration into the development of engaging teaching techniques for catering to the requirements of such students.

The online seminar for data interpretation provides teachers and professionals to provide opportunities for primary students in the context of the provision of additional support for strengthening and enhancing their data interpretation capabilities. This webinar is expected to be participated by primary teachers, numeracy coaches, curriculum leaders, and learning support teachers and will provide opportunities for them to analyze the scope for data interpretation within the realm of the Australian Curriculum, for enhancing knowledge and understanding the ways of data collection, representation, and interpretation contributes to the years 4-6 in Mathematics, Science, and the Humanities and Social Sciences, for delving deep into practical teaching-learning techniques and strategies to enhance the knowledge of students, understanding, and capabilities in accumulating, representing, and analyzing data, and for exchanging ideas and notions about transforming understanding into practice and techniques (Whitney, 2016).

The Implication of Professional Teaching Opportunities

The understanding and developing knowledge regarding the existence of both the twice-exceptionality and the disability is very important in developing the appropriate teaching techniques to be meted out to such students. The teachers have to understand how the twice-exceptional quality can enhance the knowledge gaining and the way in which the disability can hinder the teaching-learning process (Ng, Hill & Rawlinson, 2016). Therefore, the teachers have to formulate their curriculum and strategies in such a way so as to maximize the advantages posed by the twice-exceptional quality and minimize the issues and disadvantages posed by their disabilities. The teachers also have to understand that data interpretation is an important subject and many curricula in Australia fail to acknowledge the importance of this subject within the courses.

Therefore, online webinars will provide opportunities to enhance the teaching skills of knowledge providers in regards. The teachers are also required to acknowledge the fact that the coping and learning capabilities of students vary from one to another and therefore, the teaching techniques have to be such that all the students are equally knowledgeable about data analysis, interpretation and representation and can perform the same without hindrance (Wanner & Palmer, 2015). The teachers have to understand that cultural differences also play a major role in knowledge gaining among the students. The teachers have to, therefore, frame their techniques in alignment with the concept of inclusivity and catering to all cultures, ethnicity, and linguistic backgrounds.

Planning on Core Principles of CRP

The first principle in Culturally Responsive Practice includes the students being included and acknowledged in their cultural identities (Khalifa, Gooden & Davis, 2016). For achieving this the teacher is responsible for developing connections between the culture of the student and the culture of the school. They are also responsible for building a strong communication bridge that assists the students in gaining valuable opportunities to gain knowledge and grow into a bicultural individual of the nation. As a responsive practitioner, I will empower the students to accept their cultural backgrounds and traditions in the face of the presence of diverse cultures co-existing with them. I will also undertake effective instructional techniques to ensure that each student from each cultural background is catered to and that nobody has an issue with my conduct or instructional technique. The teaching-learning environment will be kept as personal as possible. All the students will be given opportunities within the classrooms to share their personal experiences and accounts in the context of the subject being lectured (Stewart & Gachago, 2016). This will not only help the students to enhance their confidence in their identity in a public sphere like the classroom but also provide all the students with a variety of perspectives to understand the topic.

The teachers have to be inclusive and personally inviting. Apart from building a bridge between the student's culture and the school's culture, the teacher is also responsible for establishing transparent and trusting bonds with the students (Amstutz, 2015). For this, the teacher is required to appear as highly self-confident with a high degree of theoretical and practical knowledge. The teacher must value the student as a learner, as well as a learner in the context of the fact that they can contribute to the teaching process by sharing their personal accounts and narratives in class which provides a variety of perspectives and knowledge regarding the topic and the particular of the student. I have to use a plethora of instructional strategies and engaging activities to gather the attention of the students. I will incorporate effective objectives and short-term goals for the students that would allow them to achieve their learning goals and also contribute to their personal development. While developing learning objectives for the students, I will have to consider the language skills and barriers as well as the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of the students while formulating the learning opportunities for them. The learning expectations will also be communicated to them adequately so that they feel that the outcomes are tangible and can be learned while still being highly attached to their roots. I will also incorporate the provision of frequent feedback both from the students as well as their parents. Parents play an important role in contributing to the teaching-learning process of the students and thus, this feedback will help me grow as a practitioner, thereby helping me to develop my skills and abilities, not only in the short term but also for my holistic development so that I can improve with each passing day and become one of the best practitioners of the future (Mupa & Chinooneka, 2015).

