SDFX110 Professional Experience 1

0 cp
Co-requisite SDFD133 Understanding Learning

The aim of the first part of the Professional Experience Program is to provide preservice teachers with the opportunity to develop their understanding of the work of the teaching profession and to consider their possible futures within it. At the same time as preservice teachers are developing knowledge of themselves as learners, and extending their understanding of the disciplines that are integral to curricula, they will be experiencing a range of current teaching and learning contexts. In these settings preservice teachers will be asked to take on a number of roles in order to develop insight into the nature of the teaching profession; these might include: purposeful observer, active participant, classroom assistant. The unit will assist the students to identify learning styles and apply various strategies to cater for such learning styles and contexts. Through observation and discussion the student will be able to develop elementary teaching and management skills and to undertake some introductory activities.

 

SDFX207 Community Engagement Program

0 cp
Co-requisite SDFD221 Creating Inclusive, Safe and Supportive Schools

This is part of a sequence of Professional Experience. The Community Engagement Program aims to assist preservice teachers to understand and value diversity in its many forms enabling them to cater for diversity more effectively. The placement in a community agency, where the preservice teachers contribute to the functions of that agency, enhances the development of their understanding of the contextual factors that impact on the way in which people live their lives. The Community Engagement Program is premised on an understanding that learning is enhanced through exposure to a variety of other individuals and contexts, particularly those that present different forms of knowledge, experiences, and attitudes. To enhance critical examination, promote reflective practices and challenge established beliefs, preservice teachers are offered unfamiliar, problematic experiences which break the continuity of experiences of cumulative socialisation that often date back to their school years. Participation encourages preservice teachers to extend their understanding of the pluralistic and accessible array of non-formal educational settings such as hospitals, prisons and community centres that offer legitimate and authentic experiences for learning, and should therefore be recognised and valued. Further, it enables preservice teachers to listen to the voices of marginalised people and, through reflection, allow such experiences to impact on their personal and professional lives as engaged citizens.

 

SDFX214 Professional Experience Secondary2

0 cp
Prerequisite SDFX110 Professional Experience 1

The aim of this professional experience in ACU National’s teacher education program is to provide opportunities for preservice teachers to become immersed in the life of the school program through participation in a combination of full-day professional experiences and a Block practicum. This professional experience should develop and extend preservice teachers’ teaching, learning and management strategies. It should also provide opportunities for integration between education and professional studies undertaken at the University, and the school-based professional learning experiences.

 

SDFX312 Professional Experience Secondary 3A

0 cp
Prerequisites SDFX214 Professional Experience Secondary 2

The third year of the professional experience program builds upon the work commenced during Professional Experience Secondary 2 and extends preservice teachers’ understanding of the complexity of the teaching and learning process in regard to individual differences, cultural diversity, and context. The preservice teachers are working in their specialty areas taking lessons and building towards teaching lesson sequences, connecting the knowledge they have gained in their curriculum and teaching units to their practice. Through their placements preservice teachers are able to engage in professional learning experiences that provide opportunities for the development of new knowledge and skills, deeper cultural awareness, and professional identity.

 

SDFX313 Professional Experience Secondary 3B

0 cp
Prerequisites SDFX214 Professional Experience Secondary 2

The third year of the professional experience program builds upon the work commenced during Professional Experience Secondary 2 and extends preservice teachers’ understanding of the complexity of the teaching and learning process in regard to individual differences, cultural diversity, and context. Through placements, including rural and international settings, preservice teachers are able to engage in professional learning experiences that provide opportunities for the development of new knowledge and skills, deeper cultural awareness, and professional identity. In particular the preservice teachers are focussing on building their pedagogical knowledge and practice within their Key Learning Area/s as they teach sequences of lessons across a range of classes in secondary schools.

 

SDFX409 Internship

20 cp

This unit comprises a 10 week block of teaching incorporating a Pre-internship and Internship: Phases A, B and C. It is expected that the orientation (Phase A) will involve 5 days within the school. Phases B and C comprise 10 weeks of teaching. In Phase B students are directly supervised in their teaching. On being graded satisfactory students progress to Phase C for a sustained period of indirectly supervised teaching. This unit facilitates induction into the profession. It focuses on the identification of the professional role as one of reflective practitioner. The unit offers opportunities to extend and refine the student’s repertoire of pedagogical skills.

