Professional experience placements in education

Formative assessment and reporting occur throughout placements. Supervising teachers provide regular verbal and written feedback to Preservice Teachers based on the observations of and discussions about their work. The university also requires that a formative Interim Report is completed for all Preservice Teachers typically by the end of week 2 of a block placement. A summative Final Report is then completed at the end of the block placement. The Supervising Teacher should discuss both the Interim and Final Reports with the Preservice Teacher. All performance evaluations are guided by the graduate level of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

Interim report and related Action Plan

The Interim Report is a formative document. Supervising Teacher(s) will discuss and complete an Interim Report with the Preservice Teacher by the end of the second week of the block placement. The Interim Report should clearly identify the Preservice Teacher’s strengths and any areas needing further development. Interim Reports can be used as an opportunity for goal setting for the remainder of the placement. If any sections of the Interim Report are judged to be ‘below standard’, an Action Plan must be implemented, giving the Preservice Teacher 5 days to meet the standards. Supervising Teachers will write the Action Plan with the support of the University Supervisor. Site Coordinators may also be involved in the writing of Action Plans. All Action Plans must be sent to the Professional Experience Office.

Professional Standards Preservice Teacher Development Rubric 

A rubric is provided for each placement to help Supervising Teachers, University Supervisors, Preservice Teachers and Site Coordinators to understand the levels required for a Preservice Teacher to be successful during a specific placement. The rubrics for specific placements are provided upon the placement release, and added as an attachment with the Interim Report

Assessment report

Supervising Teachers are required to complete an Assessment Report upon the completion of a placement.  For a Preservice Teacher to pass, all components of the report need to be judged as satisfactory or above. If any sections of the report are judged to be developing or unsatisfactory, the placement will be deemed as a fail. Preservice Teachers who fall below standard at any point must be given an action plan and provided 5 business days (within the allocated placement block dates) to meet the standards of the action plan.

An overall rating of satisfactory or unsatisfactory achievement is made by the Principal/Site Coordinator and Supervising Teacher(s). The Professional Experience Office will send a link to the report to the Site Coordinator, and once completed, Preservice Teachers will be able to provide their comments via InPlace. The Site Coordinator should ensure that the report is finalized within one week of the final placement day.

Termination/Withdrawal/Fail

Any Preservice Teacher who is deemed by the Principal, Site Coordinator, Supervising Teacher and/or University Supervisor to be behaving unprofessionally (e.g. unsatisfactory attendance, preparation and/or teaching), or who is compromising the learning of the students/children, will have their placement terminated. In exceptional cases, an immediate termination can occur without going through the Action Plan process. All parties must keep dated written records to assist this process. The Professional Experience Office must be notified immediately if a placement is to be terminated.

If a Preservice Teacher does not meet the Standards outlined on the Action Plan within 5 business days, they will have their placement terminated and will receive a Fail grade for the course.

Should a Preservice Teacher wish to terminate a placement, this should be discussed with the relevant Course Coordinator before any final decision is made. If a Preservice Teacher chooses to terminate a placement, the course result will be a Fail. Where appropriate, repeating a previously failed/terminated placement is allowed, and the Preservice Teacher can enroll when the next relevant course is offered.

Alternate placements are not sought unless there are extreme extenuating circumstances. These circumstances are reviewed by a panel within Education Futures.

Under any of these circumstances, the Preservice Teacher will be advised by the Course Coordinator to contact the Program Director for academic advice and, if required, the Student Support Services, for counselling.

Supporting UniSA Preservice Teachers

Preservice Teachers will be supported on campus by their Tutors and Course Coordinators. University Supervisors will support Preservice Teachers on placement. In addition, Course Coordinators will provide support to Preservice Teachers, school staff and University Supervisors as required during the placement. University support and counselling resources (available via Student Support Services) are available to the Preservice Teacher. Some useful contact details are provided below:

UniSA Out-Of-Hours Crisis Line 1300 107 441 or Text 0488 884 163
To make an appointment

• Metropolitan campuses and external students 1300 301 703
• Mount Gambier Campus (08) 8723 1999
• Whyalla Campus (08) 8645 8233

The Fitness to Practice in Professional Experience Placements Inherent Requirements provide a framework for understanding what is required of PSTs. Using this framework, PSTs can demonstrate their professional responsibility and capability to fulfil the duties of the teaching profession including their duty of care for young people and themselves. The Fitness to Practice in Professional Experience Placements Inherent Requirements underpin successful performance and achievement within initial teacher education programs. The framework focuses on Professional Experience Placements and other practice-based learning/work integrated learning experiences.

For PSTs, it is crucial that you understand your personal responsibility in managing your fitness to practice, and your continued development and self-monitoring your capabilities against these requirements. You are not expected to begin the program demonstrating practice at a fully qualified professional level, but you will be expected to demonstrate development. Starting with your strongest capacity at the beginning of your program, you will demonstrate your progress through skills development throughout the duration of the program.

Not all Inherent Requirements are assessed formally in courses, however the initial teacher education programs provide scaffolded opportunities to develop these areas through assessment and reflection opportunities. Examples of some of your opportunities for development can be found in the relevant program tables in the Inherent Requirements Developmental Opportunities (some courses will also address elements of these requirements).

It is your professional responsibility as a PST to demonstrate meeting these inherent requirements to be eligible to proceed to professional experience placements and work integrated learning opportunities. If you are not meeting these requirements for any reason, there are processes that must be followed. These processes are outlined in the Fitness to Practice in Professional Experience Placements Inherent Requirements document.

