Analysis of Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST)

This report delves into the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST), providing a concise overview of the seven key standards. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding students' backgrounds, individual needs, and diverse characteristics to optimize learning. It highlights the necessity of teachers' content knowledge, effective teaching strategies, and the creation of supportive and safe learning environments. The report also underscores the significance of assessment, feedback, and reporting on student learning, alongside the need for ongoing professional development and collaboration with colleagues, parents, and the wider community. Furthermore, it identifies areas that require further attention, such as the integration of information technology in teaching and the establishment of partnerships between educators and the corporate sector to better prepare students for the demands of the modern workforce. The assignment also highlights the importance of teachers understanding the needs of students, including those with disabilities, and adapting teaching strategies accordingly.

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COMMERCE STUDIES
Name
Institution Affiliation
Date

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Commerce Studies
Teachers are expected to have a good understanding of students’ background. Having
that understanding, he individual needs of students and covering their diverse social, cultural and
linguistic characteristics. Students learn best when the content they are taught augurs well with
the things they can easily relate to. Since they have different learning abilities, it is the job of the
teacher to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each student.
Know the content and how to teach it
It is also important to have a full grip on the content that is being taught to students.
Having a full understanding of the content is important for purposes of effectively designing and
implementing teaching programs. A teacher needs to understand the content first to know the
way of formulating a good teaching approach to the teaching program. A teacher, who
understands the content well, is also able to change or modify the content, without losing the
meaning, for purposes of drawing the student closer to understanding the content. Full
knowledge of content will also be useful in boosting the confidence of the teacher in his/her
teaching sessions. Students’ confidence on the teacher will also be boosted, creating a good
attitude on students towards their teacher.
Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
Bearing a good understanding of the content is important because of the following
reasons; having a good understanding of the subjects taught, teaching strategies and curriculum
content. It is also useful for designing lessons meeting the reporting, curriculum and assessment
requirements. Teachers should know the right amount of time for teaching a certain subject and
at what frequency should the subject be taught. A good teacher should also be able to offer

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support in the planning of the curriculum because they are the ones in direct contact with the
students. They, therefore, should know what is needful and what is not.
Create and Maintain Supportive and Safe Learning Environments
Teachers should be able to create or develop a safe learning environment for the students.
A productive, safe and positive learning environment will help to boost the morale and
enthusiasm of students in the learning process. Teachers at this level should engage the relevant
parties in the development of a safe learning environment. For example, since the teachers are
the ones who continuously engage the learning environment, they should report to the right
persons to provide safe learning tools and environment.
Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
A good teacher reviews his/her work. The best way of conducting a review is by
reviewing student results. Another way is through the use of assignments. A good tutor hands the
students assignment tests to test their prowess and progress in understanding the topics and the
content they have been taught. Since the teachers work with the help of other parties, providing
feedback and report on the student learning progress will go a long way in soliciting support.
Engage in Professional Learning
The process of learning has no end and even teachers need to continuously improve their
knowledge. Knowledge is dynamic and what is considered to be the knowledge now may be
obsolete tomorrow. Therefore, there is a great need to continuously engage in the process of
learning for teachers to stay up to par with the current technological, economic, social, political
and any other aspect of the trend. That will ensure that students are fed relevant and useful
knowledge.
Engage Professionally with Colleagues, Parents/Carers and the Community

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Teachers understand the need to collaborate with external professionals, colleagues and
the representatives of the community it operates in. The teachers have good strategies for
working with parents or caregivers, in a confidential, effective and sensitive manner. They draw
the support of parents and external professionals in shaping the students’ behaviors and injecting
knowledge on them.
There should be an understanding of the student needs in the process of learning. For one,
students have social, physical and intellectual development needs and the understanding of the
unique characteristics of every student. In that case, teachers need to demonstrate a good
understanding and knowledge on the intellectual, physical and social development needs
alongside the personal characteristics of every student. The purpose of having such an
understanding is so that the teachers will know the best ways of improving the learning of the
students. Teachers should also select from effective and flexible repertoire strategies for teaching
for the need of suiting the social, physical and intellectual development needs of students. They
should also be guided by the respective student needs in the utilization of teaching strategies.
Another consideration is the fact that students have diverse cultural, linguistic, socio-economic
and religious backgrounds. Therefore, they should be taught with the consideration of the
different background aforesaid. Teachers must, therefore, demonstrate the knowledge of teaching
strategies that are in sync or in line with the diverse cultural, linguistic, religious and socio-
economic background of students. They should also be able to design and implement strategies
of teaching responsive to the strengths and needs of students in the learning process, in
consideration of the diversity state of students. Another need of students that must be put into
consideration is the students with disabilities. Teachers must show a demonstration of broad
knowledge and a good understanding of the teaching strategies and legislative requirements

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supporting the learning and participation of students who are physically challenged. They should
also be able to undertake the designing and implementation of the activities addressing the
relevant legislative and relevant policy requirements. There is also a need for teachers to initiate
and lead the review of school policies for purposes of fully engaging the students with
disabilities to ensure that they fully comply with system policies and legislation. Teachers must
ensure that they help the students living with disabilities to fully understand the rules and
legislation. Students with disabilities also need a lot of attention and care thus the need for a
good understanding of the needs of individual students.
Areas that need further development
One of the areas that need development is the application of information technology in
the teaching profession. The application of information technology in the teaching arena is
important because the world is moving to become tech-savvy. Therefore, the educational system
and curriculum need to be streamlined or planned in a way that students, right from the early
stages of school, learn in an environment that is technology oriented. That applies also to the
process of developing the right curricula education. A curriculum that are not dictated or
informed by information technology and the current economic, technological and business trend
is insufficient. A huge chunk of the educational content that is being used in schools tresses back
to the older times or ages. The current trends in technology undergo a speedy transformation. For
example, the age of the internet was quickly added to the social media ear, with artificial
intelligence having a footing in a very short time, accompanied by great technologies like the use
of blockchain technology. These technologies are transforming at a very fast pace and creating a
need for a transformation of educational curricula. The curricula change process should be made

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at a more frequent basis and content taught in school should be geared towards creating
relevance to the current age of technology.
Another area that needs addition in the education sector is the partnership between
teachers and education players with the corporate world. In as much as there is a standard for
teachers to collaborate with educational professionals, parents, and caregivers, it is also very
important to have a standard that realizes the partnership between teachers or educators directly,
with the corporate world. Since at the end of the education process students must have the right
qualification to meet the needs of the corporate world, it is important to equip the educators with
the necessary skills to wire the students to be fully baked. For instance, the business, economic
and corporate world may have an implementation of new ways of doing things. If the educators
continue with the normal training without consultation with the corporate world, it may lead to a
situation where there is a mismatch or a gap between the training and education system passed
on to students and the needs of the market. That will, therefore, undermine the level of student
employability and effectiveness in the business and economic market. It will, therefore, lead to a
situation of high rates of unemployment and low productivity in the workplaces. Therefore,
teachers need to understand the needs of employers so that as they mold the students to be
prepared for the outside world, it will create better results. The teachers will then know how to
tailor their educational content in a manner that will augur with the needs of employers. Apart
from just having the needs of employers, there should be a kind of partnerships between the
employers and teachers for the absorption of students into the corporate world for purposes of
drawing experience and exposing students outside class, to the real world of knowledge
application.