Andre Hetebrueg

What?

By creating my first digital professional teaching portfolio (DPP) via the Mahara platform, an understanding about the importance of curating teaching resources that show my progress as a pre-service teacher against the AITSL Teaching Standards has been established. During this process, I learnt to use the “Rolfe-Model” (Australian Collaborative Education Network (ACEN), 2012) of critically reflection to show what the displayed resources mean to my development as an educator. Becoming familiar with the AITSL Teaching Standards, was in itself a learning process that I had to undertake to chose the appropriate evidence. Types of evidence collected this far are lesson plans and a teacher’s guide created by me during the completion of previous units as well as lesson observations and a professional experience assessment from my mentor. I have also extended my knowledge about digital curating of teaching material, by uploading and collecting evidence in a professional and aesthetically pleasing approach, this includes the front page’s profile photos, professional accomplishments and personal goals.

So What?

The critical reflections on each artefact highlights in what way it signifies proficiency in the relevant focus area. The lesson plans curated in AITSL Standard 1 and 2 are appropriate for showing my understanding of effective teaching strategies, my understanding of the processes of effective and diverse learning by students as well as content selection and organisation during lesson planning. The more than satisfactory lesson observation as well as the professional experience assessment form presented in AITSL Standard 3 and 4, are accentuating my ability to translate the theoretical knowledge, evident in the artefacts of Standard 1 and 2, into action in a real life, active classroom. Especially the professional experience assessment shows good development in pre-service teaching, as my mentor graded me ‘more than satisfactory for this level’ in all professional aspects and ‘competent at this level’ in relevant AITSL Teaching Standards.

Now What?

Developing my DPP into a much broader and more explicit representation of my abilities and proficiency as a graduate teacher will be a continued process of collecting a vast variety of resources and artefacts, linking them to the appropriate focus of the AITSL Teacher Standards and reflecting on how they contribute to my competence in performing effective teaching. In all areas I will have to include a more diverse range of artefacts that highlight my theoretical understanding, such as planning documents or work completed during professional development sessions, and link those to feedback and reflections of practical classroom work that I will undertake. The combination of theoretical and practical artefacts will underpin my capability of merging theory and practice together in a flexible way that accommodates the learning needs of diverse range of learners. It will be especially important to add artefacts that show a strong focus on the inclusion of indigenous content in my teaching as well as delivering differentiated strategies to provide an effective learning environment for students of all abilities and disabilities.

References:

Australian Collaborative Education Network (ACEN) (2012). Australian Collaborative Education Network National Conference. In: Australian Collaborative Education Network National Conference. [online] Geelong: Australian Collaborative Education Network (ACEN). Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paula_Williams8/publication/303681619_Campus-based_work- integrated_learning_Opportunities_for_He alth_Education/links/574d0a5c08aec988526a2851/Campus-based-work-integrated- learning-Opportunities-for-Health-Education.pdf#page=163.