This document describes a biology teacher's journey to improve their pedagogical skills. The teacher works at a girls' school and has 21 years of experience but felt their teaching skills had lagged behind their content knowledge. To address this, the teacher engaged in professional development activities focused on reflective practice, finding reliable sources, note-taking techniques, and creating a learning portfolio. Through these activities, the teacher developed skills to become a more autonomous learner and gained confidence in practices that could benefit their students.

1. zz
My Journey as
a 21st Century
Biology
Educator

2. z
zz
Work Context
The work context of a
teacher includes many
elements
Figure 1: Rozhkov, Mikhail & Cheung, C & Tsui, Eric. (2017). Workplace
context and its effect on individual competencies and performance in work
teams. International Journal of Business Performance Management. 18.
49. 10.1504/IJBPM.2017.10001261.

3. z
My current work
context
z
 I work in a 7-12 Independent girls
school
 I am a Science teacher with 21
years full-time experience
 I come from a background in
veterinary science, having worked
for 8 years as a small animal
practitioner
 I have always had a love of
learning and of the natural world

4. z
So far, after 21 years…
z
 I have great confidence
in my content knowledge
 I have been privileged to
co-author 3 Biology
textbooks in the last 2
years
 I have been an HSC
marker for Biology and
Earth and Environmental
Science
 I served on the exam
committee for the CSA
Biology Trial

5. z
z
However, my pedagogical knowledge has lagged
behind…
z

6. z
As a Biology teacher the main issues
that confront me daily are…
 How do I enable my students to become critical thinkers?
 Is it possible to teach reflective practices that are meaningful
and effective?
 Which skills are important when they are reading and note-
taking from texts and websites?
 How do they find information which is current, reliable, valid and
accurate?
 What are the different ways in which they can present
information in a creative and engaging way?

7. z
z
The solution!
z

8. z
zz
Schulman (1987)
reminded me of
the context in
which a good
teacher
operates…

9. z
It reminded me a lot of
the AITSL standards for
a proficient teacher…
z
 So I was pleasantly surprised
that many of the changes to
education in the last few years
were based on SOUND
EVIDENCE from research in
the education field…
Overview of the teaching standards (AITSL, 2014)

10. z
I learned about the skill of
reflective practice
• Reflective practice is a skill that can be learned
and applied in the classroom setting
• Keeping a reflective practice journal is an
excellent way to track the learning process
("Stacey Shubitz and Ruth Ayres: Reflective
Practice", 2018)
• Loughran (2002) suggests that all learners
need to be trained in this skill
• Hume (2008) if untrained, students will reflect
in a shallow and trivial way
• Clark (2004) reminded me of the importance of
being an autonomous learner and offered a
good model of the professional learning cycle
(Dietz, 1998)

11. z
Finding
information and
resources
z
 I was able to practice
using databases
offered by the CSU
library to search for the
latest peer-reviewed
journal articles using
PRIMO SEARCH

12. z
Evaluating
sources
z
 This method of
evaluating sources has
proved invaluable to
me and my students
("Help students evaluate sources with the CRAP test - GeoEd Trek", 2018)

13. z
Notetaking
 I used Cornell Cotes to
summarise each journal article
for my annotated bibliography
 I was able to confidently teach
this method to my students in
Science Extension as they
prepared an annotated
bibliography of their own as an
assessment task
 Combined with the “Three
Pass” (Keshav, 2007) method
for reading papers, I felt my
skills in this area increase
exponentially!
z

14. z
Assembling a
learning
portfolio…
z
 This e-portfolio was a
brilliant way to practice
the skill of reflective
practice by having to
think carefully about
what I included so as to
represent my learning
journey over the past
weeks…

15. z
And so by the end of this first half of the
unit…
z
 I am gaining the skills I need as
an autonomous learner
 I have been able to practice
these skills enough to become
useful to my own students
 I have developed a renewed
love of learning in regards to
pedagogical content in the
context of my teaching career
 I am seeking out many
opportunities to take part in
online discussions on current
pegdagogy (social media such
as Facebook and Twitter)

16. z
References
 Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (2018). Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/general/australian-
professional-standands-for-teachers-20171006.pdf?sfvrsn=399ae83c_12
 Clarke, M. Reflection : journals and reflective questions : a strategy for professional learning. [online]. Australian Journal of Teacher
Education; v.29 n.2 p.11-23; November 2004. Availability: <https://search-informit-com-
au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/fullText;dn=139929;res=AEIPT> ISSN: 0313-5373. [cited 21 Dec 18].
 Dietz, M. E. (1998). Responses as Frameworks for Change. Hawker Brownlow Education, Victoria, Australia.
 Help students evaluate sources with the CRAP test - GeoEd Trek. (2018). Retrieved from https://blogs.agu.org/geoedtrek/2016/02/24/crap-
test/
 Hume, A. (2009). Promoting higher levels of reflective writing in student journals. Higher Education Research & Development, 28(3), 247-
260. doi: 10.1080/07294360902839859
 Loughran, J. (2018). Effective Reflective Practice: In Search of Meaning in Learning about Teaching. Journal Of Teacher Education, 53(1),
33-43.
 Rozhkov, Mikhail & Cheung, C & Tsui, Eric. (2017). Workplace context and its effect on individual competencies and performance in work
teams. International Journal of Business Performance Management. 18. 49. 10.1504/IJBPM.2017.10001261.
 Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1-23. doi:
10.17763/haer.57.1.j463w79r56455411
 Stacey Shubitz and Ruth Ayres: Reflective Practice. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynCujmrXNZM