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Essential Characteristics of teaching include having the skills and ability to plan a lesson, to manage a classroom, to give the children the time to learn collaboratively and for the teacher to have knowledge of the topic and be able to provide the knowledge in a way the children will learn and gain the desired knowledge. In the video of ‘Knowledge and Understanding of the World’ (Davies and Gooding, 2008), Karen Whitehouse, the teacher, shows all these characteristics of teaching in her classroom for pre-primary children in planning, class management, collaborative learning and knowledge through Mini-Beasts, which is a lesson plan. The Mini-Beasts lesson from “Knowledge and Understanding of the World” (Davies and Gooding, 2008) provides the idea of the ‘lesson plan’ (Appendix A). It focuses on the children learning about “Ants” and includes a science experiment of ‘How ants get food, water and shelter’, and also ‘How an ant would get these essentials to live’. These essential characteristics of teaching show that you need to be organised and ready for the lesson for it to work and achieve the desired results. This can be seen in the video. (Davies and Gooding, 2008). “Karen”, the teacher in “the video” and the implementer of the ‘lesson plan’ (Appendix A) about “ants” shows these characteristics. To be an effective teaching one must apply these characteristics of collaborative learning, knowledge of the Australian curriculum, an organised lesson plan and class management.
For teachers, a lesson plan is the planning and preparation for a lesson and they display the teacher’s knowledge and understanding of the curriculum in all subjects. (Whitton et al., 2010, p 144). In the video (Davies and Gooding, 2008) Karen had a clear class plan for the students to learn about the mini-beasts ie. Insects. In using the interactive whiteboard she was able to engage the students to learn and use their