Performance and Development for Teacher Class Employees

Goal setting

Domains of Teaching

The Domains of Teaching are taken directly from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (the Standards) which incorporate all aspects of a teacher’s practice, describe the key elements of quality teaching and articulate professional expectations for teachers, as determined by their level of experience. The Standards are divided into 4 career stages — Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead.

There are 7 Standards, all of which are interrelated. For an outline of the Standards, refer to Figure 2.

Further information on the Standards and Domains of Teaching can be found on the website for Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leaders (AITSL). The AITSL website also contains the Classroom Practice Continuum which articulates what teachers at increasing levels of expertise should be doing in the classroom.

Teachers will set a goal in each of the Domains of Teaching. The following (taken from the Standards) describes the Domains of Teaching.

Professional knowledge

'Teachers draw on a body of professional knowledge and research to respond to the needs of their students within their educational contexts.

Teachers know their students well, including their diverse linguistic, cultural and religious backgrounds. They know how the experiences that students bring to their classroom affect their continued learning. They know how to structure their lessons to meet the physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of their students.

Teachers know the content of their subjects and curriculum. They know and understand the fundamental concepts, structure and enquiry processes relevant to the programs they teach. Teachers understand what constitutes effective, developmentally appropriate strategies in their learning and teaching programs and use this knowledge to make the content meaningful to students.

Through their teaching practice, teachers develop students' literacy and numeracy within their subject areas. They are also able to use information and communication technology to contextualise and expand their students' modes and breadth of learning'.

Professional practice

'Teachers are able to make learning engaging and valued. They are able to create and maintain safe, inclusive and challenging learning environments and implement fair and equitable behaviour management plans. They use sophisticated communication techniques.

Teachers have a repertoire of effective teaching strategies and use them to implement well-designed teaching programs and lessons. They regularly evaluate all aspects of their teaching practice to ensure they are meeting the learning needs of their students. They interpret and use student assessment data to diagnose barriers to learning and to challenge students to improve their performance.

They operate effectively at all stages of the teaching and learning cycle, including planning for learning and assessment, developing learning programs, teaching, assessing, providing feedback on student learning and reporting to parents or carers'.

Professional engagement

'Teachers model effective learning. They identify their own learning needs and analyse, evaluate and expand their professional learning, both collegially and individually.

Teachers demonstrate respect and professionalism in all their interactions with students, colleagues, parents or carers and the community. They are sensitive to the needs of parents or carers and can communicate effectively with them about their children's learning.

Teachers value opportunities to engage with their school communities within and beyond the classroom to enrich the educational context for students. They understand the links between school, home and community in the social and intellectual development of their students'.

A focus on development to improve student outcomes

‘My role, as a teacher, is to evaluate the effect I have on my students. It is to know thy impact, it is to understand this impact, and it is to act on this knowing and understanding' (Hattie, 2012).

Improving outcomes for students is the core purpose of teachers' work. The performance and development approach is focused on teachers’ development across the Domains of Teaching to enhance their effectiveness in improving students' outcomes — their learning, engagement and wellbeing. The approach includes an explicit student outcome goal that takes into account teachers' development across the Domains of Teaching.

This goal may be related to improvements in student achievement, engagement or wellbeing, either for individuals or for groups of students.

Student achievement may refer to either absolute levels of learning attainment or the growth in learning that schools strive to ensure for each student. On average, all students should achieve at least 1 year’s learning growth in return for a year of schooling. Teachers should intervene early to ensure that all students make sufficient progress in their learning.

Student engagement refers to the extent to which students feel connected to and engaged in their learning, with their peers and with their broader school community.

Student health, safety and wellbeing are essential to learning and development. An inclusive, safe, orderly and stimulating environment for learning is critical to achieving and sustaining all students’ positive learning experiences.

For an annotated version of the PDP template, refer to Figure 3.