Reflective Portfolio - Engagement with inclusive teaching resources

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Reflective Portfolio (1)

Engagement with inclusive teaching resources

All Australian children have a right to inclusive education despite the numerous barriers to realizing these rights in the experience of children and their families. Inclusion and diversity in the early childhood classroom aim to support learners who have unique needs in terms of race, gender, disability, and class (Petriwskyj, 2010). In response to these needs, a wide range of resources is available to support Australian teachers with engagement and inclusive teaching.

The discussion outlines three resources that can help professional practice in teaching for diversity and inclusion. The critical analysis of the resources includes their implication for teaching practice, drawing on the subject readings.

The first resource is titled Inclusion education towards equality for students with disabilities. The resource is available on the link https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resourcefiles/2013-10/apo-nid36129.pdf. The resource is a policy recommendation for inclusive education for all children with disabilities. Cologon (2013) notes that there are numerous barriers to the realization of inclusive education for special needs children and support to their families.

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At present, efforts to uphold the rights of all children are impeded by a lack of understanding of the nature of inclusive education and the misappropriation of the term.

Additional challenges are negative and discriminatory attitudes, lack of support to foster inclusive education, and inadequate professional development for teachers to support inclusive education (Henderson & Jarvis, 2016). Standard 1.5 requires the teachers to differentiate teaching to meet the specific needs of learners across the full range of abilities. Using this resource, the teacher will demonstrate an understanding of strategies for teaching and differentiating teaching to cater to the specific needs of children who have a full range of abilities. Therefore, the resource for inclusion education towards equality for learners with disabilities involves creating both an inclusive environment and adopting differentiation strategies to ensure effective learning that caters The implication of the resource for teaching children with disabilities and support for professional practice in teaching for diversity and inclusion is to address the gap in research in current understanding to provide a solid basis for policy development. The resource aligns with Standard 1.6 on the teacher adopting strategies to support the full participation of learners with disabilities (Qureshi et al., 2020). The resource effectively equips the teacher with knowledge on the understanding of both legislative and teaching strategies to support learning and participation for learners with disabilities. The resource mounts evidence to support inclusive education and guides teachers on the key components to include in the classroom and maintain a favorable environment for learning (Dunn et al., 2013). The universal learning design ensures that the early childhood classroom and experiences are ready for all children rather than targeting the experience of a homogenized learning setting that could exclude children with a disability.

Teachers are encouraged to embrace human diversity and welcome all learners to the classroom

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as equal learning community members. The teacher should value and support the full participation of all children in the mainstream learning environment and interactions. Inclusive education for the disabled includes creating learning setting free from discriminatory beliefs, attitudes, and practices (Cologon, 2013).

The second resource aims to support the needs of students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The resource is available on http://shorturl.at/itzD3. As provided under standards 1.3, teachers must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of learners from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The resource is a teachers’ guide for Teaching students from diverse backgrounds in the remote context. According to SPERA (2013), Australia's various linguistic, cultural, and geographic diversity requires that teachers develop exceptional skills to ensure that all students, regardless of their backgrounds, attain their full potential. Therefore, the resource is a teacher’s guide that they can apply to devise and implement workable strategies to teach learners regardless of their abilities and backgrounds.

The resource is helpful to teachers on how they can nurture cross-cultural communication among students and communities by promoting spirit and integrity, reciprocity, and respect. The teacher is required to demonstrate respect for the integrity and nature of all cultures, communities, and individuals. On the other hand, reciprocity implies that teachers fully recognize the contribution and involvement of diverse groups to success in education. Equality entails the teacher promoting distributive fairness and justice, affirming individuals, communities, and cultures (Nicotera, 2019). At the same time, the teacher exercises

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responsibility by ensuring that their practice is transparent and results in equal benefits for all communities involved.

As posited by Cabedo-Mas et al. (2017), this teachers’ guide requires that teachers build understanding for diverse cultures, languages, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds through the adoption of responsive pedagogy. A responsive pedagogy entails being proactive rather than reactive, setting high expectations, adopting a strength-based approach, building selfesteem and personal learning plans that cater to the specific needs of each individual. A workable approach to addressing bias requires that the teacher documents their heritage positions concerning the dominant culture and recognizing their preferences ad-blind spots to decide the language, values, and beliefs to apply when teaching diverse students.

