Clinical teaching explained
Teaching is much more than information transmission and behaviour management. Excellent teachers focus on an individual student's learning growth, and clinical teaching enables them to do this by:
- Monitoring and evaluating their impact on learning and adapting the lesson to meet the needs of each student – rather than expecting the student to keep up regardless of their circumstances.
- Using evidence about what each student knows and understands at the start of the teaching period to inform their teaching interventions.
- Targeting their assessment and teaching practices to maximise the information obtained about their impact and optimise the chances of improving student learning.
- Constructing appropriate teaching and learning environments for every student, whatever their developmental stage and current abilities.
- Continuously evaluating the impact of their teaching, to inform next steps.
Studying clinical teaching
The Melbourne Graduate School of Education offers various modes of clinical teaching integrated within our current degree structures:
- Master of Teaching: for graduates who want to become teachers. An essential part of the Master of Teaching's clinical approach is the clinical practice exam, which links theory and practice in one key piece of assessment.
- Master of Evidence Based Teaching: for practicing teachers
- Master of Instructional Leadership: for educational leaders (and aspiring leaders).
Researching clinical teaching
Research is constantly informing our understanding of clinical teaching. Some of our major research projects and publications include:
- The Assessment and Learning Partnerships in the Assessment Research Centre
- McLean Davis, L. et al (2013), 'Masterly preparation: embedding clinical practice in a graduate preservice teacher education programme: The clinical praxis exam in the Master of Teaching', Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy, vol. 39 (1), pp. 93–106
- Dinham, S. (2012), '‘Walking the Walk: The need for school leaders to embrace teaching as a clinical practice profession’, Conference Proceedings, Australian Council For Educational Research (ACER) research conference, Sydney, pp. 34–39