Professional
Learning

Overview:

The world is changing and the future we’re educating young people for will be different from today. Our best schools are the schools that make the biggest difference to the lives of children and young people, supporting them and their society to thrive and prosper. Public education needs to constantly adapt if it is to deliver on this promise.

Professor Martin Westwell has been leading a state-wide conversation about public education, led by student voice and involving industry, parents, staff and stakeholders. These insights are being used to co-create a clear purpose statement for public education in South Australia, a set of principles to guide the work of everyone in public education and agreement on what we are going to hold ourselves responsible for. From this work South Australian public education will define its measures of success. This work is an Australian first.

AITSL Standards addressed

Overview:

The gap in educational achievement between advantaged and disadvantaged students is estimated by the OECD to be approximately three school years, with COVID-19 likely increasing this gap.  While schools alone can’t compensate for disadvantage – they can make a significant difference doing what they already do – well.  This presentation will consider how equity-focused leadership, particularly addressing school climate, policies and student wellbeing can better support all students, particularly students experiencing disadvantage. This presentation will review evidence-based leadership practices, processes and systems found to be the most closely associated with positive student academic achievement, behaviour and wellbeing.

AITSL Standards addressed:

Standard 1: Know students and how they learn

Standard 3: Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning

Standard 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments

Standard 7: Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community~

Overview:

The commissioner will outline what children and young people have told her about their lives their views on schooling and how they believe it could better meet their diverse abilities aspirations and expectations as a generation born this century. 

AITSL Standards addressed:

Overview:

Stephen Shapiro and Mark Lamont will draw on their knowledge and experience in the US and Australia and engage in an interactive discussion with each other and the attendees  focused on the following questions:

• What types of communications take place between a school, its students, parents, teachers, and the larger community?
• As a teacher, why do you think these  communications are important ?
• What role do you play as a teacher in the communications efforts in your school or district?
• How did communications change during Covid? Have these changes continued in the post Covid era?
• Are current communications efforts effective?  How can they be improved?

AITSL Standards addressed:

~ 7.3 Engage with the parents.

Overview:

A coordinated, whole-school approach to curriculum planning and materials – which carefully sequences teaching of key knowledge and skills – is best. Yet many schools struggle to put to this in place. Two recent Grattan surveys showed that few teachers have access to the high-quality, carefully sequenced curriculum materials they need.

Tackling this challenge will require more support from governments. But school leaders should not wait for governments to act. This session will set out practical steps leaders can take now to establish an effective whole- school approach to curriculum planning that empowers teachers to set their students up for success.

AITSL Standards addressed:

~ 1.2 Understand how students learn

~ 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

~ 2.2 Content selection and organisation

~ 2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

~ 3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs

~ 3.4 Select and use resources

~ 3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs

Overview:

Overview coming…

AITSL Standards addressed:

Overview:

Critical Mathematical Thinking (CMT) is the use of mathematical reasoning to address challenging problems in real world contexts, while also reflecting on the ethical, economic, environmental, and social consequences of decisions. As such, CMT is central to addressing both the national and international challenges that define a complex and rapidly changing world. However, while the importance of CMT is broadly accepted, there is little evidence to support that current curriculum and pedagogical responses to this challenge have been effective. In this presentation, Professor Vince Geiger will discuss the challenges and difficulties, but also the benefits and opportunities, for implementing intellectually challenging CMT tasks in classrooms.

AITSL Standards addressed:

~ 1.2 Understand how students learn

~ 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities

~ 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

~ 2.2 Content selection and organisation

~ 2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies

~ 3.1 Establish challenging learning goals

~ 3.3 Use teaching strategies

~ 3.4 Select and use resources

~ 3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs

~ 5.2 Provide feedback to students on their learning

~ 6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

~ 6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice

~ 6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning

Overview:

It has become common to seek improved student outcomes through the tighter specification of what teachers should teach and how they should teach it, resulting in detailed curricula, increased government testing, and a search for teaching strategies that all teachers can be encouraged or required to use.

In contrast, I will argue that the challenges of better preparing young people for their future and ensuring that every student learns successfully and achieves their potential require fundamental reforms of the framework within which schools operate. This framework includes the curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements, and credentialling arrangements.

