Selecting suitable units of work

It is obviously important to be deeply familiar with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and to choose units of work that will provide you with rich opportunities to show how you meet them. It is also important to choose tasks for your portfolio that are feasible and achievable within a timeframe of two weeks to one semester. Shorter time periods make it less likely that your unit of work has had sufficient time to show an impact.

Entry 4 is about how you engage colleagues in collaborative work. It might also be based on a unit of work that is planned and taught collaboratively, or on an initiative to meet the needs of an identified group of students, which calls for professional learning and improved practice.

A suitable initiative for portfolio Entry 4 might be quite modest in scope (in terms of the number of teachers and students involved), but still meet an important need. Its focus and boundaries clear. For example, it may focus on one small group of students with a particular need you have identified based on achievement data. It may involve one small group of staff for the duration, but still be rich in opportunities for you demonstrate how you have engaged colleagues in a productive collaborative initiative to the benefit of students. For this initiative, assessors will look for evidence of development over time in collaborative practices.