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Coherence across the Programme
The same Professional Studies strands and Curriculum strands run across all three Educational Studies, Preparing for Teaching courses. The same Practicum strands run across all Teaching in School courses. This ensures a coherent learning experience for students with excellent links across different areas of study. The following information therefore outlines structural elements common to all Educational Studies, Preparing for Teaching courses and the structural elements common to the three Teaching in School courses.
Educational Studies (Preparing for Teaching) Courses
The Programme follows a chronological sequence in addressing pupil learning and development, beginning with learning from age 3 to 7 years. The Education Studies courses take place largely on campus in the School of Education. Each course prepares students for stage-related placements in early years settings and primary schools. Professional Studies courses comprise Curriculum Strands and Professional Studies Strands. The content covered in each Education Studies (Preparing for Teaching) course is contextualised in the primary school placement stage it precedes. Over the Programme as a whole, this combination develops the professional knowledge and pedagogy base required of beginning teachers.
Curriculum Strands
Primary School Teachers are required by the General Teaching Council for Scotland to be knowledgeable in and able to use appropriate pedagogical approaches to teach all areas of the Primary Curriculum as set out in the current curriculum, A Curriculum for Excellence. In the above curriculum strands therefore, students improve their own individual subject knowledge base and an understanding of how to develop this in young learners. Each curriculum area is taught discretely, though with opportunities for cross-curricular learning identified and explored. In addition to this, all courses allocate time for interdisciplinary workshops, which explore different models of multi- disciplinary learning. These interdisciplinary workshops make use of links with external agencies, informal educators and creative professionals. Crosscutting themes of sustainability, globalisation, enterprise and citizenship are addressed within discrete subject discipline studies and interdisciplinary disciplinary workshops. Teaching in curricular strands encourages students to approach the established curriculum with a critical disposition.
Professional Studies Strands
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Child Development and Childhood
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Social Justice
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Additional Support for Learning
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Curriculum and Assessment
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The Active Professional
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Research Methodology
The Professional Studies strands run in tandem with curriculum teaching, to ensure students are informed about the range of factors that influence the children’s learning and educational opportunities. Within the Active Professional Strand, the emerging professional identity of student teachers is fostered and developed. Lectures and workshop actively develop a sense of professionalism underpinned by democratic values and social justice principles through structured learning tasks. Academic content with Professional Studies strands as a whole engages in critical analysis of research evidence from educational psychology, sociology, philosophy and research methodology. While students are introduced to both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, the skills of Practitioner Enquiry are emphasised and developed, particularly in relation to data gathering and data analysis. This ensures that students adopt an enquiring disposition to their own practice . Additionally educational policy is analysed and critiqued. Over the course of the Programme students are consistently encouraged to apply the theory to their cumulative experience of professional practice. The critical analysis and synthesis of different educational epistemological perspectives, along with policy critique and application to practice ensures that students engage in a level of study commensurate with the award of level 11 credits.
Placement Courses
Learning on placement courses takes place mainly in placement schools and early years (pre-school) settings. Courses are structured to move progressively through the 3-12 age range. Students are placed in at least three different school contexts over the programme, and thus prepared for placement both through Educational Studies courses, and Practicum Studies. Practicum studies clarify placement expectations and aid practical preparation for, and reflection on, placement experiences. They also explore pedagogy through an academic lens, aiding students in the exploration of theory through practice.
Skills in planning for children’s learning are developed progressively throughout the Programme. Students begin with planning for short learning activities and build to planning sequences of lessons in discrete curriculum areas. As they develop the capacity to teach for longer periods of time they face the challenge of planning for learning in interdisciplinary contexts.
Practicum classes in Behaviour Management are offered within a ‘Learning Behaviour’ paradigm, that is relationship based. Students explore behaviour management challenges in the classroom and develop understanding of sanctions and rewards frameworks to ensure a harmonious classroom ethos. Emphasis is given to responding appropriately to low level disruptive behaviours in a positive way. Students research and share understandings of current whole school initiatives focused on positive behaviour management and aim to develop a personal ‘toolkit’ of approaches to use on placement and in their future careers.
The organisation of learning is explored in the Art and Craft of Teaching strand with practical examples of ways of organising classes for learning shared and critiqued. These cover collaborative group working as well as whole class teaching and individualised work. The organisation of the class over the course of a lesson, a morning and a day is given attention, with consideration given to transitions, variety of pupil activities and effective use of teacher time. Differentiated grouping, setting and streaming are all examined and critiqued in the light of current pedagogical research on learning and the social context of the classroom. These topics are debated in the stage- related contexts of placement and revisited in a cyclical way.
Students are expected to reflect on their teaching experience at lesson, daily , weekly and whole placement levels and therefore have to develop the skills of reflective practice that involve having awareness of one’s own strengths and development needs. They also involve exploring theory through practice and using assessment evidence and evaluation of teaching to plan subsequent learning. These skills are taught in the Reflective Practice strand of Practicum, with concrete examples used to help decision making . This strand of Practicum also complements the Active Professional strand of Professional Studies and contributes greatly the development of professional identity in the beginning teacher. Professional dilemmas are debated and resolved in workshops, making use of critical incident approaches.
The placement guidelines provide scope for schools to make full use of their particular contexts and expertise to promote the development of the student as a teacher.