AITSL Standards Addressed:

~ 1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students

~ 1.2 Understand how students learn

~ 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities

Overview:

Overview coming…

AITSL Standards addressed:

Overview:

This webinar will consider from research that included autistic learners perspectives key things that need to be considered to support their learning and the pedagogical approaches implemented in schools to support success.

AITSL Standards addressed:

Professional knowledge 1.1, 1.2, 1.5, 1.6

Professional Practice 4.1, 4.2, 4.3

Overview:

Pedagogical practices:

• Consider the significance of relationships in the teaching – learning process,
• Should be evidence informed,
• Are rarely supported by an all or nothing approach,
• Ensure the individual is part of the class,
• Are collaborative and involve more than just the teacher, and
• Is everything a teacher does.

Autism Queensland School’s philosophy is that we believe autistic individuals can be successful learners when provided with evidence-informed, educational adjustments in a differentiated, inclusive, and supportive environment.

AQ School pedagogical practices documented in the AQ schoolwide approach to teaching and learning include a commitment to:

• implementing the Australian Curriculum with adjustments
• the provision of interdisciplinary team support
• a collaborative approach to support optimum outcomes
• a focus on student wellbeing and engagement
• cultivating a strengths-based approach; and
• the implementation of evidence informed practices
• providing opportunities to apply skills and strategies across learning environments.

The AQ School’s Universal Supports Checklist will be discussed to demonstrate how AQ School pedagogical practices applied within a fully adjusted learning environment may also be applied within other school learning environments to support autistic students to engage with learning.

AITSL Standards addressed:

~ 1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students

~ 1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability

~4.1 Support student participation

~4.4 Maintain student safety

Overview:

Brief summary of webinar yet to come

AITSL Standards addressed:

Overview

Brief summary of webinar yet to come

AITSL Standards addressed

~ 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

~ 2.2 Content selection and organisation

~ 2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

~ 6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

Overview:

Brief summary of webinar yet to come

AITSL Standards addressed:

2.4

1.4

2.1

Overview:

Independent special assistance schools play an important role in removing barriers to education, providing vulnerable young people with the opportunity to complete school. Students enrolling in an Independent special assistance school have usually experienced long-term disengagement from education. With specialised support they can re-engage in learning and determine future pathways for further study or employment. This webinar will cover aspects of ISA’s latest research report and how these schools are working creatively to re-engage students in their education.

AITSL Standards addressed:

1.3

1.5

3.1

3.3

4.1

4.3

Overview

Educators will be guided by ACARA’s Curriculum Specialist General Capabilities, Danielle Cavanagh to explore the changes and refinements to the General Capabilities in V 9.0 for both Primary and Secondary year levels. They will examine how the 3 dimensions of the Australian Curriculum work together to support student learning and develop a deeper understanding of the connections between the General Capabilities and the learning areas.

AITSL Standards addressed:

~ 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

 ~ 2.2 Content selection and organisation

~ 2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

Overview:

How effective are student reporting processes used in schools? Are they aligned with teaching and learning practices? Do they provide quality information about student learning? A few years ago, we undertook a project that investigated national research, policies and practices related to the ways schools communicate student learning to explore questions like these.

Our aim was to provide an evidence-base for effective reporting processes. We collected information from a range of sources and stakeholders, and our findings prompted important questions about the purpose and form of student reports as well as school processes for communicating student learning progress.

This webinar will revisit the main findings and recommendations of the project, explore how these can usefully inform and improve reporting processes, and point to future research that has the potential to reshape student reporting policy and practice.

AITSL Standards addressed:~ 5.1 Assess student learning
~ 5.2 Provide feedback to students on their learning
~ 5.5 Report on student achievement

Overview

Brief summary of webinar yet to come.

AITSL Standards addressed

Overview

Brief summary of webinar yet to come.

AITSL Standards addressed

Overview

Brief summary of webinar yet to come.

AITSL Standards addressed

Overview:

It has become common to seek improved student outcomes through the tighter specification of what teachers should teach and how they should teach it, resulting in detailed curricula, increased government testing, and a search for teaching strategies that all teachers can be encouraged or required to use.

