Postgraduate Course: Curriculum Plus 3 (General Science) (EDUA11293)
Course Outline
| School | Moray House School of Education and Sport |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course is designed to enable students with a science-related degree to engage with cutting edge thinking on particular issues within science education at a standard equivalent to Level 11, while engaging in collaborative and interdisciplinary units of work which pertain to the Broad and General Education phase of the Curriculum. This course meets the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) requirement that those entering the profession to teach biology, chemistry or physics are both competent and confident in teaching outwith their specialist area. In addition, drawing on its multidisciplinary base, students will actively engage with the curricular implications of current policy priorities in education such as the STEM agenda, Learning for Sustainability and our commitment to addressing diversity as our educational agenda seeks to respect all disciplines, language and cultures within our student population and beyond. |
| Course description |
This course is taught by a team of tutors from different subject specialisms across the 3 sciences and brings together students to work in multidisciplinary groups. Course content covers a set of key topics drawn from the Broad and General Phase of the Curriculum, addressing the fundamentals of General Science across Physics, Chemistry and Biology. A range of teaching and learning approaches will be used including direct teaching, task based collaborative learning, student presentations, whole group and small group discussion, reflection, evaluation and enquiry. This approach enables the course to address our commitment to reflective and reflexive praxis, where the values that underpin how, why and what we are teaching inform our actions. There is a particular emphasis on students acting as guides and explainers for others whose specialism lies beyond their own, which enables students to built a pedagogic repertoire that is responsive to both local and global educational and social values of sustainability, equality, equity and justice. Sessions are also designed to offer the opportunity for students to learn with and from each other, as part of interdisciplinary tasks, interactive activities and experiential activities. Students will be guided to devise an interdisciplinary learning unit incorporating aspects of STEM, Learning for Sustainability and issues of diversity in order to fulfil Programme aims and Policy priorities.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Flexible |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 48,
Other Study Hours 148,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
0 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
Directed Learning, Practical Preparation and Delivery, Collaborative Working, Reading Groups
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
100% coursework
Students will prepare and present an individual presentation to articulate their ideas for the summative assessment. After the presentation, feedback and feedforward will be provided by tutors, peers and external partners.
Summative assessment takes the form of a three-part assignment with a word count of 4,000.
1. a completed unit of work, including resources to support learning and teaching in an Appendix;
2. a rationale that draws on curriculum guidelines, policies and other literature to argue why the content of the unit and associated methodology would present a meaningful learning experience for the students in the areas of STEM and Learning for Sustainability;
3. a critical analysis and evaluation of the unit.
Further information and support is provided by the tutors. |
| Feedback |
Within the course there are many ongoing activities such as presentations, micro-teaching and group-work that lead to continuous feedback from peers as well as tutors. This makes a significant further contribution to the formative assessment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the ways in which concepts of curriculum, pedagogical theories and approaches impact on learning and teaching.
- Critically consider and engage in the process of planning for teaching and learning across secondary school education taking account of subject disciplines and local and global educational contexts.
- Critically interrogate theories of learning, teaching and assessment within their subject disciplines and in the wider educational, social, cultural and political contexts of the secondary school community.
- Examine the values and ideologies explicit and implicit in academic research and policy literature and/or about Scottish education and beyond which relate to central contemporary educational issues such as inclusion, additional support needs, fairness, diversity, social justice and sustainability.
- Engage in reflective and reflexive praxis to ensure how, why and what we teach aligns with our individual and collective professional values and actions.
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Reading List
Indicative Reading
Abrahams, I. and Braund, M. (2012). Performing science. Teaching Chemistry, Physics and Biology through Drama. London: Continuum.
Bencze, L. (Ed) (2017). Science and Technology Education Promoting Wellbeing for Individuals, Societies and Environments. New York; Springer.
Burgin, S.R. (2020). A three-dimensional conceptualization of authentic inquiry-based practices: a reflective tool for science educators, International Journal of Science Education, DOI: 10.1080/09500693.2020.1766152
Chang, J., Park, J., Tang, K.S., Treagust, D.F. & Won, M. (2020) The features of norms formed in constructing student-generated drawings to explain physics phenomena, International Journal of Science Education, DOI: 10.1080/09500693.2020.1762138
Christie, B. and Higgins, P. (2020). Educational outcomes of Learning for Sustainability: literature review. Scottish Government, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills. ISBN: 9781839604706
Colucci-Gray, L., Cassidy, C., Nicol, R. and King. B. (2019). Special Issue of Scottish Educational Review on Learning for Sustainability in Scotland, June, 2019.
Martinez, Jaime, E. (2017). The search for method in STEAM Education. New York: Palgrave MacMillan
Sund, P. & Gericke, N. (2020) Teaching contributions from secondary school subject areas to education for sustainable development - a comparative study of science, social science and language teachers, Environmental Education Research, 26:6, 772-794, DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2020.1754341 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. This course prepares students to engage critically and analytically with current areas of development in learning and teaching in secondary schools and with broader issues and problematised areas in education.
2. Students on this course work collaboratively to design creative and effective approaches to meet the challenges of working with children and young people in the 21st Century classroom.
3. Students are taught to reflect, using appropriate theoretical models of reflective practice on their own practice and their own situated thinking; and to respond reflexively in order to improve learning and teaching. This often means making in-practice decisions in complex situations
4.Student teachers on this course develop the necessary skills to communicate effectively with a range of audiences from children to their professional colleagues, parents and other adults with professional responsibilities for children and young people, adapting communication appropriately to context and purpose.
5. Students must demonstrate their ability to use research papers which include graphical or numerical data to support their understanding of educational issues and to interpret and uses this data accurately and critically.
6. Student teachers on this course work collaboratively with peers and tutors. They learn to take the initiative, to demonstrate leadership and to take responsibility for their professional development as a teacher. Through a blend of tutorial tasks and their practice experience students develop the ability to think their way critically through complex , diverse perspectives and make ethically sound and well informed decisions which stem from their developing understanding of intra and inter personal skills as well as their sound professional knowledge of learning and teaching. |
| Keywords | PGDE secondary general science |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Nick Hood
Tel: (0131 6)51 6341
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Nadir Junco
Tel: (0131 6)51 6449
Email: |
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