Practicum Strands
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Planning for Children’s Learning
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Learning Behaviour
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Art and Craft of Teaching
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Developing Reflexive Practice
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Enquiry as Stance
The Practicum course strands above therefore prepare students to operationalise professional knowledge and understanding on placement. They offer theoretically informed, practical advice on pedagogy including consideration of planning for children’s learning and strategies for organising that learning in the classroom. They help students to ‘make real’ the relationships between curriculum, teaching and assessment that underpin much of the university teaching and enable them to adopt a reflexive approach to pedagogy, the science of teaching and learning. Close links with field practitioners and staff responsible for local authority and national initiatives in pupil behaviour management ensure that students are fully informed of a variety of up to date approaches in this area of professional practice. They are given opportunities to share and reflect upon the effectiveness of their use of these strategies in lectures and workshops in the Learning Behaviour, Reflexive Practitioner and Inquiry as Stance strands in order to increase confidence and competence in the classroom. Peer learning experiences on each placement encourage students to engage in peer assessment and peer counselling relationships that are mutually supportive. The Inquiry as Stance strand develops knowledge and skills in the Practitioner Enquiry research paradigm, which is seen as an appropriate research skill base for entrants to the teaching profession.
Thus Practicum studies are informed by up to date research on the role of the teacher in enabling children’s learning. This ensures that by the end of the Programme, students are adequately prepared for the immediate demands of the workplace with regard to practical issues such as lesson planning, classroom organisation and management and positive behaviour management.
Enquiry as Stance
The Programme aims state that graduates
Can adopt an ‘enquiry as stance’ approach to practice by applying the research skills of professional enquiry. This is seen as an appropriate research paradigm for beginning teachers. It represents a development of the reflective practitioner approach that has underpinned Teacher Education for the past 30 years but that did not necessarily imply a research orientation. It also builds on an action research paradigm, but tailors this to the needs of beginning teachers. As such it provides a firm foundation for career long professional learning.
Beginning teachers are encouraged to take systematic enquiry in their own classrooms, develop their practice and share insights with other professionals. The arguments in favour of this approach are rehearsed in the commissioned literature review on Teacher Education that preceded the Donaldson Report (Menter et. al 2010). It draws upon the most developed approaches to teacher as researcher that have been developed in Europe (Alrichter et al, 2006); Ronnerman et al, 2008), North America (Cochrane –Smith and Lytle, 1993; 2009) and Australia (Groundwater –Smith, 2006; Diezmann, 2005; Deppeler, 2006; Bell, 2011). The work of Cochrane-Smyth and Bell has been particularly influential for staff on the PGDE Programmes in developing the reviewed Programmes. Robinson and Williamson, staff in ETL have adopted this approach with partners chools for CPD work and the reviewed programmes build on this in-house experience. Such an approach gives beginning teachers increased control over the professional knowledge base of teaching.
On the Primary programme the aspiration of ‘Enquiry as Stance’ is realised through both permeated and discrete pedagogical approaches. Students’ academic literacies are developed through a strand that runs throughout the Programme. This enables them to read critically educational academic texts and educational applied research papers and adopt an appropriate style and register in their own writing.
Through study in the research methods strand of Professional Studies, they are reach understanding of the contribution of large-scale qualitative and quantitative research projects and the challenges of data interpretation in such projects. This learning is contextualised within the Growing Up in Scotland Survey in a session led by a professional researcher on the Project.
This understanding of large-scale educational research is balanced by an introduction to small scale Practitioner Enquiry mid way through the Programme. Students consider video evidence of pupils’ achievement in reading comprehension and participate in fine- grained analysis of that data. They then replicate such an approach during a task on the Middle Placement, analyse data collected and present the results to peer on return to faculty.
The knowledge and skills developed are extended towards the end of the Programme, when students write a literature review on Interdisciplinary Learning, then undertake a practitioner Enquiry Project on this topic, related to their own teaching on the final placement. They analyse pupil data collected and present findings in a presentation to peers, university staff and invited school staff. They are thus able to explore theory through practice using an “Enquiry as Stance” approach.
Teaching and Learning Strategies across the Programme
The Programme uses a balanced set of teaching and learning approaches. Students experience learning in lectures, workshops and tutorials as well as through supported and independent study sessions. Emphasis is placed on collaborative learning through a problem-based learning approach, with opportunities routinely available for students to use electronic resources for supported study. Examples of this are the on line learning resources developed in the Social Justice and ASL strands which are a shared resource for both Primary and Secondary PGCE students. Placement courses involve working alongside and under the guidance of teachers, and teaching independently with feedback and coaching from both university and school staff. Over the three placement courses, there is progressive development of the skills of collaborative partnership working.
With the current cohort size of around 120 students for lectures, workshops are organised in groups of 25- 30 students. Within these, staff aim to subdivide groups into smaller units to allow for collaborative learning tasks and more individualised interactive feedback. Prior to and during each placement, students have individual professional consultations with placement tutors to help them reflect upon and set targets for their own individual professional development. New partnership arrangements with local authorities mean that field practitioners have increased involvement in student teaching and assessment, both on placement and in-university.
Teaching and Learning Activities
In Year 1
In Year 2
In Year 3
In Year 4
Teaching and Learning Strategies
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