PoLT Online Professional Learning Resource – Principle 2

Home | Components Unpacked | Theory Snapshot | Guiding Questions | You Could Try This | Vignettes | Reflection | Want To Know More?

Components Unpacked

2.1 - The teacher encourages and supports students to take responsibility for their learning

This component involves structuring learning experiences and providing support and scaffolding to enable students to make choices and take responsibility for their learning. It also involves a focus on students understanding themselves as learners and is facilitated by clear, transparent, criteria-based and often, collaborative, assessment processes.

This component is demonstrated by teachers:

• providing opportunities for students to make individual and collaborative decisions about how they will undertake learning tasks
• encouraging students to set goals for their learning, to self-monitor their progress and, provide evidence to the teacher when they believe they have achieved their goals
• establishing (perhaps in consultation with students) clear criteria or rubrics for assessment before “a piece of work” is begun
• establishing what students know already and providing the opportunity for students to build on prior knowledge in manageable steps.

The component is NOT demonstrated when:

• decisions relating to all projects, research and investigations are made by the teacher
• all student goals are set by the teacher.

Examples to illustrate the component.

• Students are encouraged to be involved in determining the aspects of a particular topic that they wish to cover, and design their own assessment tasks.
• Students brainstorm aspects of an investigation they wish to be included in the assessment criteria before commencing a piece of research.
• In Physical Education, students fulfil roles such as umpiring, team coach, manager, captain, management board, etc. All students then share the responsibility for the design and implementation of the sport competition.

2.2 - The teacher uses strategies that build skills required for productive collaboration

This component involves students collaborating on meaningful tasks and responses to questions. While the teacher uses strategies (such as cooperative learning strategies and strategic selection of groups) to establish an atmosphere of cooperation and collaboration, the focus is on the meaningful learning. Students actively participate in the negotiation of roles, responsibilities and outcomes. Such collaboration may also involve a whole class focus on related projects, such as an environmental project or community survey.

This component is demonstrated by teachers:

• arranging their classroom in such a way as to maximise engagement and interaction through collaborative discussion (eg. group tables)
• regularly setting group tasks and establishing ground rules about how the groups will operate
• explicitly teaching students to work as a team by assigning different roles within groups to make students responsible for particular aspects of tasks
• assigning tasks that require the sharing of expertise and ensuring that students’ contributions are valued by other students.

The component is NOT demonstrated when:

• students mainly work individually, with little opportunity for whole class or small group discussion
• class discussion is dominated by the teacher’s voice
• minimal opportunity is given for students to interact with and support each other.

Examples to illustrate the component.

• ‘Expert’ groups are used to facilitate learning about the different regions of Australia: small groups break into ‘expert’ groups to study a particular region and then return to share their information with their original group, enabling all members of the group to be provided with an overview of all regions covered.
• Within a unit that deals with heat and temperature, design tasks on heat control are undertaken by groups, and the teacher negotiates a task proposal with each group.
• A year 9 integrated studies class undertakes a community project involving the design and construction of an environmental trail. Students are supported to organise into groups assigned particular aspects of the task. They consult community experts, draw up a budget, and develop proposals for sponsorship for materials from local industries.