The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) states that all graduate teachers must have an adequate understanding of their students and how they learn, including their physical, social and intellectual development and how this could impact their learning. It is no surprise that students can come for a range of diverse cultural, social and economic backgrounds, different genders and sexualities and can have various diverse cognitive or physical needs (Ewing et al, 2019). As teachers, we must know and be responsive to all learners, taking each students diversities into consideration when planning for learning in order to provide a sense of belonging and success whilst still being adequately challenged (Ewing et al, 2019)

Through conducting lesson observations during my placement, I have developed my ability to assess and document the physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students (FA 1.1) and understand how these diverse circumstances may impact their learning. When observing a phonics lesson run by my supervising teacher (ST), I noticed that many students had very different learning styles particularly one student with a global developmental delay who required extra support and one who thrived on positive reinforcement. As I watched on the lesson, I was able to note down strategies already used by my ST for these students to help maximise their learning outcomes and ability to achieve. I then used this knowledge of students individual needs to plan for differentiation within my own phonics lesson (See evidence 2 - differentiated lesson plan), in order to support these children to reach an equal level of success. 

AITSL (n.d.) Spotlight: Reframing feedback to improve teaching and learning, accessed October 5 2020, https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/research-evidence/spotlight/spotlight-feedback.pdf?sfvrsn=cb2eec3c_12

Ewing, R, Kervin, L, Glass, C, Gobby, B, Le Cornu, R, & Groundwater-Smith, S 2019, Teaching : dilemmas, challenges and opportunities (6th ed.). Cengage