Professional Practice
Standard 3: Plan for and implement effective teaching & learning

An excerpt from my final placement report, with comments from my supervising teacher highlighting my ability to establish challenging learning goals aligned with students’ varying abilities and characteristics. 

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I used the professional knowledge gathered during my placement about students’ backgrounds and ability levels to inform my overall planning, including designing challenging learning goals. I ensured that the goals were within students’ ability to achieve with assistance from knowledgeable adults, as described in Vygotsky’s zone of actual and proximal development. This led to sustained engagement by students and added value to students’ skillsets by transferring knowledge to real situations. Since the class comprises students of mixed ability, in order to meet the needs of the varying abilities, I constantly evaluated my goals and extended or geared down to facilitate the learning of individual students. Collaboration with other teachers and discussion of students’ needs aligned with the foundation-year curriculum guided me in establishing relevant learning goals for my classroom, acknowledged by my supervising teacher’s observation and comments.