
Practitioner Enquiry Programme Awards you can register for, or progress to, from this programme: PgCert PgDip M.Ed This programme: PGCert 60 credits PGDip 120 credits M.Ed. 180 credits University of Newcastle Typical modules offered each year. Students select any modules to the value of 60 credits per year. GENERIC MODULES Bridging: Creating and Translating Professional Knowledge in Teaching (40 credits) NQTs and early career teachers investigate a range of issues relevant to early professional development. The significance of the contemporary context; and the value of reflective and collaborative practice in professional learning are considered. This is developed at a personal level as participants plan for and complete action research. Coaching for Change in Teaching (40 credits) One-to-one peer coaching can significantly change teaching and learning and help teachers to explore the influences on their practice. Participants will be trained to coach, enabling them to work alongside colleagues in understanding and developing personal pedagogies. Essential components of this are the use of video and structured coaching dialogue. Counselling, Culture and Communication (20 credits) Participants will explore counselling as a form of communication with an emphasis on the person-centred approach. The module is experiential in approach, focussing on the counselling relationship and associated skills; and understanding the link between theory and practice. There is an opportunity to experience group process and sensitivity training. Developing Innovative Curriculum Through Pupil/Student Enquiry (40 credits) An enquiry-based curriculum provides coherence in learning. It promotes opportunities for learners to become more skilled, motivated and autonomous in a socially constructed environment. Enquiries also encourage teachers to be more critically engaged in their own pedagogy. This module will allow participants to exploit the new national curriculum to its full. Investigating Learning in the Classroom (40 credits) Critical engagement with theories of learning, alongside teachers’ classroom investigations into learning provide a springboard to improve the learners’ experiences and outcomes. This module introduces a range of research methods enabling participants to conduct small scale research in their own context and to evaluate its validity and reliability. Policy and Practice in Assessment (20 credits) Schools are working to translate Assessment for Learning principles into effective assessment practice. This module considers the research, policy and pedagogy involved in this process. Participants will investigate practical ideas for assessment in relation to an understanding of what learning is, how assessment affects it and how assessment can support it. Students, Teachers and Headteachers in Popular Culture: Representations and Images (20 credits) Media discourses about schooling potentially influence the conceptions of those outside the profession. This module will look at how television representations such as Hope and Glory, and Waterloo Road can be used to explore relevant theoretical perspectives surrounding teacher identity, ‘failing’ or ‘successful’ schools, bullying, and ‘effective’ management and leadership. Teaching Thinking Skills (20 credits) For many teachers, teaching thinking is an ice-berg pedagogy; there is so much more below the surface! This module aims to raise participants’ confidence, skills and understanding. As such participants will gain an enhanced awareness of how they can develop thinking classrooms and establish practices that enable pupils to develop metacognitive awareness and abilities. Thinking Through Teaching/Professional Learning (40 credits) Teachers’ roles are complex and continually evolving. This module investigates the relationships between teachers' practice, professional learning and education policy within the broader socio-economic and cultural context. The module will encourage students to critique related research and policy and offers the opportunity to investigate their own and/or others' professional development. SUBJECT FOCUSSED MODULES Contemporary Issues in Mathematics Education (20 credits) Innovation, policy and research influence the nature of Mathematics education as does the teacher’s own mathematical autobiography. This module encourages primary and secondary teachers of Mathematics to reflect and work on their own mathematics and their teaching of it; making a difference to learning in their own contexts. Developing Pedagogy in MFL: Living Languages (20 credits) ‘Learning to talk‘ and ‘talking to learn’ through the target language is central to successful MFL learning. This module is open to all teachers of MFL (not just French, German, Spanish) from primary, secondary and FE sectors. It promotes teachers’ collaborative learning and opportunities for enquiry based research. Geography in Transition: Developing Pedagogy (KS2 & KS3) (20 credits) Geography provides a doorway into an ever-changing world. This module is futures-orientated, exploring successful and relevant pedagogy in the 21^st Century. Themes include ‘pupil voice’, ‘geographical senses’, and how the educational agenda shapes the geography curriculum. The module is based on teacher enquiry constructed within a community of practice. MODULES LINKED TO ASSOCIATED LEARNING Critical Reflection on Professional Practice (20 credits) Professional learning underpinned by a professional development course or experience forms the basis of this module. Teachers acting as mentors, engaging in action research networks or participating in CPD can use this as the basis for reflective commentary. The module itself is not taught, but support is given through seminars and tutorials. NPQH Conversion Module (60 credits) Success in NPQH allows participants to submit a short reflective commentary on an element of their leadership, contextualised by making links between practice evidence, research evidence and theory. This course is not taught, but support is given through seminars and tutorials. It is offered at a reduced rate for 60 credits. “The modules on the course have felt very ‘real’ in terms of my work in teaching, and have impacted positively on it. During the module ‘Bridging: Creating and translating professional knowledge in teaching,’ I read a powerful article on social and intellectual capital. This impacted significantly on my work in school and led to my wanting to investigate it further. Ideas raised here then contributed significantly to my successful application for a post as Director of CPD at my school. For my dissertation I hope to research how to create social capital in my school, and implement the ideas thus linking theory and practice rather nicely”. Alison Gray Aims and intentions Participants, from NQTs to experienced teachers, will acquire knowledge and skills to investigate the links between their everyday school experiences and relevant research, policy and theory. Approaches to Teaching and Learning The practitioner enquiry approach enables participants to investigate practice in their own context. Participants form a learning community and benefit from the experiences and perspectives of all. Assessment Assessment is of the portfolio of evidence and reflection resulting from the enquiry undertaken. Need more information on this programme? Contact: rachel.lofthouse@ncl.ac.uk or click on this link to view the website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/postgrad/ppd/ Key benefits: Teachers following this route will be able to lead the way in an evidenced based profession. Enquiry can be used to support school development planning and so will improve pupil outcomes.