PhD (Ed), MTeaching, MMus (Perf), BMus, BMedSci (Hons)
DipModLang (German), Churchill Fellow
Standard 7
Engage Professionally With Colleagues, Parents/Carers & Community
Evidence 13. REQUIRED EVIDENCE
APST 7.3 Engage with the parents/carers.
ARTEFACT: Powerpoint presentation advocating language study to parents and students
APST 7.3 Graduate: Understand strategies for working effectively, sensitively and confidentially with parents/carers.
It is important for teachers to have a positive relationship with families in the school community. Student outcomes improve when teachers have support from home (Henderson, 1987). Henderson’s annotated bibliography shows that there are many studies confirming the positive role of family involvement in education, showing that there are many positive benefits for children, such as increased school attendance, higher academic performance, and improved attitudes about school (1987).
To establish relationships with families and the community I will communicate through email, letters and telephone when appropriate, not just to address problems, but, as teacher-performer Taylor Mali describes (2009), to let parents know about extraordinary – or just unusual – features of their child’s personality or to let them know about something special their child has done. I will invite parents and caregivers into the classroom to share what we have been learning and doing; have an open door policy for parents wishing to discuss their child’s progress; utilise expertise in the community to enhance classroom learning; and encourage different cultures within the community to share their culture so that students can appreciate diversity. The positive outcomes of this practice on the whole class has been indicated by several studies, including Irizarry and Antrop-González (2007) and Abdul-Adil and Farmer (2006).
The evidence I supply for this standard is a PowerPoint presentation that I created to advocate for language study, directed at school administrators, parents, carers and students. In particular I argued for the benefits of German over the far more complex Asian languages with different writing systems and few cognates, making their acquisition slow, frustrating and extremely difficult. In the PowerPoint I used a variety of arguments, looked at language from a number of vantage points, and used colourful and innovative images to engage parents and students. The wide audience meant that I had to be creative and varied in my approach, also showing my skills in differentiating, as Tomlinson describes (2017), and changing the mode and content of my presentation (slides, text and speaking and taking questions) and ways of engaging (just watching, or also asking questions), thus minimising barriers and maximising access, as CAST describes in the Universal Design for Learning (2010).
This task also satisfies standards: 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 2.1, 3.6, 3.7, 5.5, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.4.
Because of the excessively large file size of the powerpoint presentation, I have uploaded it to Google Drive.
REFERENCES
Abdul-Adil, J. K. & Farmer, A.D. (2006). Inner-city African American parental involvement in elementary schools: Getting beyond urban legends of apathy. School Psychology Quarterly, 21(1), 1–12.
CAST. (2010). UDL at a glance. Retrieved from: http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html#.Xy
Henderson, A.T. (1987). The evidence continues to grow: Parent involvement improves student achievement. An annotated bibliography. National Committee for Citizens in Education Special Report. ERIC ED315199.
Irizarry, J. & Antrop-González, R. (2007). ‘RicanStructing’ the discourse and promoting school success: Extending a theory of culturally responsive pedagogy for ‘Diasporicans.’ Centro Journal. 19 (1), 37-59.
Mali, T. (2009). “What do teachers make?” Written and performed by Taylor Mali. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmVi6XjvkMU
Tomlinson, C. A. (2017). How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms (3rd Edition ed.). ACSD. http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/117032/chapters/References.aspx
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Engaging with professionals, teaching networks & broader communities at Sydney Chamber Music Festival 2018, Viva Vivaldi Festival 2019,
Woodford Folk Festival 2019
Evidence 14. REQUIRED EVIDENCE
APST 7.4. Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities
ARTEFACT: Journal article based on conference paper
APST 7.4 Highly Accomplished: Contribute to professional networks and associations and build productive links with the wider community to improve teaching and learning.
As evidence I provide reference to some of my peer-reviewed articles.
The first article (Cole, 2019) was published in the Australian Journal of Music Education and draws on the work of Cathy Madden (2014), Swanwick (1979) and Wiggins (2015), as well as my own research.
The second article (Cole, 2020) was published in Australian Voice and draws on the work of many other teachers and researchers.
I have published widely in the field of music education and attended and presented at international conferences. Below is a list of relevant publications in the field of education. These activities have formed part of my contribution to professional networks and associations (such as ATI, ANATS, ANCA, ANZARME). I have taught performance and pedagogy locally, nationally and internationally (online and in person) to professional teaching musicians. Recently I have been asked to supervise a PhD on constructive language and body-mapping in instrumental/vocal pedagogy.
This task also satisfies standards: 1.2, 1.5, 2.1, 3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.1
REFERENCES
Cole, A. (2020). The trouble with adjectives: Aligning singing tuition and artistic practice with procedural learning theory. Australian Voice, 21, 49-56.
Cole, A. J. (2019). What is performance and why should we teach it? Australian Journal of Music Education 52 (2), 46-57.
Madden, C. (2014). Integrative Alexander Technique Practice for Performing Artists: Onstage Synergy. Intellect.
Swanwick, K. (1979). A basis for music education. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au
Wiggins, J. (2015). Teaching for Musical Understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press
