Engaging in professional learning – Identifying professional learning needs utilising the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

Published on by Michelle

This is one of 7 parts of a task addressing the Graduate Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL, 2017) for the unit Aboriginal & Culturally Responsive Pedagogies TEAC7001, co-ordinated by Shirley Gilbert (2022) at Western Sydney University.
Standard 1 | Standard 2 | Standard 3 | Standard 4 | Standard 5 | Standard 6 | Standard 7

Graduate Standard 6: Engage in professional learning

6.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the role of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in identifying professional learning needs.

6.2 Understand the relevant and appropriate sources of professional learning for teachers.

6.3 Seek and apply constructive feedback from supervisors and teachers to improve teaching practices.

6.4 Demonstrate an understanding of the rationale for continued professional learning and the implications for improved student learning.

(AITSL, 2017)

Professional Understanding

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) encompass domains of Professional Knowledge, Practice and Engagement, offering explicit success criteria for the 4 tiered career stages (AITSL, 2017). This can be treated as a learning map for graduate teachers. The Module 5 visually maps the APST to deconstruct my knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal education across the 7 standards (Figure 2), allowing me to identify the gaps in my profession knowledge, practice and engagement to inform future professional development.
Figure 1: Mapping the APST annotation (8 Ways, n.d.)

Evidence

Engaging with the task 2 plan (Figure 2) visually identified my learning gaps, which include professional experience engaging with Aboriginal communities. The activity has informed my evidence collection for task 2 and guided my planning for future evidence collection. Additionally, my portfolio website utilises the Standards as taxonomy to categorise my portfolio of evidence (Figure 3). By deconstructing the standards, I am able to peruse through the website menu to identify my professional learning needs.
Figure 2: Graduate Standards task 2 plan
Figure 3: Website menu

Where to next

The feedback I received from Shirley Gilbert for task 1 validates my consideration of the APST offering “intersectional and inclusive criteria.” For example Standards 1.4 and 2.4 are explicit intersectional criteria, whilst 1.1 implicitly encompasses all students. I believe that this understanding is beneficial to my teacher professional development and seek to review the Standards more critically when refining evidence for my Graduate application.

References

8 Ways. (n.d.). 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning: Aboriginal pedagogy.
https://www.8ways.online/

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2017). Teacher Standards. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from
https://www.aitsl.edu.au/standards