Course specification for EDS2401

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EDS2401 Junior Secondary Curriculum and Pedagogy

Semester 1, 2020 External
Short Description: Jnr Secondary Crclm & Pedagogy
Units : 1
Faculty or Section : Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts
School or Department : School of Education
Student contribution band : National Priority - Teaching
ASCED code : 070105 - Teacher Education: Secondary
Grading basis : Graded

Staffing

Examiner:

Requisites

Pre-requisite: ESP1200 or EDC1400 and Students must be enrolled in one of the following Programs: BEDU or BSED
Co-requisite: ESD1100

Other requisites

It is highly recommended this course be undertaken after successfully completing four teaching area courses - two from each area.

Students must have successfully completed the entire previous year’s Professional Experience courses in order to enrol in this course. 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Where a student is denied approval for a blue card, enrolment in any initial teacher education program will be withdrawn (refer to .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

This course further builds on understandings of the professional practice of teaching. This course is required under the Professional Standards for Teachers in relation to planning units and therefore organising and sequencing subject content for effective learning experiences. A key consideration is that curriculum and pedagogy should be designed to be developmentally responsive and meet the diverse needs of junior secondary learners. This course includes a Professional Experience placement of fifteen (15) days where pre-service teachers are expected to demonstrate the ability to plan lesson sequences.

Synopsis

This course prepares pre-service teachers to design and construct developmentally responsive curriculum and pedagogy for junior secondary learners. In the process, it emphasises the need to be aware of key developmental touchstones and to meet the diverse needs of learners. The course caters for the range of maturational variation among young adolescences and recognises the implications of transition from primary to secondary schooling. The course explores why effective design of curriculum and pedagogy, including embedded ICTs, promotes effective schooling and how local education can be shaped to meet specific learning needs, including the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners.

A 15-day professional experience placement is attached to this course. For full details of the Professional Experience particulars, please refer to the Professional Experience website and the Professional Experience Book.

Objectives

The course objectives define the student learning outcomes for a course in accordance with the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership's (AITSL) Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST). On successful completion of this course pre-service teachers should be able to:

  1. contextualise curriculum for junior secondary to inform the design of unit planning, lesson sequencing and authentic assessment (APST 2.2, 2.3, 4.2);
  2. plan lesson sequences setting achievable learning goals that organise classroom activities which are developmentally responsive to junior secondary students that include a rich range of teaching strategies, including ICTs, that considers the diverse needs of students (APST 1.3, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 4.2);
  3. develop a specific focus on curriculum and pedagogical design to meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners through the incorporation of community expectations (APST 1.4, 3.2);
  4. identify a range of resources and utilise ICTs effectively for teaching and learning and assessment strategies to engage junior secondary learners (APST 2.2, 2.6, 3.4);
  5. design a unit plan which structures content and identifies a range of rich pedagogies, strategies and learning experiences for the teacher area (APST 2.1, 2.2, 2.6, 3.3);
  6. identify pedagogical strategies which will assist in managing adolescence behaviour and needs including clear directions, use of routines, and a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies (APST 3.5, 4.2, 4.3);
  7. demonstrate professionalism during pre-service teacher placements through the ongoing practice and assessment of pre-service teacher professional practice (1.1, 1.5, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 6.3, 7.1, 7.2).

Topics

Description Weighting(%)
1. Understanding the diverse needs of junior secondary learners 30.00
2. Developing a range of rich pedagogies 20.00
3. Junior secondary curriculum design and implementation 10.00
4. Unit and lesson planning 20.00
5. Responding to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners 10.00
6. Incorporating a range of ICTs to designs for curriculum, pedagogy and assessment 10.00

Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed

ALL textbooks and materials available to be purchased can be sourced from (unless otherwise stated). (https://omnia.usq.edu.au/textbooks/?year=2020&sem=01&subject1=EDS2401)

Please for alternative purchase options from USQ Bookshop. (https://omnia.usq.edu.au/info/contact/)

Main, K, Pendergast, DL & Bahr, NM (eds) 2017, Teaching middle years: rethinking curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, 3rd edn, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, New South Wales.

Reference materials

Reference materials are materials that, if accessed by students, may improve their knowledge and understanding of the material in the course and enrich their learning experience.
Frangenheim, E 2017, Reflections on classroom thinking strategies, 11th edn, Rodin Educational Publishing, Loganholme, Queensland.

Student workload expectations

Activity Hours
Directed ¾«¶«´«Ã½app 80.00
Independent ¾«¶«´«Ã½app 85.00

Assessment details

Description Marks out of Wtg (%) Due Date Notes
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 1 1 25 Feb 2020 (see note 1)
ASSIGNMENT 1 40 40 28 Apr 2020
ASSIGNMENT 2 59 59 02 Jun 2020

Notes
  1. Students must successfully complete the Professional Experience to be eligible for a passing grade for this course. A mark of one (1) indicates you have passed the Professional Experience component. A mark of zero (0) indicates you have not passed the Professional Experience component. Professional Experience should be conducted as per the Professional Experience Calendar unless alternative arrangements have been approved by the Program Coordinator or advised by USQ.

Important assessment information

  1. Attendance requirements:
    It is the students' responsibility to attend and participate appropriately in all activities 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:
    There is no examination in this course, there will be no deferred or supplementary examinations.

  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 Bachelor of Education and is benchmarked against the:

  1. 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
  2. Queensland College of Teachers
  3. Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).

Other requirements

  1. Participation: Students can expect it will be necessary to participate in and contribute to a range of learning opportunities in this course including online study activities, lectures, tutorials, seminar presentations, group discussions and self-directed study activities in order to apply the coursework that will enable quality assessment tasks to be submitted as evidence of professional development.

Date printed 25 June 2020