EDLL516 - Interdisciplinary Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment in the Primary Classroom 1

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Unit rationale, description and aim

In order to effectively engage students and support their progression across curricula primary school teachers must develop strong content knowledge and content pedagogical knowledge across a wide array of curricular areas, plus the ability to develop and implement teaching and learning experiences that integrate these areas together. This unit utilises learning principles to enrich, refine and extend pre-service teachers’ knowledge and understanding, skills, values and attitudes related to learning and teaching across the Australian Curriculum of Humanities and Social Sciences, Health and Physical Education, and Arts Education. Pre-service teachers will examine the patterns of interaction in various socio-cultural, political, and environmental settings, as well as the influence of art and physical and mental wellbeing throughout time, with emphasis on Indigenous peoples. The unit focuses on preparing society’s future adults to be critical thinkers functioning effectively within a rapidly changing, global and multicultural society. The unit provides opportunities to engage in inquiry-based learning as well as peer coaching to support professional engagement and growth, focused on applied practice within the employment-based structure of the course. The aim of this unit is to develop teaching knowledge and skills that reflect best practice across these multiple curriculum areas and the ability to design and deliver effective interdisciplinary teaching and learning. 

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 ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Synthesise and develop a range of pedagogical approaches and resources (including digital resources), for effectively engaging students in interdisciplinary learning, with particular emphasis on inquiry-based learning (GA5, GA8, GA9; APST 1.3, 1.5, 2.1, 2.6, 3.3, 3.4, 4.5)

LO2 - research, evaluate and critically analyse a range of pedagogical approaches and teaching resources across a range of curriculum areas (Humanities, Arts, Health, and Physical Education in particular), with emphasis on the early years of primary schooling (Foundation to Year 2.) (GA4, GA5, GA9; APST 2.1, 2.6, 3.3, 3.4, 3.6)

LO3 - design and implement learning sequences employing a range of teaching strategies, including those that support differentiation as well as enhanced literacy and numeracy, to engage and meet the needs of diverse learners, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (GA5, GA8; APST 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.4)

LO4 - investigate, implement, and reflect on peer coaching and collaboration for teaching to improve classroom practice and in particular, the integration of curriculum in the primary classroom (GA4, GA5, GA7, GA10; APST 4.5, 6.3, 6.4)

Graduate attributes

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

GA10 - utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.

AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS - GRADUATE LEVEL

On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should be able to:

Content

Topics will include:

• peer coaching approaches to teaching and reflective practice. 
• inquiry based learning approaches, programming and unit development in the primary school classroom.
• the nature of pedagogical practice and role of the teacher in structuring learning in the arts, humanities, and physical education classroom.
• the significance of the arts in education as forms of aesthetic knowledge, self expression, cultural literacy, communication, creativity, and critical commentary.
• systems with a focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and expressions
• teaching strategies that explore and acknowledge the arts and humanities from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socio-economic perspectives and contexts.
• identification of a range of resources, including ICT, that can be used to enhance.
• history and Geography within the primary school context.
• indigenous perspectives about the past, present and future including Indigenous peoples and cultures and notions of shared histories.
• ICT rich and partnering pedagogies in multiple curriculum areas.
• the Australian Curriculum and programming issues – lesson planning, sequencing of activities, units of work, assessment and evaluation, integration of cross curriculum perspectives.
• the importance of student wellbeing and safety in relation to integrated curriculum design and delivery.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

The learning and teaching strategies in this unit include (1) lectures which may be delivered as online workshops to encourage active learning and high level of engagement, (2) tutorials to consolidate learning content and apply knowledge in problem solving tasks and develop analytical and evaluating skills and possible independent online learning tasks to develop GA7. The learning and teaching strategy is based on a Constructivist approach in a sociocultural context.

Pre-service teachers will first develop knowledge of the principles underpinning interdisciplinary curriculum planning and teaching, with particular emphasis on inquiry-based approaches to curriculum integration, in tandem with the development of preliminary knowledge across the range of curriculum areas specified within this unit, focusing on the Foundation – Year 2 primary years of learning. As they progress, the emphasis shifts towards applying this knowledge into the practical development of a unit that can be taught within the context of the participant’s teaching role as per the employment-based nature of the course. While pre-service teachers continue to explore and expand their understanding of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment across these areas, they will develop an interdisciplinary, inquiry-based unit of study relevant to their teaching context and learners. As they progress through the unit the emphasis on learning and teaching shifts to implementation of teaching and professional reflection, so that they are oriented in peer coaching processes and critical reflective strategies that they can in turn apply to the delivery of interdisciplinary teaching and learning. This final aspect of the unit supports reflective practice and creates a bridge with a second interdisciplinary curriculum unit that builds upon learning outcomes achieved within this unit.

This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support learning such as reading, reflection, discussion, webinars, podcasts, video etc.

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment tasks and their weightings are designed so that the pre-service teachers can progressively achieve the Course Learning Outcomes and the Professional Standards and is consistent with University assessment requirements (https://policies.acu.edu.au/student_policies/assessment_policy_and_assessment_procedures).

The assessment tasks and their weightings allow pre-service teachers to progressively demonstrate achievement against the course learning outcomes by demonstrating academic and professional standards. This unit will focus on developing understanding of, and skills across the professional knowledge, practice and engagement needed to meet expectations of the Graduate Attributes and the APST: Graduate level. The three assessment tasks are sequenced to allow feedback and progressive development of content knowledge and skills to prepare pre-service teachers for pedagogical knowledge units across the different curriculum areas. The first assessment task demonstrates that pre-service teachers in the unit have developed foundational knowledge of the purposes and processes that underpin effective interdisciplinary planning, which is built upon in the second assessment, which requires pre-service teachers to apply this knowledge in the practical design of an interdisciplinary unit. The third and final task enables participates to engage in a full cycle of investigation, planning, teaching, and critical reflection, as it culminates with the implementation of teaching and learning from the unit created for the second task, guided by peer coaching and self-evaluation with an emphasis on identifying areas for improvement in future planning and teaching related to interdisciplinary curriculum.  

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Coffman, T. (2017). Inquiry-based learning: Designing instruction to promote higher level thinking. Rowman & Littlefield.

Dinham, J. (2020). The ABC of arts education. In Delivering authentic arts education (4th ed). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia.

Gilbert, R., Tudball, L., & Brett, P. (2019). Teaching Humanities & Social Sciences. Cengage AU.

Goudvis, A., Harvey, S. & Buhrow, B. (2019). Inquiry Illuminated: Researcher’s Workshop Across the Curriculum. Heinemann USA.

Kidman, G., & Casinader, N. (2017). Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning across Disciplines: Comparative Theory and Practice in Schools (pp. 1–159). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Marsh, C. (2018). Teaching studies of society and environment. Sydney: Pearson Education.

Global Education Project. (2015). Global perspectives: A statement on global education for Australian schools. Carlton: Curriculum Corporation.

Miller, J., Wilson-Gahan, S., & Garrett, R. (2018). Health and physical education: preparing educators for the future. Cambridge University Press.

Reynolds, R. (2019). Teaching humanities and social sciences in the primary school (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Robbins, P. (2015). Peer coaching to enrich professional practice, school culture, and student learning. ASCD.