 

SDLA104 Communication Skills and Their Contexts

10 cp

This unit is designed to enable students to develop skills in composition and analysis of written forms of communication. As well as attending to the structure of writing, this unit assists students to identify contexts of communication and develop appropriate written styles to address these contexts. Students will also explore verbal communication and different styles of oral presentation, particularly in educational settings.

 

SDLA200 Classroom Communication Skills

10 cp

While reliance on and use of technology in communication increases in society, students need to develop verbal and non-verbal forms of communication. This unit provides the opportunity for students to further develop such skills, knowledge and strategies and to utilise these in classroom settings.

 

SDLA202 Literature and Drama for Teachers

10 cp

This unit builds on earlier units which deal with human development, learning and technology. It is designed to develop student understanding of the concepts and major issues in literacy education and to develop competence in teaching practices which are appropriate in particular school settings as well as in the context of different curriculum areas.

 

SDLA308 Australian Literature: An Indigenous Perspective

10 cp

This unit examines Australian literature, including early and contemporary Indigenous works, and the literature surrounding the challenge of a new landscape. Other issues include the search for spiritual fulfilment in an alien environment, the emergence of women’s literature, and the immigrant experience. These will be in the form of poems, short stories and excerpts from novels.

 

SDLA438 English Curriculum and Teaching 1

10 cp

This curriculum studies in English for secondary schools unit focuses on the nature, uses and structure of language as applied to the teaching of literacy in the secondary classroom. Through studying a variety of literary, non-literary and media texts, students will examine a range of principles and practices which focus on the teaching of reading, writing, speaking and listening. The unit also focuses on approaches to planning, teaching and evaluating units of work that implement relevant syllabus documents. The unit will deal with approaches to teaching English which cater for a range of students with specific language needs. The unit will develop and critically evaluate resource material for teaching and learning English and plan activities which integrate the four language modes of reading, writing, speaking and listening; and effectively provide for individual differences in mainstream English classrooms in particular, for the junior secondary years.

 

SDLA439 English Curriculum and Teaching 2

10 cp

This, the second curriculum studies unit in English, focuses on approaches to planning teaching and evaluating units of work, which implement relevant syllabus documents particularly for the senior secondary years of schooling.

 

SDRE300 Religious Education Curriculum and Teaching 1

10 cp

This unit is an introduction to religious education in Catholic or other Christian secondary schools. Key aspects of the unit are: theories about the nature and purpose of religious education in secondary schools and evaluation and critique of these various approaches; approaches to religious education in relevant diocesan curricula/guidelines; the development of basic teaching and learning strategies for secondary religious education.

 

SDRE301 Religious Education Curriculum and Teaching 2

10 cp

This unit is designed to extend the knowledge and skills developed in Curriculum and Teaching: Religious Education 1. Key aspects of the unit are: further curriculum development and evaluation processes applied to the teaching of major areas of the Catholic faith tradition; historical and contemporary approaches to religious education; the multi-faith and multi-cultural classroom in religious education; the teaching of state religious studies courses in Catholic secondary schools; moral/values education, and the religious education curriculum beyond the school.

 

SDRE306 Indigenous Spirituality 1

10 cp

The course is designed as an introduction to the area of Indigenous spirituality. The content of the unit will be mainly drawn from those Aboriginal writers, artists and elders, past and present, whose work represents an attempt towards defining or expressing their spirituality. In examining this material, emphasis will be given to developing the skills of empathetic interpretation. Attention will also be given to the idea of art as a form of spiritual expression, and the on-going dialogue between Indigenous spirituality and the formation of an Australian identity.

 

SDRE527 Religious Education Curriculum and Teaching Studies 1

10 cp

This unit is an introduction to religious education in Catholic or other Christian secondary schools. Key aspects of the unit are: theories about the nature and purpose of religious education in secondary schools and evaluation and critique of these various approaches; approaches to religious education in relevant diocesan curricula/guidelines; the development of basic teaching and learning strategies for secondary religious education.

