Postgraduate Certificate in Education PGCE Secondary Art and Design
ObjectivesThe Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programmes now include 40 credits of assessment at Master's Level (Level M). For candidates who opt not to attempt the requisite credit at Level M, a Professional Graduate Certificate in Education will be available as an alternative award. The Secondary Postgraduate Certificate in Education is a one academic year (36 week) course that trains graduates to be secondary school teachers of Art and Design. The PGCE programme has been designed to train teachers for the full secondary age phase (11-18). Trainees are assessed against the standards for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in two key stages, normally KS3 and KS4. In the first half of the autumn term, some trainees may seek to change this to Key Stage 4 and post-16, this will be subject to discussion with the Programme Leader. The course is active and practical allowing trainees to develop professional competence through work undertaken in schools and in the University. Trainees work with young people, develop their expertise in their specialist subject area, share and discuss educational issues and study relevant educational research. The course is just the beginning of what we hope will be a process of continual professional development throughout a challenging and rewarding career. The PGCE Secondary Programme has been awarded a Grade 1 (outstanding) for Management and Quality Assurance from OfSTED (Office for Standards in Education) and all of the nine subjects have received good or very good OfSTED grades.
Entry requirementsApplicants normally have: a good honours degree (2:2 or above) or equivalent with at least 50% in a related subject (relating to the subject you want to teach) English and Mathematics GCSE grade C or equivalent (equivalency tests in English Language and Mathematics may be available for some applicants) to have spent between one to seven days in a classroom observing art and design being taught in a comprehensive school Applicants who do not meet the minimum academic entry requirements, but have significant life and/or work experience will be considered on an individual basis. If you wish to study Art and Design you will be required to bring a portfolio of work to interview.
Academic titlePostgraduate Certificate in Education PGCE Secondary Art and Design
Course descriptionContent
The course is part of the School's programme for Initial Teacher Training. Units studied are:
-Enabling Learning
-Meeting Curriculum Challenges
-Becoming a Teacher
These units are studied in both the school and the University-based parts of the course, the work on each site being complementary.
The course is designed to help you develop an awareness of the purposes and possibilities of different approaches to art and design in the school curriculum. It aims to enable you to develop pupils' ability in the visual and tactile elements of art, including the development of young people's skills to research and use evidence to generate ideas, and to interpret such ideas in practice. You will learn how to achieve this in accordance with Health and Safety requirements. The course will help you to develop this teaching competence in contexts involving a range of media, in two and three dimensions, and using IT, drawing on the richness of art from different cultures and periods of history.
During the course, consideration will be given to the National Curriculum GCSE and to post-16 courses including AS, A-level, and to the rapidly expanding vocational area of the art and design curriculum. Learning to teach involves a wide range of other skills including the development of young people's ability to communicate and justify their ideas and decisions in art and design, and more generally to develop their language across the curriculum as a whole. It also involves learning how to assess, report on and record young people's progress and how to recognise under-achievement and exceptional performance in the classroom or art studio. You will have opportunities in both university and school environments to develop these skills as well as those that relate to managing pupil behaviour in order to secure effective learning, both in the classroom and in schools more generally.
Whilst at the University, you will have access to the studio and workshop facilities of the art and design department in the School of Education. These include studio and workshop space for a wide range of 2D and 3D activities. There are two large painting and drawing studios, a black and white darkroom, a printmaking workshop for silkscreen; relief; lithography and etching; ceramics hand building studio; electric wheels; indoor gas and electric kilns. There is the opportunity for development of existing skills and areas of interest, together with the facility for expanding their current portfolio of skills through practical curriculum workshops, assisted by the studio staff.
Placements
24 weeks are spent on placement: a total of eight weeks in one placement during the autumn term and 16 weeks in a second placement during the spring and summer.
As well as teaching, the programme includes contact time with a Senior Professional Tutor and a Subject Mentor, directed study time and personal study time.
There is an opportunity to spend time in a primary school and some students may also visit other institutions, such as special schools or colleges of further education.
Assessment
In order to pass the course, you are required to pass each unit. You are assessed on a number of written assignments and also on classroom practice against the standards specified by the Secretary of State for the award of QTS. Before the end of the course it is recommended that trainees take the computer-based QTS skills tests in Numeracy, Literacy and ICT which are set by the Training and Development Agency (TDA)