School ofPractice

Professional Education
3

102095 Secondary PP3 Self Reflection Form

Pre-service Teacher Details

Pre-service Teacher Name: Irvin Cisneros Pre-service Teacher ID: 17976422

Pre-service Teacher Phone Number: Pre-service Teacher Email Address:

0422415426 17976422@student.westernsydney.edu.au

Placement Details: If you haven’t complete 60 hours face to face you must provide a detailed statement of
how your experience meets the outcomes for Professional Practice 3. Attach evidence.

Placement Name: Ningbo University, China Placement Phone Number: 0011-86-57486662000

Placement Address: 818 Fenghua Placement Email Address:

Road, Ningbo University, Ningbo
Contact Person: Shirley Gilbert

Describe in 500-800 WORDS any features and benefits of the setting you attended. Consider number of
students, location details, age of students, types of educational programs offered and any other salient
aspects of the experience. Consider how this experience will contribute to your development as a beginning
teacher.

AITSL Standards

The criteria for pre-service teacher reflection focus, the first, second, third and sixth standards.
 1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of
abilities
 2.2 Content selection and organisation
 3.1 Establish challenging learning goals
 6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice

Subsidiary questions:
What surprised you about your learning in your community setting?
What research about communities did you engage with before you commenced?
Why were you surprised about your learning?
What goals did you set for yourself in your service learning activities?
In what ways were you communicating with your community participants?
What do you believe the participants in your service learning project learned?
What did you learn? How will the experience shape you as a teacher in a classroom?
How would you help someone else learn what you discovered?

This form is to be completed and submitted to the notes/docs section of your profile within InPlace.
I believe that the Overseas Professional Experience Program (OPEP) was an excellent opportunity that
helped expand my limited teaching experience. The program was based at Ningbo University, China where
I was able to step outside my comfort zone and experience a learning environment that was different to
Australia. The OPEP was a cultural learning experience where I was able to learn about Chinese culture
through my interactions and discussions with the Ningbo students as well as share Australian culture and
provide insights on University life in Australia. Due to the OPEP, I was able to grow and accomplish my
personal goal of learning to be more extroverted as I believe it is a quality that I would need to be a
successful teacher.

Prior to my travels I conducted research on the customs and traditions of the Chinese culture, I wanted to be
able to show respect and avoid any unnecessary offense to my students. Additionally, I also learned a few
phrases in Mandarin to help with communication and would be a skill that would aid in building rapport
with those I met. Furthermore, I had concerns about my limited teaching experience so I prepared as much
material such as information about Australia and other teaching resources. Despite these preparations, I still
found it a culture shock when I arrived at Ningbo University. It was strange to witness English as not the
predominant language but as a secondary or sometimes third language. Furthermore, the Chinese culture
with regards to food, fashion and entertainment was drastically different to what I was used to. These
differences were a necessary factor for me to consider going into a different learning environment.

I was placed in a group with two other Western Sydney University (WSU) students and we were tasked to
provide English language support and instruction to the Ningbo University students that volunteered for the
learning experience. The main challenge we faced was to create an engaging lesson plan within the limited
time we were given. To overcome this problem my fellow WSU students and I pooled our resources and
collaborated on various ideas for lessons. Student ability was also a factor that was considered and was
addressed by performing informative assessments during our introductory class. I found it surprising that
despite the cultural differences between China and Australia, there were similarities in the learning
environment. In my group alone there were a range of students from different socio-economic backgrounds
and regions of China. Additionally, English ability ranged greatly from those who could barely speak a
sentence in English to those who would qualify to be able to study abroad. I found it to be a benefit as I
tasked the students with higher ability to mentor those with limited English skills and help translate any
difficulties that may arise.

My goal for the learning activities was to create an inclusive, safe and positive learning environment for the
students at my care. I believe I achieved this by taking into consideration the diversity of students in my
class and making sure to differentiate instruction accordingly. Furthermore, I wanted the students to gain
valuable information which is meaningful and would be useful for them. To accomplish this, my fellow
student teachers and I designed a range of learning activities from initial ice-breaker activities to a gradual
increase of content to challenge the students with respect to their ability. The lessons were a mix of student
and teacher centred activities with more informal interviews occurring for cultural exchange. This also
helped the Ningbo students improve their conversational language skills as they had an opportunity to speak
to native English speakers.

Overall, the OPEP was a life altering experience which has helped me grow both personally and
professionally as a teacher. The experiences I had has allowed me to improve key skills such as organisation
of lessons in a timely manner, approaching challenges with a positive mindset and empathy and patience for
students who may have difficulty grasping the content. As a future teacher, this has led me to reflect on a
key element of the Australian curriculum which is the cross-curriculum priorities with an emphasis on
Australia and our engagement with Asia. I strongly believe that being able to experience the Chinese culture
and it’s learning environment first-hand, has improved my ability to cater and empathise to students of
language backgrounds other than English.