 

SDRE528 Religious Education Curriculum and Teaching Studies 2

10 cp

This unit is designed to extend the knowledge and skills developed in Curriculum and Teaching: Religious Education 1. Key aspects of the unit are: further curriculum development and evaluation processes applied to the teaching of major areas of the Catholic faith tradition; historical and contemporary approaches to religious education; the multi-faith and multi-cultural classroom in religious education; the teaching of state religious studies courses in Catholic secondary schools; moral/values education, and the religious education curriculum beyond the school.

 

SDSS410 Basic Career Counselling Skills

10 cp

In order to assist students’ transition from school to further education, careers counselling has a critical role to play. Through careers counselling students can be assisted to develop the necessary enterprise skills and be encouraged to gather, consider and evaluate information about themselves and the world of work in order to make and implement decisions relating to their future. This unit aims to introduce the nature of enterprise and some of the theories of career counselling, and to develop some basic counselling processes.

 

SDSS411 Career and Work Education and the Community

10 cp

In this unit some of the relationships between work and career education and the community will be investigated. Focus will be on the provision of services and information by the community, together with community perceptions, attitudes, concerns and actions. ‘Community’ will be interpreted widely, to range from federal and state governments to local newspapers. Agencies which assist in career choice, preparation and training, and in meeting problems which arise from unemployment will be investigated. Much of the work done in this unit will be of an experiential nature and will reflect the locations where the students may be employed.

 

SDSS412 Career and Work Education, Curriculum and Strategies

10 cp

Approaches to and methods of teaching appropriate to work and career education will be examined in this unit. Study will involve ideas on developing self-awareness, career decision making and educational and training options. Preparation for employment and the possibility of periods of unemployment will be considered, as will the importance of career flexibility and lifelong learning to meet the challenge of workplace change.

 

SDSS413 Society, Politics, Economics, Technology and Work

10 cp

Commencing with an overview of the concept of work and nature and place of employment throughout history, the focus of the unit will shift to a study of employment in the twenty-first century. Factors impacting on the changing nature, demands and availability of employment in Australia at present and in the near future will be considered, together with the importance of voluntary work and recreational activities to both the individual and society.

 

SDSS420 History Curriculum and Teaching 1

10 cp

This unit is designed to enable students to begin to understand teaching/learning methodologies of Secondary History. With particular reference to the teaching of history in junior secondary classes, students will consider appropriate classroom strategies which enable students to evaluate sources and make judgments based on them. Students will also develop strategies to enable their pupils to effectively communicate logical arguments concerning historical issues and to research and investigate historical problems. The teaching of history as an inquiry into past human experiences which can contribute to an understanding of the present is a recurrent theme in this unit.

 

SDSS421 History Curriculum and Teaching 2

10 cp

This unit builds upon and extends the foundation work commenced in the first semester unit on history curriculum. It is designed to enable students to begin to understand teaching /learning methodologies of secondary history. With particular reference to the teaching of history in upper secondary classes, students will consider further appropriate classroom strategies which enable students to evaluate sources and make judgments based on them. Students will also continue to develop strategies to enable their pupils to effectively communicate logical arguments concerning historical issues and to research and investigate historical problems.

 

SDSS438 Society and Culture Curriculum and Teaching 1

10 cp

This unit is designed to enable students to begin to understand teaching/learning methodologies of secondary studies of society and culture. With particular reference to the teaching of society and culture in junior secondary classes, students will consider appropriate classroom strategies which enable students to evaluate sources and make judgments based on them. Students will also develop strategies to enable their pupils to communicate effectively logical arguments concerning sociological and cultural issues and to research and investigate problems. The teaching of society and culture as an inquiry into the variety of human experiences, which can contribute to an understanding of the present society, is a recurrent theme in this unit.

 

SDSS439 Society and Culture Curriculum and Teaching 2

10 cp

This unit builds upon and extends the foundation work commenced in Society and Culture Curriculum and Teaching 1. It is designed to enable students to begin to understand teaching/learning methodologies of secondary studies of society and culture. With particular reference to the teaching in upper secondary classes, students will consider further appropriate classroom strategies, which enable students to evaluate sources and make judgments based on them. Students will also continue to develop strategies to enable their pupils to effectively communicate logical arguments concerning current issues in society and to research and investigate sociological and cultural problems.