020212 Professional Experience for In-Service Teachers
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particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Requisite(s): 020213 Maths Methods for In-Service Teachers (Year 7-12)
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses.
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Description
This subject focuses on the practical application of mathematics teaching skills. The coursework component builds upon Maths Methods for In-Service Teachers to develop in-service teachers’ mathematics pedagogy. For the practicum component, teacher-education students undertake a three-week classroom placement and receive feedback on their teaching practice from their Tertiary Supervisor (a UTS staff member) and their Supervising Teacher (who is a classroom teacher in the host school). Topics covered include unit planning, assessment, and pedagogy specific to content covered in NSW Stage 6 mathematics.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| a. | Plan for, and implement, effective mathematics teaching and learning |
|---|---|
| b. | Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning |
| c. | Construct mathematics teaching resources that support the development of conceptual understanding in mathematics |
| d. | Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject engages with the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs), which are tailored to the Graduate Attributes set for all graduates of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
- Analyse: Demonstrate an understanding of health and safety requirements, ethical conduct, and risk management, in the context of teaching mathematics. (3.1)
- Evaluate: Collaborate to create and implement professional solutions to educational problems. (3.3)
- Analyse: Derive innovative solutions to complex mathematical and educational problems. (4.1)
- Synthesise: Develop cultural awareness for ethical and respectful practices when developing community relations, apply and test those practices. (6.2)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject requires active participation in weekly two-hour seminars, plus a designated three-week practicum block. Asynchronous learning is also offered on the Learning Management System Canvas. Teacher-education students are actively involved in the asynchronous sections of this subject by contributing to online interactive elements on Canvas, where they comment on the contributions of other students.
The practicum component focuses on mathematics pedagogy as an applied discipline, and teacher-education students are expected to seek and apply feedback from their UTS Tertiary Supervisor and school-based Supervising Teacher to improve teaching practice.
Content (topics)
This subject focuses on practical aspects of teaching mathematics in a secondary school. It develops candidates’ repertoire of mathematics teaching skills to include unit planning, the creation and use of digital teaching resources, and considerations associated with mathematics assessment.
Unit Planning
Pedagogy: Different ways to approach unit planning; Constructing resources to support units of work
Mathematics topics: Statistics; Proof; Vectors and Mechanics
Assessment Of Learning
Pedagogy: Rubrics and marking guidelines; Limitations of high stakes tests
Mathematics topics: Experimental probability; Measurement and trigonometry
Assessment For Learning
Pedagogy: Assessment as motivator; Using assessment to support learning
Mathematics topics: Functions; Trigonometric identities
Assessment As Learning
Pedagogy: Constructing assessment as learning, and learning as assessment; Assessment of conceptual understanding
Mathematics topics: Geometry; Differential calculus
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Moderating an Assessment Task
| Objective(s): | a and b | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 25% | ||||||||||||
| Length: | 500 words per graded assessment task; 1000 words total | ||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Online Resource for Unit of Work
| Objective(s): | a and c | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 25% | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | a) One original teaching and learning activity, equivalent to approximately 1500 words b) Annotations on a unit of work, equivalent to approximately 500 words | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 3: Professional Experience
| Objective(s): | d | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 50% | ||||||||||||
| Length: | 15 days | ||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Minimum requirements
Teacher education students must successfully complete the Professional Experience component of their subject, as determined by a satisfactory Supervising Teacher’s report. Students who do not complete the placement will receive a Fail X grade.
Required texts
Board of Studies NSW (2012). Mathematics K-10 Syllabus. https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/assets/mathematicsk10/downloads/mathematicsk10_full.pdf
NESA (n.d.). Mathematics Stage 6. https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/stage-6-learning-areas/stage-6-mathematics
References
Bhindi, N., & McMenamin, J. (2010). Pascal’s Triangle. Australian Mathematics Teacher, 66(1), pp. 25-28.
Brouwer, P. (n.d.). Clarifying pre-service teacher perceptions of mentor teachers’ developing use of mentoring skills. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(6), 1049–1058.
Buckworth, J. (2017). Unstated and unjust: juggling relational requirements of professional experience for pre-service teachers. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 45(4), 369–382. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2017.1335853
Fitzpatrick, J.B. (1984). Integration by substitution. In New Senior Mathematics, pp. 82-94.
Gaensler, B. (1990). Reflections on 3 unit mathematics: Mathematical induction. Reflections (MANSW), 15(2), pp. 31-39.
Kohlhoff, P. (2020). Supporting the derivation of compound-angle formulae. Reflections (MANSW), 45(4), pp. 27-29.
Kohlhoff, P. (2021). Developing an understanding of the variance of a binomial distribution. Australian Mathematics Education Journal (AMEJ), Vol. 3 Issue 3, pp. 20-26.
Kriewaldt, J., Ambrosetti, A., Rorrison, D., & Capeness, R. (2018). Educating Future Teachers: Innovative Perspectives in Professional Experience (1st ed. 2018.). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5484-6
Lockhart, P. (2002). A Mathematician’s Lament. https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf
Prescott, A., Mitchelmore, M. (2005). Student misconceptions about Projectile Motion. https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/7474/1/2005002166.pdf
Ron, G., Dreyfus, T. (2004). The use of models in teaching proof by mathematical induction. Proceedings of the 28th conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 4, pp. 113-120.
Scanlon, H. (1990). Binomial theorem. Reflections (MANSW), 15(2), pp. 53-55.
Taylor, J. (1995). Mathematical induction - a resource file. Reflections (MANSW), 20(4), pp. 21-22.