The TPA assesses the practical skills and knowledge of pre-service teachers in their final semester. It is a mandatory national requirement for graduation. It asks pre-service teachers to collect forms of evidence to demonstrate the impact of their teaching. There are different models of the TPA across the 16 NSW initial teacher education providers. Most providers don’t require video recorded evidence.
The protocols cover the cybersecurity issues involved in capturing and storing images of students in videos, and the efficacy of the permission notes to properly reflect the Department’s obligations under the Personal and Privacy Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act).
Permission for pre-service teachers (PSTs) to video in the classroom is an agreement between the parent/carer and the initial teacher education provider. The Department of Education (DoE) is facilitating this permission process.
ITEPs must have in place, and approved by the DoE:
· Storage location and process
· destruction schedule
· Process to manage breaches
· Permission notes on ITEP letterhead
Any changes to approved protocols must be negotiated with the DoE prior to implementation
Part-time EAL/D Education Leader | Regional South School Performance Directorate.
Part time at Western Sydney University in Teacher Education.
Nationally Accredited Highly Accomplished Teacher
Transcript
Jacqueline Hood
So how can a supervisor support a pre-service teacher to complete their TPA?
Kerrie Quee
OK, it's a really good question and I think it's one that a lot of mentor teachers are asking because they want to be the best support that they can for their pre-service teachers. And so look, in talking to today, I think.
First of all, the message I want to get across for mentor teachers is to just jump on to the AITSL and NESA websites and have a look at the information or the background information about the TPA which is actually the graduate teacher performance assessment and some universities will call it the GTPA being graduate. Others like my university at Western Sydney will call it the TPA. So, you will get the two acronyms meaning the same thing and.
I'm sure that you know in the notes we can have those links because it's really important to get the background knowledge as to why the students are doing this. A lot of the time they will be questioning, and we need to know that it's a necessary requirement for NESA (Also noting it’s a national requirement) that you know students will be completing this and we want them to complete it to the best they possibly can during PRAC.
Jacqueline Hood
What else can a supervisor do to help support the actual teaching performance assessment task?
Kerrie Quee
In terms of supporting pre-service teachers to complete their TPA, there's two main areas that are vital for a really strong submission and firstly, they need to show a deep understanding of the teaching and learning cycle.
The Department of Education has a great image of for the teaching learning cycle and really great suite of information to go with that. So, I would direct students to that resource.
And there's also the enhanced EALD teaching and learning cycle that's particularly useful for classes with high numbers of EALD learners…... So that's the first step they need to show a really strong understanding of the teaching and learning cycle in terms of the lessons they're doing within their classrooms.
Jacqueline Hood
What else does a supervisor need to know?
Kerrie Quee
Another thing that is needs to be really strong in the teacher performance assessment is to show that students have or can demonstrate an up to date knowledge of research relating to their pedagogical practices during professional experience, and so what that basically means is that. They need to know why they're doing what they do and as teachers. Of course, you know, we do too. So, mentor teachers need to be right up with their research and knowing there's different teaching strategies that they're putting in place in the classroom and why it works. So, in relation to that and where to go for those kinds of resources, I believe a great place to start is with the what works best in the classroom suite of resources published by CESE (Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation) and also the department.
This is a great base from which to launch into further research linking to the teaching strategies that are being implemented in the classroom during Prac. So those strategies for example, it could be the gradual release model. You know, a lot, most students will be talking about. I do. We do. You do. UDL (Universal Design for Learning), scaffolding, behaviour management practises, explicit direct instruction, they'll be doing this, but they just need to know and understand why they're doing it and why it's working for them in the classroom and so taking them back to the what works best resources is a great beginning reading for them and CECE of course. Having you know, links to other research about this, so they can go off on their tangents and do some reading and have a look at, you know why they do what they do and why it's working in the classroom.
Jacqueline Hood
Beautiful Kerry. You mentioned the teaching and learning cycle and making sure that we draw the pre-service teachers’ attention to it. How can a supervising teacher support the pre-service teacher to know and use the teaching and learning cycle?
Kerrie Quee
Yeah, often with the teaching learning cycle now they have, I can guarantee that they have done work around the teaching learning cycle at university. But when it comes to the classroom, putting all that into practice is vital for them to understand and for the mentor teacher to, you know, jump in and explain some things here. So, what we want them to know about and what they sometimes forget is that they'll plan lessons and dive straight into teaching some lessons. But, they do need to be guided to understand a pre and a post assessment, for example so the mentor teacher could sit them down with the teaching learning cycle in front of them and point out that, you know, assessment well, why do we assess what does that look like at the beginning of the cycle perhaps for this unit of work?
And so then come to the realisation that, oh, I need to know my students and where they're at before I can plan. And so therefore, you know, discussing with them. All right, well, what will we do a pretest? What is that going to look like for us? And then explain to them. OK, well, when we've done the pre-test, that's great because then we can go into some planning and then implementing in the classroom. And so while they will know a lot of this, it's really important to actually make it practical for them. You know, I can imagine just sitting there in the classroom at those little desks, you know, with the kids where the kids are and saying, well, you know, you can look over there and you can see the assessments that have resulted in in the teaching and actually point out work samples and show them what it looks like in a practical way.
