Subject Name: Learning Futures: Teaching for Complexity and Diversity Subject Number: 010046 & 013403

Subject Name: Learning Futures: Teaching for Complexity and Diversity Subject Number: 010046 & 013403

Assessment task 1: Essay: Critical Analysis of Teaching and Learning Resources

Objective(s): a, b, c, d, e, f, g and h

Weight: 50%

Task: Students are required to choose two teaching and learning resources from a teaching area and critically analyse them. They use relevant theories and concepts to provide context and support for analysis of the knowledge and culture represented in the resources (e.g., source books, textbooks, case studies and practice materials). They consider the implications of patterns of selection/exclusion for students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. More detailed information is available via Canvas.

Length:1750 words, excluding references 013403

1500 words, excluding references 010046

Due: Friday October 11, 23:59

Please note that the length of the essay and assessment criteria are different depending upon whether you are enrolled in 013403 or 010046.

What is required of you:

Prior to Week 3, students identify and share a selection of resources to analyse for this task and receive formative feedback from teaching staff and their peers in the tutorial sessions.

Undergraduate and post-graduate students identify two selected resources from their teaching area and critically analyse their responsiveness to the learning needs and strengths of secondary school students from diverse backgrounds.

The essay should demonstrate insight into issues covered in the subject such as the relationship between schooling and society, relevant legislation and policy, debates surrounding the representation of knowledge and culture in the curriculum and strategies for teaching and learning that are responsive to the strengths and needs of diverse students.

The following framing questions may be useful to consider:

Whose interests do schools serve? What are the purposes of the official curriculum? Who has the power to decide what counts as legitimate knowledge? What is the hidden curriculum? Do the selected resources value the identities, knowledges, histories, repertoires and stories of people from diverse backgrounds? Do the resources avoid making generalisations about groups of people? To what extent do the resources provide opportunities for differentiation to build upon the worldviews, identities, cultural capital, abilities, interests, strengths and goals of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomicbackgrounds? Do the resources provide opportunities for students to engage in questioning, decision-making and action for global citizenship? What are the overt and hidden effects of patterns and processes of selection/exclusion for student learning.

What is the format of the essay?

The analysis should be written and presented as a short essay.

The following is not intended to be prescriptive but rather to provide support with thinking through approaches that can help to make your engagement and understanding of key concepts, frameworks and issues explicit.

Like any piece of text, you should write with a clear structure so that your reader can read the text in the way that you think would be effective in understanding what you want to get across. A conventional structure would be:

An introduction where you briefly contextualise the topic and provide a brief outline of how you will approach your argument, including a framework for analysis (200 or 250 words, depending upon their enrolment in either 010046 & 013403)

The body of the text that includes:

One, or two brief paragraphs of relevant background to give your reader a clear understanding of the topic and its context, and description of the identified resources, drawing on relevant readings (300 or 400 words, depending upon their enrolment in either 010046 & 013403)

Analysis of the resources drawing on relevant ideas and readings, e.g., the official curriculum, hidden curriculum and the null curriculum (800 or 900 words, depending upon their enrolment in either 010046 & 013403)

A conclusion that summarises the key findings from the analysis and how they support the thesis (200 words).

Reference list