The guide also requires that teachers design teaching sequences using content and strategies that support the needs and strengths of learners from diverse backgrounds so that the plight of every learner is taken into consideration (Timperley & Alton-Lee, 2008). It is also imperative that the teacher applies a cultural lens so that the resources selected n the practicum to include students from diverse ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. The guide also requires that the teacher design teaching sequences that target learning area-specific literacy needs of students from different backgrounds. It is recommended that the teacher promote learning from the immediate environment by designing learning activities to enhance literacy outcomes using the local external environment as a resource. Trent (2011) asserted that teachers are also required to adapt and use the strategies for English Second Language learners throughout the school. Indeed, these resources have a favorable implication for teachers who want to enhance their practice to foster inclusion and diversity for all learners despite their abilities, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, religion, and ethnicity.

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A critical reflection on teaching practice

The lessons delivered during the school placement and the experience have been fundamental in enhancing my teaching practice and my ability to promote diversity and inclusion for all learners. I demonstrated strength in my professional knowledge of integrating research into teaching and learning, understanding and integrating curriculum content, and practical teaching standards. Despite the challenges brought forth by Covid-19 restriction on interaction with learners, I have explored all available opportunities to forge positive learning encounters with my students. I have demonstrated professional knowledge and understanding in using the curriculum, assessments, and report knowledge to design learning and sequences as stipulated under standard 2.3. I have also shown significant knowledge, performance, and respect for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander students as required under Focus Areas 1.4 and 2.4. In my future teaching experiences, I will explore opportunities to demonstrate my skills and teaching strategies as I engage Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, and languages. I will also strive to demonstrate enhanced professional knowledge in integrating these strategies in literacy and numeracy support in my teaching.

I have also met expectations in my professional practice concerning preparation and planning, assessments, and management skills and abilities. The Covid-19 lockdown and restrictions have limited the available opportunities to demonstrate my preparation and planning abilities in regard to the lessons plans and putting them to effect. Nonetheless, I have demonstrated proficiency in writing clearly and achieving learning goals. I have also shown the ability to plan and present a sequence of lessons on a given topic to my students, implement a range of teaching strategies and engage students with a range of teaching and learning resources, including ICT. In my future preparation and learning initiatives, I will strive to engage with a

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co-teacher to teach a segment of my lesson from the plan, then discuss how easily the plan is executed and impact its influence on students’ learning.

I have also demonstrated an understanding and awareness of assessment strategies applicable to gauge the students’ level of understanding. Whereas there have been limited formal recording and assessment opportunities that have limited my ability to apply and understand my practice fully, I have been actively engaged in planning and structuring assessments for different programs. I have demonstrated an outstanding ability to use a wide range of assessment strategies and provide positive and constructive feedback to learners by undertaking these initiatives. I have also had the opportunity to explore the use of a range of strategies and data to evaluate students’ learning and improve my teaching and learning and my ability to maintain accurate assessment records and reporting of achievable standards. I will explore all available practice opportunities in my future placements to practice formal results, further recording and reporting for my students.

My professional practice in terms of management skills and abilities shows that I have met expectations in using strategies to encourage student involvement in learning, the ability to promote student involvement in education, and optimal use of teaching time to keep the students on task. Even though I lacked opportunities to manage challenging students and classrooms, I will be seeking future placement opportunities where I can demonstrate my ability. When engaging with students, it is expected that the teacher demonstrates the ability to generate interest, curiosity, and enthusiasm and the effectiveness of voice and speech in terms of intonation and audibility.

In my subsequent placements, I will seek to ensure clarity of instructions and explanations and the effectiveness of my non-verbal communication engagement with students. I

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will also strive to promote the efficacy in questioning and listening to students and effective timing and flexibility in the classroom to promote student learning. I feel that there have only been limited opportunities for me to demonstrate my ability to illustrate the basis instructional goals in the classroom. Whereas I have shown the expected proficiency in management skills and abilities, my goal for future placement will be exploring additional questioning techniques, languages, and strategies to elicit feedback and facilitate learning for my students.

The area of professional engagement included reflection and professional learning, personal and professional qualities, and interaction with students and staff. I met all expectations in terms of abilities to identify and plan professional learning needs through written selfevaluation, reflect accurately on my teaching performance, and be willing to accept and act upon my supervisors’ feedback. I considered the feedback by my supervisor an opportunity to learn, and I will put these suggestions in my future placement to continue building on my professional learning.

The professional qualities I have demonstrated include eagerness to learn and improve, reliability and punctuality, interest in-school program, and ability to fulfill administrative and professional duties, including yard duty and pre/post classroom COVID sterilization requirements. My interaction with students and staff has been professional, and I have participated as an influential team member with other teaching staff. As continue with my professional interaction with my students and colleagues, I will always strive to maintain professional relationships and collaborate with team members to enhance learning outcome.

