Science

Introduction

The SWTT Consortium has been training secondary teachers since 1993 . The partnership comprises of 20 successful Secondary Schools in the South West. The majority of these schools have been awarded Technology School status. The Lead School is West Exe Technology College , a Triple Specialism Technology College which has undergoine a multimillion pound total redevelopment.

Course Details

The School Centred Initial Teacher Training PGCE programme in Science sets out to introduce students to a range of strategies for teaching Science. It is envisaged that students will join the Course from a diverse range of academic and industrial or commercial backgrounds, with a wide range of Science skills. The Course will audit and build upon these skills to produce teachers capable of delivering the full range of Science courses from 11 to 18 years. The programme will enable the teacher to become familiar with the many forms of Science in schools. Students will also be able to help colleagues develop the use of Science within other National Curriculum subjects.

Students will acquire knowledge about key concepts in teaching and learning Science, as well as the current formal arrangements for the assessment of Science within the context of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 3, 4 and Post 16. They will be able to see progression from Key Stage 2, through the compulsory secondary years, to the continuing development at Post 16. A key feature of the PGCE programme is an emphasis on action learning and on the use of local resources to provide learning contexts for Scientific processes to enhance learning in the subject area. To help develop these skills and place them into a real world context, there is a short resource building task, where the students produce a science based video broadcast / tutorial.

Students will develop and record their personal skills, knowledge and capability in Science through a structured Science Subject Knowledge Audit. This will be used to help establish areas of expertise and areas for personal development. As with other aspects of the PGCE programme, the materials used will be progressive and build upon the skills of each student and their experiences in two school placements.

The PGCE programme aims to produce reflective teachers who are able to evaluate and further develop their own subject and teaching skills.