In contrast, I will argue that the challenges of better preparing young people for their future and ensuring that every student learns successfully and achieves their potential require fundamental reforms of the framework within which schools operate. This framework includes the curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements, and credentialling arrangements.

AITSL Standards Addressed:

1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students

1.2 Understand how students learn

1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities ~

Overview:

Overview to come.

AITSL Standards Addressed:

Overview:

AITSL Standards Addressed:

Overview:

The gap in educational achievement between advantaged and disadvantaged students is estimated by the OECD to be approximately three school years, with COVID-19 likely increasing this gap.  While schools alone can’t compensate for disadvantage – they can make a significant difference doing what they already do – well.  This presentation will consider how equity-focused leadership, particularly addressing school climate, policies and student wellbeing can better support all students, particularly students experiencing disadvantage. This presentation will review evidence-based leadership practices, processes and systems found to be the most closely associated with positive student academic achievement, behaviour and wellbeing.

AITSL Standards addressed:

Standard 1: Know students and how they learn

Standard 3: Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning

Standard 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments

Standard 7: Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community~

Overview:

A coordinated, whole-school approach to curriculum planning and materials – which carefully sequences teaching of key knowledge and skills – is best. Yet many schools struggle to put to this in place. Two recent Grattan surveys showed that few teachers have access to the high-quality, carefully sequenced curriculum materials they need.

Tackling this challenge will require more support from governments. But school leaders should not wait for governments to act. This session will set out practical steps leaders can take now to establish an effective whole- school approach to curriculum planning that empowers teachers to set their students up for success.

AITSL Standards addressed:

~ 1.2 Understand how students learn

~ 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

~ 2.2 Content selection and organisation

~ 2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

~ 3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs

~ 3.4 Select and use resources

~ 3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs

It has become common to seek improved student outcomes through the tighter specification of what teachers should teach and how they should teach it, resulting in detailed curricula, increased government testing, and a search for teaching strategies that all teachers can be encouraged or required to use.

In contrast, I will argue that the challenges of better preparing young people for their future and ensuring that every student learns successfully and achieves their potential require fundamental reforms of the framework within which schools operate. This framework includes the curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements, and credentialling arrangements.

AITSL Standards Addressed:

1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students

1.2 Understand how students learn

1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities ~

Overview

Brief summary of webinar yet to come.

AITSL Standards addressed

Overview:

How do we ensure that we renegotiate learning in a hybrid world based upon an authentic purpose, which has learner agency at its core, and which is reflective of the complexities of learning, while avoiding being overly complicated? If we are to thrive globally as humans, education is a key part of that. Hybrid learning is not about assimilating all communities and individuals into one way of ‘doing’ education, but rather much more about creating systems that allow for equity, autonomy, personalisation, agency and joy in learning growth.

AITSL Standards addressed:

~1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities

~3.4 Select and use resources
~4.1 Support student participation

Overview:

The commissioner will outline what children and young people have told her about their lives their views on schooling and how they believe it could better meet their diverse abilities aspirations and expectations as a generation born this century. 

AITSL Standards addressed:

Overview: 

Teaching and Learning in the middle years of schooling (grades 5-9) has unique challenges. In this conversation we’ll explore the Adolescent Success Position Paper and how you can use the concepts to cultivate a middle schooling learning environment that creates thriving students and teachers. This session will suit leaders and teachers in the middle years.

AITSL Standards addressed

1. Know students and how they learn

4. Create and maintain supportive learning environments

Overview:

Nature play is often a term used in the context of free play. As a result is can be undervalued or simply seen as a revitalised playground with natural elements. This presentation will explore the depth of what nature play really is. From wellbeing and curiosity to supporting dispositions and an atmosphere enriched by outdoor learning.

AITSL Standards addressed:

1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students

3.3 Use teaching strategies

3.5 Use effective classroom communication

3.7 Engage parents / carers in the educative process

4.2 Manage classroom activities

6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning

Overview:

Coming soon…

AITSL Standards:

The ATWD Initiative does not directly relate to one standard but is focused on supporting the profession through creating an understanding of the teacher workforce and workforce experiences.

