TLAPs need to align with revised senior secondary syllabuses
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 129 No 7, 27 September 2024, page 10.
The QTU has received concerns from members, via branches, in relation to the roll out of updated senior secondary syllabuses by the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) and some of the conflicting information around what resources will be updated and provided to support this roll out.
Amid a teacher shortage crisis, the workload implications of updating resources, in particular sample teaching learning and assessment plans (TLAPs) for the revised syllabuses, is a significant concern for both teacher and school leader members, particularly when schools have recently undertaken work around the roll-out of updated applied syllabuses and, further compounding the issue, the roll-out of the Australian Curriculum Version 9.
The senior secondary assessment system relies heavily on the goodwill and continued engagement of dedicated teachers on top of their already heavy workload. The sustainability of many of these practices is being tested, and this is being seen and felt in schools. At a time when some schools are struggling to find teachers with the specific knowledge to teach certain senior subjects, it is unreasonable to expect these same schools and teachers to develop sample TLAPs aligned to the new senior syllabuses of which they have limited knowledge.
The QTU has met with the QCAA to discuss a number of matters, including the provision of updated sample TLAPs for revised syllabuses. During this meeting, the QTU made it clear that development of updated TLAPs aligned with the revised syllabuses was the responsibility of the QCAA and that these resources needed to be developed and provided to all, as has been the practice previously. As a result, the QCAA committed to reviewing what had already been communicated to teachers through the various subject specific professional development sessions and to providing the QTU with a response in writing in relation to updated resources.
The QTU has now received this written response from the QCAA (see below). While it refers to hundreds of resources being developed to support teachers, there are still no commitments around TLAPs.
In the absence of commitments from the QCAA around the provisioning of sample TLAPs, the QTU encourages members to continue to raise their concerns and provide specific examples of workload impacts, both with the QCAA and via QTU branch meetings, in order to continue to impress on the QCAA the depth and breadth of these issues across the state.
In the current teacher shortage crisis, the bureaucracy needs to step up and support those on the ground doing the work, day-to-day and face-to-face. The Department of Education and the QCAA cannot continue to act as though it is business as usual.
Josh Cleary
Honorary Vice-President
The QCAA offers comprehensive and ongoing support to assist teachers to use senior syllabuses.
We are currently developing about 700 resources for the revised syllabuses that will be implemented from 2024. This includes syllabus revision reports, targeted unit and assessment resource tools, formula and data books, prescribed text lists, mandatory language elements, and sample internal assessment templates.
Because the updates to syllabuses are minor and do not significantly alter the content of units, some resources that were developed for the 2019 syllabuses are still relevant. This includes sample teaching, learning and assessment plans (TLAPs). Many of the syllabus revisions were designed to give teachers more clarity about what should be taught and assessed.
Our annual communities of practice, HOD forums, subject reports and external assessment papers also support teachers to implement syllabuses.
We have recently delivered online and in-person professional development to help teachers develop the skills to create high-quality curriculum and assessment. More than 200 events with more than 15,000 registrations have already been delivered this year on the revised syllabuses.
Our syllabus experts (principal education officers) also offer one-on-one advice to teachers by phone and email.
The training and subject-specific resources we provide for the annual quality assurance processes of endorsement and confirmation support teachers to develop high quality assessment and align their marking to instrument-specific marking guides.