SS5K70 - Becoming a Teacher (2023/24)
| Module specification | Module approved to run in 2023/24 | ||||||||||
| Module title | Becoming a Teacher | ||||||||||
| Module level | Intermediate (05) | ||||||||||
| Credit rating for module | 15 | ||||||||||
| School | School of Social Sciences and Professions | ||||||||||
| Total study hours | 150 | ||||||||||
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| Assessment components |
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| Running in 2023/24(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change) |
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Module summary
This module introduces students to teaching and how to acquire Qualified Teacher Status. It examines professional practice and career and organizational norms across a range of sectors as well as lines of career development. It examines the place of education and teachers in professional networks as well as some of the challenges that attend this. The module situates these discussions within a critical framework and offers an introduction to historical and sociological accounts of teachers’ lives and to meanings attached to professionalism as both practice and social status thereby proposing the idea of teaching as a community of practice.
The module aims:
• To prepare students with a fund of knowledge and critical understanding in advance of making important career decisions;
• To introduce the structures and career development pathways for teachers working across a range of educational sectors and institutions;
• To introduce historical and sociological readings of teachers’ lives, beliefs and aspirations and to examine how teachers narrate and lend meaning to their careers;
• To explore teaching as a community of practice;
• To examine diverse notions of professionalism and their implications for institutional and workplace realities.
Note: The module is offered as an Extension of Knowledge and hence attracts students from across the University.
Syllabus
Outline of routes to QTS, and introduction to different career possibilities and opportunities in education. LO1
Reflection on personal career choice and exploration of possibilities for personal development. LO2
Understanding of teachers’ lives and teaching as a community of practice. LO3,LO4
Development of an idea of professional practice in relation to wider demands and debates. LO3,LO4
Balance of independent study and scheduled teaching activity
The module will be taught through lectures, workshops and guest inputs. These sessions are supplemented by talks from: the careers’ service, teachers, union officials and other professionals working in education.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
1. Make informed decisions about their career development and the options available to them if they want to become teachers;
2. Articulate an understanding of why teaching attracts and interests students (or not);
3. Situate their incipient professional identities within the goals, values and mores of teaching as a community of practice and be able to express their relationship to this;
4. Interpret working lives within a specific educational institution and in relation to wider professional demands and debates.
Assessment strategy
One item of coursework:
Portfolio – a) reflective essay 2000 words
Outline their personal career choice and exploration of possibilities for personal development.. Evaluation of the most suitable routes to QTS for them and different career possibilities and opportunities in education. Demonstrating understanding of teachers’ lives and teaching as a community of practice.Outline development of an idea of professional practice in relation to wider demands and debates.
b) creation of CV and Linked in profile for future career in education 500 words