Situation

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AITSL (2017) emphasises that continually reflecting on practice is essential to increase professional knowledge. They maintain that reflection is the key to growth, development and improving outcomes for students. I believe the Australian Professional Standards for teachers provide a comprehensive basis when aligning teaching with best practice. Additionally, these standards formed the assessment of my final practicum.

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Action

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I created my own reflection format which I felt would provide the best format for me and show my growth. It involved reflecting across the areas of teaching (planning, organisation), classroom management, learning and assessment as well as a more personal reflection. I felt these areas were the most important parts of teaching and the areas where I needed the most improvement so it helped me to reflect more specifically in the hopes for greater improvement and critical thought about my practice. I also had a space for reflection on each of these, as well as a section for potential ways to improve in those areas and then a follow up. Each week I reflected on my previous reflections – created a reflection format which I used – reflected on throughout the practicum where I was achieving and where I had not met or addressed adequately. This then informed my planning for the next week and was written into my DWP as my goal for the week.  This is essential to ensure a continuous, embedded cycle of assessment, review and reflection on practice where practical strategies or actions are planned for continuous improvement (Gujer, 2012).

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I also created a format to reflect on how I was addressing the standards as well as plans for how to address them better. I reflected on this frequently, and during the self-assessment and midway assessment as my mentor and I went through the standards, I asked for feedback on how I was addressing the standards as well as how I could meet them better. Through ongoing constructive dialogue and self-reflection, I continually added to this document. I also included this into my daily work pad (DWP) as my goals for the week. For the first few weeks after reflection on my achievement of the standards, my goals became more effective organisation of class activities and clearer instructions for children. I needed to think more critically and thoroughly about how each lesson was going to occur and how I needed to ensure the correct materials, instructions and effective modelling. After I achieved these goals by becoming much more effective in these areas, which my mentor also commented on, we reflected critically again during the mid-way assessment in week 6. My principal areas for improvement were incorporating ICT, non-verbal communication, behaviour management and setting challenging goals. This resulted in me implementing the behaviour management chart as a non-verbal reminder for children, creating and introducing the visual schedule and days of the week cards, implementing reading strategy cards, and the implementation of writing goals. I also incorporated significantly more ICT into every mathematics lesson and some English lessons by creating a PowerPoint about Aboriginal paintings and storytelling as well as creating e-books with children to retell the story of ‘How the Birds Got Their Colours’. I also realised I was assessing predominantly mathematics and not English so I created assessment formats for children’s reading strategies and comprehension.