Overview

Educators will be guided by ACARA’s Curriculum Specialist English, Denise Roberts to explore the changes and refinements to English curriculum content in V 9.0. Key version 9 changes will be identified for both Primary and Secondary year levels. They will examine how the 3 dimensions of the Australian Curriculum work together to support student learning and develop a deeper understanding of the connections between the General Capabilities and the learning areas.

AITSL Standards addressed

~ 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

~ 2.2 Content selection and organisation

~ 2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

~ 2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies

Overview

Brief summary of webinar yet to come.

AITSL Standards addressed

Overview:

The latest version of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics includes over 90 content elaborations connected to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority. Each elaboration also links to one or more of 9 rich contexts that tell narratives across the year levels and the 6 strands of the maths curriculum. In this webinar, participants will be introduced to each of these rich contexts including Caring for Country/Place, Indigenous Data Sovereignty, and Instructive Games and Toys. Participants will also get the opportunity to engage in a problem-solving task connected to several elaborations and consider local contexts for the classroom.

AITSL Standards:

Overview:

AITSL Standards:

Overview:

AITSL Standards:

Overview:

Educators will be guided by ACARA’s Curriculum Specialist HASS, Rachelle Willington to explore the changes and refinements to HASS curriculum content in the Australian Curriculum V 9.0. Key changes will be identified for both Primary and Secondary year levels. They will explore specific changes within each of the five HASS subjects: HASS F-6, Civics and Citizenship, Economics and Business, Geography and History.

AITSL Standards addressed:

Overview

Educators will be guided by ACARA’s Curriculum Specialist, The Arts Jane Polley to explore changes and refinements to The Arts curriculum content in V 9.0. Key changes will be identified for both Primary and secondary year levels. Participants will explore the new four-strand structure and examine how an authentic inclusion of First Nations content is expressed through the Exploring and responding strand.

AITSL Standards addressed:

~ 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

~ 2.2 Content selection and organisation

~ 2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

~ 6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

Overview:

For the past six months, ACER has been working with UNESCO’s Asia Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding on a collaboration to measure progress toward the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 4.7 in the Asia Pacific Region. Almost 100 teachers from Australia, South Korea and the Philippines participated in research that found a range of understandings, enactments, enablers, and barriers to fostering global citizenship in schools. These findings informed a framework to measure global citizenship for teachers, schools, and systems. The research proposes a holistic approach to measuring a holistic construct like global citizenship that is useful for all stakeholders to locate and improve their global citizenship practice.

AITSL Standards addressed:

This study cuts across all AITSL professional standards.

Overview

Educators will be guided by ACARA’s Curriculum Specialist Science, Simon Collier to explore the changes and refinements to Science curriculum content in V 9.0 for both Primary and Secondary year levels. They will also explore the intent and structure of the Australian Curriculum: Science and the interrelationship between strands and sub-strands.

AITSL Standards addressed:

~ 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

~ 2.2 Content selection and organisation

~ 2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

~ 6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

Overview:

Educators will be guided by ACARA’s Curriculum Specialist Technologies, Melanie Hughes to explore the changes and refinements to the Technologies curriculum content in V 9.0. Key changes will be identified for both Primary and Secondary year levels. They will also explore the general capability Digital Literacy, examine the intent of the learning continuum and understand how it can be used to support digital literacy development across the curriculum.

AITSL Standards addressed:

~ 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

~ 2.2 Content selection and organisation

~ 2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

~ 2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

~ 6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

Overview:

Brief summary of webinar yet to come.

AITSL Standards addressed:

Overview:

Educators will be guided by ACARA’s Curriculum Specialist Health and Physical Education, Stuart Burns to explore the changes and refinements to Health and Physical Education curriculum content in V 9.0. Key changes will be identified for both Primary and Secondary year levels. They will also explore changes and refinements to HPE curriculum content that address mental health and consent. They will discuss how these changes support students to develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that relate to wellbeing and respectful relationships.

AITSL Standards addressed:

~ 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

~ 2.2 Content selection and organisation

~ 2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

~ 6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice