Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (Teaching Post-16 and Further Education)

This module will equip you with initial and essential skills to enable you to prepare and ready yourself for initial teaching practice in your subject. During this module you will be introduced to the theories and principles of teaching, learning and assessment relevant to Vocational, Academic and SEND teaching. You will be encouraged to make connections between theory and practice. This module is the initial introduction to teaching practice, which is designed to prepare you to promote inclusive attitudes and values in their learning environments and within the content that you prepare and teach. This module looks at the skills needed to enable the trainee teacher, tutor or trainer to be a successful teacher in the Education and Training. The module content is designed to introduce you to the skills and knowledge required for everyday teaching and learning in your subject area will include:

• The roles, responsibilities and boundaries of the teacher
• The context of the education sectors
• Legislation, regulations and policy and procedure
• Inclusive teaching and learning strategies
• Equality of opportunity
• Effective planning to mitigate factors influencing learning

This module looks at ‘Who my learners are’ and is intended to explore the breadth of FE learners and their journeys into FE. It is predicated on the idea that teachers who are aware of where learners are coming from, are more able to adapt teaching to their needs. Additionally FE is a very broad sector this modules endeavours to alert trainees to the scope of the potential role in FE. This module is designed to develop your skills in your own professional context to be able to design, plan and assess learning. This will be based on the principles and theories of assessment, including:

• Principles of assessment
• Enabling learning through assessment
• Planning to meet the needs of learners
• Understanding inclusive learning and teaching and barriers to achievement

This module will build on ‘Learners and Learning’. The progressive rationale is that consideration of “who my learners are”, feeds into how they learn, and similarly, discussion runs into “how do I choose to teach”?

This unit will develop your sense of the responsibility for making decisions as to what takes place in the classroom/workshop. You will have opportunities to look at the psychological theories surrounding learning so that you have an appreciation of the parameters of human learning. You will be expected to have a familiarity with established theory (Piaget, Vygotsky, Skinner/Watson, Guilford, etc), and the relevant critiques. Likewise, in terms of teaching, you are expected to explore contemporary pedagogy and to engage with current work in the area: Thomas, O’Leary, Hattie, etc.

You should have a grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, recognising that none is a formula and all approaches have nuances.

This module will look at your own personal digital skills, the range of Ed Tech available to teachers and how to manage managing digital delivery (i.e how tutors can create both synchronous and asynchronous learning materials). It will introduce you to the key approaches and theories relating to online teaching and learning.

You will critically engage with the principles of online pedagogy in both theory and in practice, studying the recent work and learning theory of academics such as Diana Laurillard and Richard Mayer, before examining how these frameworks can be applied in practice.

This holistic approach ensures that, by the end of the module, you will have developed the appropriate level of competence in Digital Skills and Educational Technology for your own practice.

This module positions the teacher in education and training as an agent of change, building resilience and self-efficacy in learners. The module emphasises the holistic nature of learner needs, to enable you to promote learners’ personal attributes of confidence, autonomy and long-term employability. The concepts of inclusivity and differentiated approaches to teaching and learning are fundamental to becoming a responsive teacher, and depend upon a foundational understanding of how people learn.

This module builds upon the previous modules by further developing your understanding of established and emerging theories and models of teaching and learning. You will draw upon this knowledge to evaluate the affordances to effective learning and the impact of potential barriers, both internal and external.

The module considers ways in which to challenge and mitigate barriers to learning in the context of day-to-day practice, including behaviour management and safeguarding. This module reinforces the application of theoretical knowledge to effective, responsive teaching, learning and assessment.

The content of this module focuses on supporting you to develop and demonstrate the required skills to teach effectively in the Further Education and Skills (FES) Sector. You will be given a range of tasks and opportunities that will contribute to the development of the required portfolio as outlined by the Education and Training Foundation. Specific content of the module and approaches will reflect the emerging needs of the cohort and the sector. You will reflect upon and track the progress of their professional practice and digital literacy skills regularly, drawing upon planned experiences, feedback, theory, and current research taught in Modules 1-5 to inform practice

Through regular reflection, you will develop focused actions and creative solutions to develop your professional practice and enhance the learner experience. Throughout the professional Professional Practice module, you will develop the skills and knowledge required to make judgements as to the suitability of learning, teaching, and assessment strategies, and learn how to identify and respond to the needs of learners. You will develop the knowledge required to take appropriate action to guard the safety and well-being of learners, the skills required to promote a positive view of inclusion, and confidence in promoting positive student behaviour and attitudes. You will engage in a variety of experiences to broaden your understanding of the sector and wider roles of a teacher, and have the opportunity to experience and practise a variety of delivery methods, including face-to-face, blended, synchronous online, asynchronous online, and hybrid delivery.

Learning from the experiences and specific events or scenarios you encounter will be captured in a Professional Practice Portfolio and through the completion of a series of themed reflections. You will be supported to reflect upon general pedagogy and approaches to teaching of your subject specialism in regular meetings with a Subject Mentor and Personal Tutor. The summative assessment tasks reflect the national requirements of the profession, these need to be passed alongside meeting the placement requirements as indicated by the Education and Training Foundation in order to gain the teaching qualification.