Assessments, Standards & Marking

Supervising teachers will report on a pre-service teacher’s performance by completing an interim report and final report. These reports will be sent to you from your pre-service teacher’s Online Learning Advisor.

Interim report

The interim report is returned to your pre-service teacher’s Online Learning Advisor on day 10 of the placement. This is where you assess the progress against each Domain of Teaching. At this point if you have any concerns or would like to clarify anything please do not hesitate to contact your pre-service teacher’s Online Learning Advisor. They will be able to assist you in completing the interim report and form a plan of action if required.

Final report

On the final day of placement, the final report is to be completed by you. The final report assesses the level achieved against each of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate). With the final report, a grade of Exceeds (E), Met (M), Not Met (MN) or Not Encountered (NE) needs to be placed beside each standard. This will indicate the level achieved. Please note, any 0 or N/A grade beside any standard will be deemed a fail of the placement. If you feel a 0 or N/A is required, please contact your pre-service teacher’s Online Learning Advisor prior so they can assist you with this.
Please be sure to give a signed copy of both these reports to your pre-service teacher for their records.

Interim & Final report submission

As these reports are assessed by the eLearning Advisor rather than Student Services, please kindly submit the report directly to the pre-service teacher’s eLearning Advisor. eLA contact details are provided prior to the commencement of the placement, however, if you require these again, please contact help@swinburneonline.com.

Primary and Secondary education students are assessed against seven AITSL standards for graduate teachers https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards.

The Standards let our pre-service teachers know what they should be aiming to achieve at every stage of their career. This will support improved practice inside and outside of the classroom. Each of these key standards has a number of different focus areas within them and are introduced at various stages throughout each placement. The standards which are being assessed are clearly outlined in the Pre-service Teachers Final Report.

• Standard 1: Know the students and how they learn
• Standard 2: Know the content and how to teach it
• Standard 3: Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
• Standard 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
• Standard 5: Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
• Standard 6: Engage in professional learning
• Standard 7: Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community

The standards which are being assessed are clearly outlined in the Pre-service Teachers Professional Experience Assessment Report.

Graduate Diploma of Early Childhood Teaching students are assessed against their knowledge of the National Quality Standards throughout their placements. The quality areas which are being assessed are clearly outlined in the Pre-service Teacher’s Final Report.

Quality Area 1: Educational Program and Practice

Quality Area 2: Children’s Health and Safety

Quality Area 3: Physical Environment

Quality Area 4: Staffing Arrangements

Quality Area 5: Relationships with Children

Quality Area 6: Collaborative Partnerships with Families and Communities

Quality Area 7: Governance and Leadership

Final Report – Level Achieved against each of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate) / National Quality Standards

For each of the standards, Pre-service Teachers will be assessed as:

• Exceeds (E): APST descriptor/NQS key indicator has been met above expectation.
• Met (M): APST descriptor/NQS key indicator has been met.
• Not Met (NM): APST descriptor/NQS key indicator has not been met. If a Pre-service Teacher is awarded a NM for any of the standards/key indicators they must receive an “UNSATISFACTORY” or “Require further discussion regarding decision” overall result.
• Not Encountered (NE): No opportunity to meet the APST descriptor/NQS key indicator. Please note that NE results mean that a PST cannot pass the placement. If you think there will be focus areas ‘Not Encountered’, please contact the eLA for support on how these areas can be met through hypotheticals/discussion.

Overall Performance will be assessed as:

• Satisfactory. A teaching performance that is satisfactory in assuming the professional responsibilities of a graduating teacher for this stage of practice. The Preservice Teacher has not received a Not Met (NM) for any of the assessed Standards.
• Unsatisfactory. A teaching performance that is not satisfactory in assuming the professional responsibilities of a graduating teacher for this stage of practice. The Preservice Teacher has received a Not Met (NM) for any of the assessed Standards and/or is deemed by the Supervising Teacher / Mentor to be not achieving the required level for the stage of practice.
• Require further discussion regarding decision. Please contact the OLA.

Receiving constructive feedback on planning and delivery of lessons is an essential part of the pre-service teacher development. You can obviously give your feedback face-to-face throughout the placement, however there is a comments section that has also been included on the Assessment Report. We encourage you to fill this section out as it provides a really useful record for the student’s future planning/goal setting.

Students at Swinburne Online become familiar with the Australian National Curriculum as well as the curriculum used in their state/territory (if not the Australian Curriculum).

Swinburne University has joined the GTPA collective, a group of Australian Higher Education Institutions implementing the AITSL endorsed Teaching Performance Assessment. The GTPA is incorporated into the final-year primary and secondary professional experience units.

Through their GTPA, pre-service teachers will demonstrate their competence in classroom practice assessed against the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the Graduate level. The teaching performance assessment as a GTPA effectively connects the academic program and the professional experience. By connecting research, theory and practice, the GTPA provides quality assurance of graduate readiness.