Teaching is the busiest interpersonal profession of all. Because of this dynamic, teachers rarely have opportunity to reflect in a way to enhance the intellectual quality of their teaching practice. Thus, their starting assumptions about being a teacher may continue with them, untested, as their experience grows. This course invites teachers maintaining their accreditation to reflect on the Quality Teaching Framework elements of intellectual quality with reference to their priorities in the classroom, which support their current teaching practice. They will therefore have opportunity to unpack their basic presuppositions about teaching and learning, compare that to national contexts, theoretical frameworks, and what they believe may help the learning of their students in their classrooms.

That is, teachers will be invited, based on their teaching experiences to date, to:

1. Review sources of knowledge about the purpose and nature of teaching practice;
2. Reflect on their own assumptions about teaching, with reference to what they have experienced in their classrooms;
3. Refresh their understanding about the elements of Intellectual Quality that improves student learning within a safe and supportive classroom; and
4. Review their current teaching practice as it relates to critical thinking, with the goal of being more explicit about critical thinking for their students.

There is consistent literature describing what effective teacher programming looks like. However, the reality of schools is that sometimes there are programming practices that have become ‘traditions’ within that context, and teachers have not had opportunity to review their received programming tradition. This course is designed to create a space whereby teachers can review and reflect on the programming traditions within their school.

The outcome of this review and reflection is to invite participants who are maintaining their accreditation to take a safe look at how they might develop their current practice within their school tradition in the direction of improving student learning, because of the increased coherence and clearer sequencing of their teaching programs.

The goal of the course is to equip and encourage teachers in programming for greater coherence and smoother, creative sequencing to increase opportunity for student learning in their classes.

Teachers maintaining accreditation can see changes within the makeup of their classes over time. Many explain to their seniors that one such area is the growing diversity of students within their classes. The reasons for the diversity are multifactorial, but all deserve a response if each student is to be engaged with the learning processes of the classroom. Recognising and understanding the reality of diversity in the classroom also provides an opportunity for teachers to review and refresh their thinking on their teaching practice, which can sometimes be built around the assumption (and hope) of homogeneity in the classroom.

This course is an opportunity for teachers to reflect on these classroom realities in the face of well-researched strategies for establishing and implementing inclusive and positive interactions to engage and support all students in classroom activities

That is, the course will provide participants the opportunity to:

1. Review the diversity of students they have in their classes;
2. Consider the potential and actual impact of this growing diversity on student learning;
3. Reflect on established ways of keeping all students involved in the learning processes in the face of this diversity; and
4. Plan to implement some of these strategies in their classes.

One of the key areas for improving student learning is being able to help them spend more time on learning tasks. As well as creative, relevant and engaging programming, school leaders identify that improving clear routines in the classroom can ‘make or break’ the teaching practice of those maintaining their teaching standards. Thus, this course is being offered as an opportunity for reviewing existing classroom practice to improve teaching and learning strategies with reference to constructive classroom routines.

Teachers will therefore be invited to reflect on their teaching and learning practice with reference to:

1. Identifying distractors in the classroom;
2. Reviewing principles of clear and productive classroom routines;
3. Reviewing some best-practice for classroom routines; and
4. Preparing for improved teaching and learning strategies in their classrooms, with reference to classroom routines and greater time for student learning.

Teachers maintaining accreditation have established themselves as at least initially proficient. However, sometimes they can be greatly supported by providing opportunity for re-assessing some aspects of their basic classroom practice, by stepping aside and considering how they normally establish and maintain their expectations about behaviour to students in their classrooms.

Teachers can use responses to challenging behaviours which may or may not be established by reflection on research and best practice. For example, teachers can ‘inherit’ the practices of the established senior teachers in their section of their school; or they can try to replicate the memory of processes they appreciated as students at school; or they can implement practices according to some generalist principle or ideal.

This course invites teachers to test out these inherited presuppositions and assumptions against research and best practice, to improve the amount of learning time for the students in their classes. The focus is on having clearer expectations that lay a stronger platform for timely and respectful responses to challenging behaviour. This reassessment starts by checking their understanding of the processes that led to regulatory requirements for Safe and Supportive classrooms, and what the resultant compliance requirements are.

The main concepts covered are:

• Anthropological Concepts:
  • What is a person? Can they be different to a human being?
  • Some theistic and non-theistic patterns of thinking about people
  • From concepts to psychological and educational implications
  • Relationships to medicine
• State-run and independent school distinctions
• Faith-based schools – does it make a difference? Should it make a difference?
• Demands vs requests
• What does grace look like in schools?
• What does enabling look like in schools?
• What does harshness look like in schools?
• What does discrimination look like in schools?
• The above applied to anonymous case studies 

This unit is the first in a series designed to support those who are looking out for others in their worlds. For those in Christian schools, this will be a focus for the Boards of schools, the Principal and the rest of the Senior Executive, and of course, for all the teachers and support staff as they daily interact with the students and their families. For those in churches and care settings, many are already finding themselves having to respond with new and updated approaches. The aim of this short unit is to aid people in being able to maintain a heart of care while being realistic about the strategies and resources at their disposal.

The topics covered are:

• Wellbeing and Trauma
• What Biblical Truths are Relevant?
• Trauma: Lifespan Considerations and Tolerance
• Resilience, Hope and Recovery