Managing concerns about a PST’s Fitness to Practice

The following procedure must be initiated when concerns are raised regarding a PST’s ability to meet each of the eight domains of Fitness to Practice in Professional Experience Placements. Please note: concerns can be raised by peers, tutors, Course Coordinators, supervising teachers or others in contact with the PST who have concerns about their fitness.

It is essential that any concerns of this nature are properly investigated. PSTs who are not fit to practice during a Professional Experience Placement may pose a risk to the public, placement host staff and children and young people, UniSA staff and other PSTs if they are permitted to participate in Professional Experience Placements. The University shall carry out the procedure described below in a manner that is as timely and discrete as reasonably practicable and provides procedural fairness for PSTs who are the subject of investigations. All information collected by UniSA as part of the procedure described below shall be retained and dealt with in a manner that is consistent with the confidentiality of PSTs’ personal information.

The following circumstances are examples which could raise doubts about a PST’s ability to meet one or more of the Fitness to Practice in Professional Experience Placements requirements and potentially cause a PST to be unfit to practice during a Professional Experience Placement.

These examples are illustrative only and are not intended to be exhaustive:

1. Evidence of chronic drug or alcohol misuse.
2. Severe mental illness.
3. Acting in a violent or aggressive manner.
4. Intimidation of children/students, placement host staff, UniSA staff and fellow PSTs/students.
5. Fraudulent or dishonest behaviour.
6. Conviction of a criminal offence punishable by 12 months imprisonment or more.

Where concerns are raised, they will be first addressed by the member of staff with whom the concern is raised. In each instance, that member of staff will determine whether the concern has merit and warrants escalation and will inform a superior staff member in consultation whilst following the appropriate procedure, as determined by the circumstances in which the concern is raised. For example, the concern may be raised during a Professional Experience placement, in response to an unsuccessful placement, or outside of a structured Professional Experience placement (see procedural flowchart of concern management in the Fitness to Practice documentation). Each of these instances may have differences in the management approach, but in the event that the concern is elevated, the matter will be managed according to the procedural requirements set out in section 4.3 Suitability for practice-based learning activities of the Assessment Policies and Procedures Manual wherein, if it is determined at each stage that a concern merits further investigation, the PST will be notified of the requirements by UniSA that may, following a meeting with the PST and Program Director, refer the matter to the Suitability Advisory Panel.

Fitness to Practice in Professional Experience Placements Inherent Requirements Guidelines and Procedures

Fitness to Practice in Professional Experience Placements Concerns Process

Fitness to Practice in Professional Experience Placements Inherent Requirements developmental opportunities

The Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) is a national requirement and designed to assess the theoretical understandings and skills of PSTs in the final year of their Initial Teacher Education (ITE) program against the Graduate Level of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. The GTPA connects the PSTs’ theoretical understandings with their classroom practice and is a requirement for program completion and graduation. Through the GTPA, Preservice Teachers demonstrate that they can progress the learning of children/young people.

The GTPA requires that Preservice Teachers undertake a cycle of plan, teach, assess, reflect and appraise. They will plan a teaching and learning sequence within a curriculum area or integrated curriculum areas that they will implement across the duration of the placement. The teaching and learning sequence that they plan will be based on initial data about the learners that they collect in the site, along with an initial diagnostic assessment that is included at the beginning of the learning sequence. The initial assessment data will inform planning for differentiation so that the sequence of learning is inclusive of all learners. Preservice Teachers will then teach the learning sequence during the final placement and collect assessment data throughout. This assessment data will inform in-the-moment pedagogical decisions that are responsive to the learning needs of all learners in the class. After teaching the sequence of learning, Preservice Teachers will reflect on their initial planning and how the sequence was enacted. They will then appraise their impact and consider the growth in learning that occurred across the sequence.

Planning 

You must complete written plans for all your learning and teaching experiences. These plans must be shared with the supervising teacher in a timely manner before undertaking any teaching. The preferred format (e.g. hard or electronic copies) should be negotiated with the supervising teacher ahead of time. Written plans include:

• detailed individual lesson plans
• daily planners
• weekly timetable
• unit planners.

Your planning capabilities will reflect the stage you are at in your program.
All planning should consider the site’s context, curriculum documents (e.g. Australian Curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2011)), Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Council of Australian Governments [DEEWR and CAG], 2009) and any other systemic documentation (e.g. Teaching for Effective Learning Framework [TfEL] (Department of Education and Children’s Services, 2010)).

Evaluations 

Evaluations are written for each teaching experience. These will initially focus on individual teaching experiences and will build to evaluations of whole days. Each evaluation should focus on the students’ learning and the PST’s teaching and learning. Useful guiding questions include:

• To what extent were intended learning outcomes achieved?
• What went well?
• What individual/group/class needs should be noted for attention?
• What needs programming or follow up due to interruptions, lack of time, students’ interests etc?
• What should I try to improve in my own teaching and/or management?
• What do I want to discuss with my supervising teacher and University Supervisor?
• What needs programming or follow up due to interruptions, lack of time, students’ interests etc?

Reflection

It is expected that all PSTs will critically reflect on educational practice by engaging in personal reflection and professional dialogue with colleagues (peers, supervising teachers and other staff). PSTs can use a range of strategies for promoting reflection on their learning and teaching, these include the use of journals (for reflection on their learning) critical friends and peer observation, and debriefing. As a PST you are responsible for implementing strategies for reflection during your placement.