Overall, I have met the expectations of my teaching practice, and I am taking the feedback and suggestions and putting them into action. I am always keen to learn and improve. I am a team player and will collaborate with my colleagues and take instructions from my

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supervisor and school leaders to improve my skills and knowledge. I have demonstrated the ability to be adaptable to the learning environment. Despite my placement being negatively affected by the restrictions put into place to curb COVID, I believe that I have performed exceptionally well despite the lockdown and limitations. The improvements that I have noted include appropriate use of language and grammar and ensuring that instructions are clear to students. I will be seeking opportunities to practice some of my teachings with students from diverse backgrounds to ensure I gain skills to be understood by a broad range of students from diverse backgrounds.

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A statement of my philosophy of teaching highlighting my focus on diverse and inclusive teaching practices I believe that all learners can learn and attain their full potential given the opportunity,

application o effective teaching methods, and appropriate resources. In each teaching encounter, I consider inclusion as the keystone of student learning, which includes all learners, thus the full spectrum of diverse abilities, within a single system, in a way that all students and communities are assured of successful, equal, and quality participation in all areas of learning. Inclusion implies that all learners have to perceive and treat themselves and others as dignified and appreciated. As I engage with learners, I will observe all standards for inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, learners who have disabilities, and those from diverse cultural, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds. The inclusion approach I embrace will be significant in enabling students to achieve their full potential and achieve whatever outcome is envisaged regarding their learning.

My goal as I promote inclusive learning is to provide all my students with an ideal learning environment and opportunities to attain their potential best. All students are welcome to

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the classroom and learning setting to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of the classroom. I believe that inclusive education is about how the curriculum and the school setting are designed and programs and activities that enable students to learn and participate together.

I uphold the belief that all students can learn, and each learner has a right to high-quality education. As I pursue my teaching role, I strive to be effective and engaging and provide a rigorous learning experience for all students. I believe that a safe and stimulating environment is integral in enabling learners to explore and build their potential and attain the respective learning outcomes. For students with disabilities and educational learning needs, I will make reasonable adjustments where required to promote optimal learning for my students.

In my teaching practices, I will demonstrate knowledge and understanding of required professional knowledge to engage with learners and pursuing all opportunities to show my skills, particularly in differentiation and knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. I will also adopt teaching strategies and pedagogical approaches that promote optimal learning for students from diverse linguistic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds, even those with disabilities, by creating an optimal learning opportunity. I will continue to enhance my knowledge and understanding, as well as respect for Torres Islander histories, cultures, and language.

In my teaching practice, I will embrace human diversity and welcome all learners to the classroom as equal learning community members. I will always value and support the full participation of all children in my learning environment and interactions. For me, inclusive learning is free from discriminatory beliefs, attitudes, and practices.

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References Cabedo-Mas, A., Nethsinghe, R., & Forrest, D. (2017). The role of the arts in education for peacebuilding, diversity and intercultural understanding: A comparative study of educational policies in Australia and Spain. International Journal of education & the Arts, 18(11).

Cologon, K. (2013). Inclusion in education: Towards equality for students with disability.

Children with Disability in Australia.

Retrieved from https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2013-10/aponid36129.pdf.

Dunn, K., Hughes‐McCormack, L., & Cooper, S. A. (2018). Hospital admissions for physical health conditions for people with intellectual disabilities: Systematic review. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 31, 1-10.

Henderson, L., & Jarvis, J. (2016). The gifted dimension of the Australian professional standards for teachers: Implications for professional learning. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(8), 60-83.

Nicotera, A. (2019). Social justice and social work, a fierce urgency: Recommendations for social work social justice pedagogy. Journal of Social Work Education, 55(3), 460-475.

Qureshi, S., Malkani, R., & Rose, R. (2020). Achieving Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education for All. Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education, 3-32.

Petriwskyj, A. (2010). Diversity and inclusion in the early years. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 14(2), 195-212.

The Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) (2016). Teacher Guide

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3: Teaching students from diverse backgrounds in the remote context. Retrieved from http://shorturl.at/itzD3 Timperley, H., & Alton-Lee, A. (2008). Reframing teacher professional learning: An alternative policy approach to strengthening valued outcomes for diverse learners. Review of Research in Education, 32(1), 328-369.

Trent, J. (2011). Learning, teaching, and constructing identities: ESL pre-service teacher experiences during a short-term international experience programme. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 31(2), 177-194.