Secondary Example Response using SAO Framework
This SAO with lead-in statement addresses the Professional Practice Domain, but also refers to parts of the Professional Knowledge Domain of the National Professional Standards for Teachers.
I am committed to developing an authentic and challenging arts curriculum. I stay up to date with learning theory and employ it in designing engaging arts experiences respond to the context within which the school operates and offer opportunities for exploration and success for all students.
At Serenity College, our team worked collaboratively to design and implement an innovative Arts taster course. This course involved vertical groupings (Years 78) operating on an 8-week rotation through five Arts disciplines over a year. As a team we felt it was important that future student subject selections could be based on informed choice so an experience of each artform was essential. Our initial taster course had sound goals, but problems with timing quickly became apparent and after a short period it became obvious that changes were needed.
I devised an idea that would meet the requirements of equity of access to the students and representation of the five Arts areas, utilise existing staff and deliver enough time in each module for valid and meaningful assessment. I presented it to an enthusiastic team, mapping out a timeline and the key steps toward implementation. Since 2011 our taster course has run over two years. It now offers both discipline-based courses and integrated arts courses and has been extremely successful.
Work produced by students is of a higher quality conceptually and demonstrates stronger retention of course content. We also see a particularly high level of skill acquisition and reinforcement. The transferral of skills and understandings across each artform in the taster course is a terrific outcome as it not only creates a springboard to specialisation, but also reinforces the essence of the creative process and the notion of the Arts as a whole learning area. Student reflections, essential to the learning process, indicate the course is very popular and enrolments for elective arts courses in Year 9 have improved in the order of 35%.