¾«¶«´«Ã½app

Staffing

Examiner:

Requisites

Pre-requisite: Students must be enrolled in the following Program: MOLT

Other requisites

Students must be available for a prescribed period of time to undertake a placement in a school or other approved site as required in this course.

Before commencing this course students will be assumed to have read the full details of Professional Experience particulars and familiarised themselves with the requirements. Please see the Education Placement Professional Experience website and the Professional Experience Book for full details.

State law in Queensland (Australia) requires that all adults working/undertaking professional experience/researching with children under the age of 18, in the state of Queensland must hold a valid blue card OR exemption card .
If undertaking placement outside of Queensland you must ensure that all relevant checks are completed and evidence of this is provided to the Professional Experience office .

Provided a blue card renewal application has been submitted at least 30 days before expiry of the current card, the blue card will remain active while the renewal application is processed (details available at .

Blue Card Services cannot process a form dated more than 16 weeks prior to lodgement. In addition, a representative of USQ or a Justice of the Peace, must sight the applicant’s identification documents and check the information on the form, before signing and dating the USQ declaration (refer to .

Where a student is denied approval for a blue card, enrolment in any initial teacher education program will be withdrawn (refer to .
If undertaking Professional Experience outside of Queensland, students are advised to check the Working with Children requirements of the state within which Professional Experience will be undertaken (refer to .

Rationale

Learners in the 21st Century demand a curriculum and associated pedagogical strategies which are relevant to the present and will enable them to develop capabilities which will be of value in the years beyond schooling. Teachers are required to manage increasingly complex contexts; they need to be sensitive to and skilled in responding to sociocultural diversity and students' unique skills and needs. Understandings of how learning occurs, of the similarities and differences between learners and of the influence of the context within which the learner develops, enable educators to make pedagogical decisions relevant to the teaching and learning environment. Critical reflective practices can directly impact on teacher behaviour, planning, unpacking curriculum and authentic assessment practices. This process of critical reflection is central to creating a personal practical theory of learning and teaching and developing the understanding and skills necessary to effectively carry out the roles of classroom teacher and teacher as researcher. All teachers need to be researchers of their own practices in order to grow and become masters of their craft. Pre-service educators require access to a framework for effective planning and teaching and to a suite of effective pedagogical strategies in order to be able to plan and implement meaningful educational experiences for and with students. Focused experiential reflection on the theory/practice nexus is integral to the teaching profession.

Synopsis

This course provides an introduction for pre-service educators entering the teaching profession to the basic concepts and developmental issues connected to research and the pedagogical strategies for learning to teach in an educational setting. Pre-service educators will begin to explore a range of planning styles, ranging from single lessons to a sequence of learning episodes, and then to unit plans, with provisions made for diversity among learners. The course aims to provide opportunities for pre-service educators to develop their general teaching skills and pedagogical content knowledge through systematic reflection and the integration of assessment (for, through and of) content, learning and teaching. Embedded within the course is a 15 day Professional Experience under the supervision of a mentor teacher.

Objectives

Topics

Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed

Reference materials

Student workload expectations

Assessment details

Important assessment information

1. Attendance requirements:
   
   Online:
   There are no attendance requirements for this course. However, it is the students' responsibility to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration.
   
   On-campus:
   It is the students' responsibility to attend and participate appropriately in all activities (such as lectures, tutorials, laboratories and practical work) scheduled for them, and to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration.
   
   
2. Requirements for students to complete each assessment item satisfactorily:
   
   To complete assessment items satisfactorily, students must obtain at least 50% of the marks available for each item in addition to the successful completion of the Professional Experience component. Failure of the Professional Experience component will result in a Fail grade for this course.
   
   
3. Penalties for late submission of required work:
   
   Students should refer to the Assessment Procedure (point 4.2.4)
   
   
4. Requirements for student to be awarded a passing grade in the course:
   
   To be assured of receiving a passing grade a student must successfully complete the Professional Experience component and must achieve at least 50% of the total weighted marks available for the course. Failure of the Professional Experience component will result in a Fail grade for this course.
   
   
5. Method used to combine assessment results to attain final grade:
   
   The final grades for students will be assigned on the basis of the aggregate of the weighted marks obtained for each of the summative assessment items in the course.
   
   
6. Examination information:
   
   There is no examination in this course.
   
   
7. Examination period when Deferred/Supplementary examinations will be held:
   
   Not applicable.
   
   
8. ¾«¶«´«Ã½app Student Policies:
   
   Students should read the USQ policies: Definitions, Assessment and Student Academic Misconduct to avoid actions which might contravene ¾«¶«´«Ã½app policies and practices. These policies can be found at .
   
   

Assessment notes

1. Referencing in assignments must comply with the APA referencing system. This system should be used by students to format details of the information sources they have cited in their work. The APA style to be used is defined by the USQ library's referencing guide. This guide can be found at .
   
   
2. Students are required to demonstrate competence in and appropriate use of academic language and literacy, including spelling, grammar, punctuation, and referencing in all assessment responses. Marks allocated to the aforementioned criteria will be specified in the criteria for assessment of all assessment items.
   
   
3. Students are required to submit ALL assignments to evidence meeting or exceeding the mandatory requirements of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APSTs).
   
   
4. Professional Experience is a compulsory component of this course and integral to completion of the assessment tasks. Dates for each Professional Experience course are selected to support students’ capacity to apply the theory of the coursework in the Professional Experience placement. Students are advised not to select a course that includes Professional Experience in a semester where they are unable to meet the specified requirements of Professional Experience. Any application for a ‘change of dates’ for Professional Experience placement must qualify for consideration under the conditions of the USQ Assessment Extension Policy. An unsupported application will delay program completion.
   
   

Evaluation and benchmarking

In meeting the ¾«¶«´«Ã½app’s aims to establish quality learning and teaching for all programs, this course monitors and ensures quality assurance and improvements in at least two ways. This course:
1. Conforms to the USQ Policy on Evaluation of Teaching, Courses and Programs to ensure ongoing monitoring and systematic improvement.
2. Forms part of the Master of Learning and Teaching and is benchmarked against the:
o internal USQ accreditation/reaccreditation processes which include (i) stringent standards in the independent accreditation of its academic programs, (ii) close integration between business and academic planning, and (iii) regular and rigorous review.
o professional accreditation standards of the Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) and Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF)

Other requirements

1. Students will require access to e-mail and have Internet access to UConnect for this course. Computer, e-mail and Internet access: Students are required to have access to a personal computer, e-mail capabilities and Internet access to UConnect. Current details of computer requirements can be found at .
   
   
2. Students can expect that questions in assessment items in this course may draw upon knowledge and skills that they can reasonably be expected to have acquired before enrolling in this course. This includes knowledge contained in pre-requisite courses and appropriate communication, information literacy, analytical, critical thinking, problem solving or numeracy skills. Students who do not possess such knowledge and skills should not expect the same grades as those students who do possess them.