Teaching-learning Approach

Children are progressive learners and the teacher plays the role of a cultural link between the student's culture and that of the school (Monahan & Torres, 2020). My teaching approach will utilize the student's culture as a way to interpret their learning style and conduct. It has to be noted that all the learners, that is, the students require adequate motivation and a personal invitation to participate in the class context. My approach will make sure that each student is included within the realm of the class curriculum and that no one is made to feel that they are the outcasts from the school. My approach will ensure that all the students will be affirmed by visuals, content, and various contexts, narratives, and experiences that they can relate to. My approach will utilize the strength as well as their experiences that they bring to school in various effective ways to instill the capabilities and skills required by students to become a part of society. Professional learning and requirements include the survey and feedback that will be achieved from the students as well as their parents to improve my personal practice as the culturally responsive practitioner. Different cultural backgrounds intake leaning in several ways. For instance, when learning about social norms, it will differ tremendously from one culture to another. Therefore, cultural identities, linguistic backgrounds, as well as socio-economic factors affect the learning capabilities and style of students (Mavuru & Ramnarain, 2017). My approach will be well aligned with the cultural backgrounds and linguistic diversities of the students and will cater to all the learning requirements impacted by these factors.  

Critical Reflection

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers have provided me with the learning requirements of the culturally diverse groups, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, as well as has also provided me with the professional standards that I must maintain while customizing my teaching approach according to the requirements of the variety of students (Santoro & Kennedy, 2016). This has helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses, as well as my opportunities and threats. My strengths include my belief and morals towards these groups. My weaknesses include my lack of knowledge in the various cultures as well as the teaching techniques that can benefit them immensely. My opportunities include exposure to various cultural backgrounds and real-time learning while dealing with these students. My threats include the inability of the students to accept or trust me, because of preconceived notions (Moodie & Patrick, 2017). However, I have developed my approach based on thorough research and practice that has helped me develop sustainable techniques in this field.

References

Amstutz, L. S. (2015). The little book of restorative discipline for schools: Teaching responsibility; creating caring climates. Simon and Schuster.

Darling-Hammond, L., Burns, D., Campbell, C., Goodwin, A. L., Hammerness, K., Low, E. L., ... & Zeichner, K. (2017). Empowered educators: How high-performing systems shape teaching quality around the world. John Wiley & Sons.

Jackson, J. (2015). Becoming interculturally competent: Theory to practice in international education. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 48, 91-107.

Kaufman, S. B. (Ed.). (2018). Twice exceptional: Supporting and educating bright and creative students with learning difficulties. Oxford University Press.

Khalifa, M. A., Gooden, M. A., & Davis, J. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 1272-1311.

Mavuru, L., & Ramnarain, U. (2017). Teachers’ knowledge and views on the use of learners’ socio-cultural background in teaching Natural Sciences in Grade 9 township classes. African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 21(2), 176-186.

Monahan, T., & Torres, R. D. (Eds.). (2020). Schools under surveillance: Cultures of control in public education. Rutgers University Press.

Moodie, N., & Patrick, R. (2017). Settler grammars and the Australian professional standards for teachers. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 45(5), 439-454.

Mupa, P., & Chinooneka, T. I. (2015). Factors Contributing to Ineffective Teaching and Learning in Primary Schools: Why Are Schools in Decadence?. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(19), 125-132.

Ng, S. J., Hill, M. F., & Rawlinson, C. (2016). Hidden in plain sight: The experiences of three twice-exceptional students during their transfer to high school. Gifted Child Quarterly, 60(4), 296-311.

Santoro, N., & Kennedy, A. (2016). How is cultural diversity positioned in teacher professional standards? An international analysis. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 44(3), 208-223.

Stewart, K., & Gachago, D. (2016). Being human today: A digital storytelling pedagogy for transcontinental border crossing. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(3), 528-542.

Torrance, D., & Forde, C. (2017). Redefining what it means to be a teacher through professional standards: Implications for continuing teacher education. European Journal of Teacher Education, 40(1), 110-126.

Wanner, T., & Palmer, E. (2015). Personalising learning: Exploring student and teacher perceptions about flexible learning and assessment in a flipped university course. Computers & Education, 88, 354-369.

Whitney, B. (2016). Information literacy competencies and schools' curricula: investigating teachers' preparedness, attitudes and understanding of information literacy in Irish education (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin Business School).

Wlodkowski, R. J., & Ginsberg, M. B. (2017). Enhancing adult motivation to learn: A comprehensive guide for teaching all adults. John Wiley & Sons.

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