Postgraduate Module Descriptor

EDUM036: Secondary Education and Professional Studies

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

The principle aims of the module are to:

enable you to gain an understanding of a range of contemporary education policies and issues, theory and practice;
support you in reflecting critically on children’s learning and development, pedagogy and teachers’ roles and responsibilities; and

support you to meeting the Teachers’ Standards (for Qualified Teacher Status).

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. identify and evaluate educational theories and policies and to engage in critical debate about current issues, drawing on evidence from theory, policy, research and practice; 2. understand theories of pedagogy, learning and development, and consider how these can inform professional practice; 3. demonstrate confident academic and pedagogic knowledge to teach at Secondary level; 4. demonstrate secure understanding of the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum and other policies relevant to teaching in Secondary schools
Discipline-Specific Skills	5. critically evaluate the relevance of educational theories to practice; 6. synthesise relevant educational literature in support of an argument; 7. use appropriate technologies for data handling and writing in education; 8. present data and findings in a form appropriate for educational contexts; 9. use research data in support of an argument in education (including government reports).
Personal and Key Skills	10. manage your own learning development and evaluation of your learning; 11. learn effectively both independently and co-operatively, and be aware of your own learning strategies; 12. express ideas and opinions, with confidence and clarity, to a variety of audiences for a variety of purposes with rational argument based on relevant and reliable evidence; 13. work productively in different kinds of teams (formal, informal, project based, etc); and 14. think creatively about the main features of a given problem and develop strategies for its resolution.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

The module introduces students to current thinking in Education and Professional Studies and develops students’ curricular, pedagogic and academic subject knowledge in the field of Secondary education. Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged key elements of the module will include:

• Lecture Programme: This covers the policies, theories and practice that apply to all teachers in secondary education.

• Subject Specific Follow Up Seminars: These sessions give you an opportunity to build on the content of the lectures in a subject specific manner.

• Seminar Days: University-led days to share school-based work experiences and develop the links between the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching.

On the Secondary PGCE, you will learn and reflect on the skills and knowledge required by the programme’s credit-bearing and non-credit bearing modules throughout the year. You will need to think about the modules in relation to each other. To facilitate this, the learning and teaching activities and guided independent study described below are scheduled to occur across all three terms both in the context of your university taught course and in the context of your 24 weeks of applied professional experience in schools.

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
99	201	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities	24	Lecture Programme
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities	18	Subject Specific Follow Up Seminars
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities	13	Seminar Days
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities	20	Professional Studies seminars in Spring and Summer terms.
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities	24	EPS Tasks
Guided Independent Study	201	Independent Study

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

See PGCE Secondary Education and Professional Studies course on ELE (http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/ )