Coffee cup investigation
CONTEXT
- The teacher education student is in the first year of a Master of Teaching degree.
- The teacher education student is completing their second teaching placement.
- This school is a large, independent, non-selective Catholic boys’ school in an urban area.
- This Year 8 Science lesson sequence focuses on energy and specifically involves students conducting and reporting on a scientific ‘coffee cup’ investigation.
Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence.
EVIDENCE ANNOTATION
The teacher education student demonstrates 2.2.1 ‘Graduate achieved’ through:
- Developing and delivering a logical lesson sequence that reflects curriculum requirements for Year 8 Science (a mandated scientific investigation) and that is constructed to develop students’ understanding of content.
- Selecting teaching strategies to provide for relevant and engaging learning experiences appropriate to a range of students, including diagnostic assessment strategies (such as a ‘hot seat’ activity and mini whiteboard graph drawing) and clear scaffolding of the investigation through worksheets and frameworks, as well as extra scaffolding for Learning Support students to complete the experimental report (see pp. 9-10).
- Providing some opportunity to build on learning from prior lesson content and students’ prior learning by reflecting on the implications of diagnostic test data (e.g., see p. 4).
G: The goal for this teacher education student is 2.2.1.
R: The teacher education student has satisfied 2.2.1 at graduate level.
O: What specific mentoring strategies could you employ with this teacher education student to help them move towards ‘Graduate exceeds’ for 2.2.1?
W: What is the next step you would negotiate as a goal for this teacher education student? What will you do as a Mentor to help them achieve this goal?
G: To organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence and to move up on the 2.2.1 graduate continuum.
R: Which level of the graduate continuum are you currently at for 2.2.1? Refer to recent feedback you have received.
O: What specific actions could you take to organise your content into a more effective learning and teaching sequence?
- Could you link your lesson plans together more logically to enhance student understanding of content?
- Could you use prior lesson content and prior knowledge more effectively to plan subsequent lessons?
- Could you use more diagnostic and formative assessment tools to inform your lesson sequencing?
- Could you incorporate greater, or different levels of, scaffolding into your lesson plans and worksheets to help students of different abilities to all complete the tasks?
W: What is your next step in improving your organisation of content into effective learning and teaching sequences? Try to formulate a specific goal.