STATEMENT OF INTENTION
This Teaching and Learning Portfolio website is designed as a continuously evolving educational tool and resource for teachers and students of all skill levels and backgrounds. It fosters the sharing of content and resources, enabling enhanced learning at any time through an accessible and engaging platform. As a pre-service teacher, it is vital to consider meeting the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers throughout my training and into my career. This Teaching and Learning Portfolio has been developed with a focus on professional knowledge, professional practice, and professional engagement (AITSL, 2018). Within this teaching and learning portfolio, I have included a professional engagement plan that identifies areas for improvement within my Media teaching, as well as a unit 3 and 4 VCE Media planner with supporting resources and materials. Through my development of this portfolio, I am preparing myself for current and future teaching of VCE Media along with planning for and supporting my ongoing pedagogical development as a pre-service teacher and life-long learner. This teaching and learning portfolio allows me to continue working towards meeting the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL], 2018), specifically standards 3.1-3.4 related to planning and executing effective teaching and learning. As Dewey (2008, p. 167) emphasises, today’s learners should not be taught using outdated methods. Therefore, to support the development of all students in 21st-century education, I must adopt innovative pedagogical approaches that foster their ability to become lifelong-learners as outlined in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration (Education Council, 2019).
The development of this professional engagement plan allows me to identify areas of my practice, pedagogical content knowledge and other relevant knowledge that I need to improve on as a pre-service teacher. This professional engagement plan has been developed as a pedagogical tool to promote my position as a “reflective practitioner” to make a difference in the loves of my students (Churchill, 2022, p. 75). This professional engagement plan allows me to look at learning theories, resources and engage with learning and professional development while simultaneously reflecting on my own beliefs and growth as a pre-service teacher. Through the implementation of this professional engagement plan, I will express my commitment to continuous improvement and learning along with development of my pedagogical knowledge and skills as an emerging Media pre-service teacher. This plan allows me to not only implement improvement throughout my professional career, but can be utilised to improve on my knowledge, skills and pedagogy as a pre-service teacher during practicum. This professional engagement plan includes a skills audit designed to support my professional development and life-long learning, ranking areas of improvement based on priority so I can better my practice in a systematic and organised approach. Throughout this skills audit, I have identified areas of improvement or gaps in my knowledge with my teaching of Media and my understanding of the VCE Media curriculum structure. It has become my emerging pedagogy that inquiry approaches towards Media teaching is effective in providing learners agency and control over their learning, however as outlined by Churchill (2022, p. 155) this requires strong pedagogical content and curriculum knowledge. While my previous professional experience lies in marketing and design, it is critical that I build on my pedagogical content knowledge and skills in areas such as understanding of camera and film techniques, codes and conventions, senior secondary theory, curriculum documents and assessment processes. This skills audit has been developed as a table that outlines the areas of improvement on a priority level basis, I will be incorporating this audit document as a pedagogical tool to work towards AITSL Standards 6.1-6.3 (APST, 2018) by identifying, planning and engaging in ongoing professional learning along with collaborating with colleagues to enhance my practice. Furthermore, I am committed towards meeting Standard 6.4 (APST, 2018) through applying this professional learning in classroom settings to improve student outcomes.
Included in this teaching and learning portfolio website is a unit planner to provide a clear unit 3 & 4 VCE Media framework to scaffold student success throughout their VCE Media studies. To support my creation of this planner, I have referred to the Media study design (VCAA, 2024) for the accreditation period of 2024-2028. This planner has been designed to be a student and teacher facing resource, allowing students to access a clear and concise yearly plan along with the resources and tools they need to scaffold their success. This unit plan should be used by both teachers and students to plan and organise their VCE media studies, guiding their progress and organisation throughout the year. To support my implementation of the 2024-2028 Media Study design I have referred to the VCAA (2024) planning resources along with critical VASS dates (VCAA, 2024). This developed guide has informed my planning based on the recommended unit of study time allocation of 50 hours of class contact time, to maximise learning for students and delivery of curriculum content. This unit plan will be implemented with the Department of Education’s (DET) High Impact Teaching Strategies in mind to support the learning of all students in an evidence-based approach (DET, 2020).
Throughout this teaching and learning portfolio, I will be referring to professional resources, organisations and government bodies to inform and support my teaching of VCE Media. To assist in the creation of this unit planner and to promote my ongoing professional learning, I have engaged in resources created by Natalie Knite (n.d.) to both inform my own understanding of how to implement engaging learning, but to provide students with relevant and contemporary learning material to scaffold engagement and learning. Furthermore, Knite (n.d.) displays exemplar written responses which have not only been used to inform my understanding as a teacher, but to assist student learning with understanding how to structure their responses. These resources will be heavily drawn on to influence my understanding on how the VCE Media curriculum content can be delivered in an effective way. Furthermore, to promote my understanding and implementation of First Nations knowledge, culture and histories I will refer to information, protocols and teaching resources provided by VCAA (2024), along with implementing pedagogical approaches such as Yunkaporta’s (2009) Eight-ways pedagogical framework, not only to promote the learning and engagement of all learners, but to introduce multiple approaches to scaffold student learning.