Unit rationale, description and aim
Teaching in senior secondary contexts requires a deep understanding of curriculum expectations, evidence informed pedagogies and assessment practices that support diverse learners. As senior students transition towards further study, training and employment, teachers require strong capability in designing learning that develops advanced disciplinary knowledge, higher order skills, and subject specific literacy and numeracy. This unit supports preservice teachers to consolidate in-depth pedagogical content knowledge and refine their professional judgment for senior years teaching.
Through analysis of senior curriculum documents, subject specific pedagogies and contemporary research, preservice teachers will critically examine strategies that promote effective learning within a second and/or additional teaching area. Subject-specific pedagogical strategies and approaches will be considered, including instructional design, evidence-informed strategies for progressing learning with senior students, assessment design, and differentiation to support diverse learners. Learning activities engage preservice teachers in evaluating pedagogical approaches and developing evidence informed resources.
The aim of this unit is to develop preservice teachers’ capacity to apply and evaluate pedagogical principles and practices that enhance senior secondary students’ learning, engagement and achievement in selected teaching areas.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from 糖心原创 with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Apply evidence informed pedagogical principles and...
Learning Outcome 01
Appraise the effectiveness of pedagogical approach...
Learning Outcome 02
Content
Topics will include:
Module C1: Senior Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment in Second Teaching Area
- Overview of senior secondary curriculum for second teaching area
- Auditing knowledge and skills against the senior curriculum
- Professional Associations for second teaching area, including opportunities for professional learning and development
- Assessment tasks, tools and practices for second teaching area
- Subject specific pedagogies and approaches to learning for senior students
- Developing senior students’ subject-specific literacy and numeracy capabilities
- Subject specific differentiation, including adjustments and modifications in alignment with senior curriculum and assessment expectations
- Evidence-informed teaching and learning of content and skills in second teaching area, e.g. teacher-led instruction, clear and explicit instruction, effective questioning, scaffolded to independent practice, spacing and retrieval practice, worked examples and modelling, reducing cognitive load and feedback
Module C2: Senior Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment in additional Teaching Area
- Overview of senior secondary curriculum for additional teaching area
- Auditing knowledge and skills against the senior curriculum
- Professional Associations for additional teaching area, including opportunities for professional learning and development
- Assessment tasks, tools and practices for additional teaching area
- Subject specific pedagogies and approaches to learning for senior students
- Developing senior students’ subject-specific literacy and numeracy capabilities
- Subject specific differentiation, including adjustments and modifications in alignment with senior curriculum and assessment expectations
- Evidence-informed teaching and learning of content and skills in additional teaching area, e.g. teacher-led instruction, clear and explicit instruction, effective questioning, scaffolded to independent practice, spacing and retrieval practice, worked examples and modelling, reducing cognitive load and feedback
Assessment strategy and rationale
Assessment in this unit is designed to build preservice teachers’ capability to interpret, evaluate and apply senior secondary curriculum, assessment and pedagogical principles. Preservice teachers will complete a similar task that is differentiated through a focus on specific senior secondary teaching areas. Ethical and effective use of generative AI is supported for brainstorming, document comparison, idea organisation, editing and enhancing clarity. Students must demonstrate original analysis, professional judgement and correct attribution, with transparency and academic integrity modelled throughout the unit.
The assessment task is a portfolio in an open?lane format, enabling preservice teachers to demonstrate their capacity to apply evidence?informed pedagogical principles, justify planning and assessment decisions, and evaluate teaching approaches for senior learners. The portfolio encourages authentic engagement with professional artefacts and the creation of classroom?ready resources.
To pass this unit, preservice teachers need to complete and pass both assessment tasks and receive a passing grade of 50% overall.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Portfolio of Pedagogical Pract...
Assessment Task 1: Portfolio of Pedagogical Practices
Develop a multimedia portfolio demonstrating evidence informed pedagogical strategies for senior secondary in your second teaching area. Include teaching materials, exemplars, plans or resources across a range of senior level topics. Critically analyse how these artefacts support diverse learners, including the development of subject specific knowledge and skills, and literacy, numeracy and ICT capabilities. Justify pedagogical choices using contemporary research and curriculum requirements and informed pedagogical strategies for senior secondary learning in the selected teaching area.
50%
Assessment Task 2: Portfolio of Pedagogical Pract...
Assessment Task 2: Portfolio of Pedagogical Practices
Develop a multimedia portfolio demonstrating evidence informed pedagogical strategies for senior secondary in your additional teaching area. Include teaching materials, exemplars, plans or resources across a range of senior level topics. Critically analyse how these artefacts support diverse learners, including the development of subject specific knowledge and skills, and literacy, numeracy and ICT capabilities. Justify pedagogical choices using contemporary research and curriculum requirements and informed pedagogical strategies for senior secondary learning in the selected teaching area.
50%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit is grounded in active, inquiry?oriented learning approaches that support adult learners to connect theory, research and practice. Workshops model evidence?informed pedagogies such as explicit instruction, worked examples, modelling and scaffolded practice before applying these to senior secondary contexts. Collaborative activities enable preservice teachers to analyse curriculum requirements, trial subject?specific strategies, and evaluate the impact of pedagogical choices on diverse learners.
