Standard+6.3.7

=Build sustained contributions to developing effective teaching, curriculum, and assessment practices by accessing and critiquing relevant research. =

Before my current teaching career, I taught at the University of Sydney in the Department of Education. I lectured in Primary Mathematics and Science Teaching Methods. There I worked closely with Dr Kathryn Crawford and we reported on an action research project carried out with our practicum students.

I include “Teacher Training Initiatives in Mathematics” Crawford, K & Weiss, S presented at [|AAMT Conference] AAMT Conference 1990 (Weiss was my maiden name) to demonstrate my interest and involvement in educational research and training over a long period of time.

I have participated in research and product evaluations for Darrall Thompson from UTS [|eAssessment Research]. Dr Thompson had developed an online assessment program which took into account various criteria which could be colour coded and scaled using sliders. In order to use this program one had to develop your own marking criteria. One of the great advantages is that students could get a visual image (through the colour coding) of what the main aspects of the task were e.g. research, presentation or analysis.

After the assessments were marked, students could also see (because of the colour coding) their areas of strengths or weakness.

My sustained involvement in various research activities has helped me improve the teaching and learning practices within my faculty and school to enhance student learning outcomes.

My current area of interest is in increasing students’ responsibility for their own learning. For some years I have developed self paced learning modules [[|A Space Odyssey], [|Origins Package] 2011]. I have been actively working to make my class a [|Collaborative Classroom]. While carrying out some of my research for the collaborative classroom I came across a number of YouTube videos exploring the idea of ‘[|flipping the class]’.

As Science is a very content rich subject I believe that flipping the classroom i.e. having the student use resources such as YouTube, videos, podcasts and directed reading in order to gain the content material in their own time and at their own pace, as homework, so that in class we are able to deal with higher order skills. The real power here is that students enjoy the resources. If they don’t understand something initially, they can easily go over the material by rewinding it, reducing embarrassment and working at their own pace. In class we can discuss issues with greater focus, I am free to help students who may be experiencing difficulties and we have time to practice written responses, undertake practical investigations.

I believe that my wide research and participating in research initiatives have enabled me to build sustained contributions to developing effective teaching, curriculum, and assessment practices by accessing and critiquing relevant research.