Component 3: Teaching Practice and Learning Environment
Component 3: Teaching Practice and Learning Environment is a portfolio entry built on video recordings of your teaching plus a written analysis. It tests the observable classroom: how you build a safe, respectful culture, how students engage with content, and how you respond in the moment. Assessors score what the video shows, not what you intended.
Core rules and concepts
- Submit continuous, unedited footage with clear audio and with you and students visible. Editing or splicing is prohibited and can invalidate the entry.
- Show evidence of a learning environment: routines, transitions, respectful talk, equitable participation, and physical safety.
- Show teaching practice: questioning, prompting student-to-student discourse, responding to misconceptions, and checking understanding.
- The commentary must cite timestamps and analyze specific interactions. 'The students were engaged' is a claim; 'at 4:12, three students build on each other's answers after I ask for a restatement' is evidence.
Worked example
In a mathematics discussion, two students disagree about 24 × 5. One says 100, another says 120. You ask the first student to explain, then ask the second to restate the first student's reasoning before responding. The commentary identifies the timestamp, names the move (revoicing and structured disagreement), and explains how it kept the focus on reasoning and protected the first student from being publicly corrected. It then analyzes what you would change to bring in a quieter student.
Traps that cost marks
- Choosing a video with inaudible student voices or where students are off camera.
- Summarizing the lesson instead of analyzing interactions.
- Letting the teacher dominate the talk and calling it discussion.
- Failing to address both teaching practice and learning environment.
- Not showing how you noticed and responded to a misconception.