Teaching strategies prioritise learner agency, reflective practice and iterative resource development. Case studies, micro?teaching, peer feedback and constructive critique support students to evaluate and refine pedagogical decision?making. Online activities provide flexibility while ensuring structured opportunities for engagement with research and professional standards. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to ensure equitable participation, particularly for activities involving digital tools, communication tasks or multimedia creation. Digital platforms and assistive technologies are embedded where appropriate.
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Graduate Level
In connection to the learning outcomes, on successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should have developed the following industry specific knowledge based on the :
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students and how these may affect learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of research into how students learn and the implications for teaching.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toUse curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toKnow and understand literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in teaching areas.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toSet learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toInclude a range of teaching strategies.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toDemonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toDemonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toDemonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toUnderstand the relevant and appropriate sources of professional learning for teachers.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toUnderstand the relevant legislative, administrative and organisational policies and processes required for teachers according to school stage.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) Core Content
On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should have developed the following industry specific knowledge based on the AITSL Core Content:
Relating toThe features of biologically primary vs biologically secondary knowledge acquisition and the importance of teacher-led instruction for biologically secondary knowledge acquisition.?
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toThe most effective teaching practices to reduce cognitive overload, including explicit instruction, scaffolding, and clearly structured content that connects new information to prior learning.?
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toWhy teaching practices must adapt as a student’s familiarity with the knowledge of a subject increases, including when to move from scaffolded practice to independent practice, and why this is important.?
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toHow to develop and use worked examples for students who are unfamiliar with a subject, followed by more challenging problem-solving activities as students become more familiar with the knowledge of a subject.?
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toHow to plan a sequence of lessons that incorporate spacing and retrieval practice, build upon each other, meet students where they are in their learning and help students retrieve past learning and consolidate it in long-term memory.?
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toThe research base that shows explicit teaching, modelling and scaffolding practices are highly effective and attend best to how a student’s brain learns.?
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toHow to explicitly model new skills and content through ‘worked examples’ that clearly demonstrate how to complete the task, followed by a progressive removal of scaffolding as students become more proficient.
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toHow to use formative assessment practices to gather and interpret information about student learning as learning is taking place – for example, use of simple, low-key assessments such as exit slips, quick quizzes or targeted oral questioning to prompt students to articulate their reasoning and identify common student misconceptions.?
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toHow to provide feedback as learning is taking place that is specific, honest, constructive, and clear, and uses explicit teaching strategies to re-teach concepts, scaffold, or correct misconceptions as necessary.
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toPractices should include the use of structured lessons, clear and explicit instruction, effective questioning that encourages participation, reducing cognitive load and use of specific and positive feedback that acknowledges student effort.?
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Representative texts and references
Recommended texts and documents
Senior syllabus/curriculum documents as per local jurisdiction.
Recommended references
Alonzo, D., & Gearhart, M. (2019). Teacher assessment literacy: A review of international research and implications for teacher education. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 26(3), 263–279.
Archer, A. L., & Hughes, C. A. (2018). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. Guilford Press.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2020). National report on schooling in Australia 2020. ACARA.
Barrett, S., & Heffernan, A. (2022). Teacher judgement, workload and curriculum reform: Implications for assessment policy. Australian Educational Researcher, 49(5), 875–893.
Brady, L. (2019). Curriculum reform in Australian senior secondary education: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51(4), 523–538.
Carter, M., & Luke, A. (2020). Assessment, standards and teacher professionalism in Australian schooling. Curriculum Journal, 31(2), 204–221.
Cumming, J., & Cormack, P. (2018). Reforming senior secondary assessment: Insights from Queensland. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 25(5), 573–589.
Hardy, I. (2017). Data-driven improvement and its effects on teacher professionalism. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 29(1), 73–89.
Hattie, J. (2023). Visible learning: The sequel. Routledge.
Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2018). The case for explicit instruction. Educational Psychologist, 53(3), 169–184.
Klenowski, V., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2018). Moderation and teacher judgement in a standards-referenced system. Oxford Review of Education, 44(1), 55–70.
Lingard, B., Thompson, G., & Sellar, S. (2016). National testing, accountabilities, and the reshaping of Australian schooling. Journal of Education Policy, 31(6), 685–699.
Lingard, B., & Lewis, S. (2020). Digital data infrastructures and teacher work. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(4), 383–395.
Masters, G. N. (2020). Reforming assessment: A global perspective. Australian Council for Educational Research.
Priestley, M., & Drew, V. (2019). Curriculum design and enactment in secondary schooling. Curriculum Perspectives, 39(1), 5–18.
Rosenshine, B. (2017). Principles of instruction. International Academy of Education.
Sahlberg, P. (2021). Finnish lessons 3.0: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? Teachers College Press.
Van der Kleij, F., & Adie, L. (2022). Feedback practices in upper secondary education. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 29(5), 599–617.
Wyatt-Smith, C., Klenowski, V., & Colbert, P. (2021). Achieving consistency in teacher judgement: Scaffolds for moderation. Assessment Matters, 13, 45–68.
Ziebarth, S., & O'Neill, M. (2023). High-stakes assessment and equity in senior secondary schooling. Australian Journal of Education, 67(2), 178–195.