476-839 Education Studies

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Subject Description

This program has three components: Lectures/seminars, electives and groups. Students are able to make significant choices within these components based upon interests they wish to develop within a common framework.

Group program: Students will select a group program. Each group offers a program of activities designed to develop the ideas, interests and skills introduced by staff and group members. Groups will meet for 3 hours each week throughout the year.

Lecture/seminar program: Lecturers/seminars will be offered throughout the year in each of the areas outlined below. (Total of 3 hours per week).

Studies in Educational Thought; An academic study of philosophical problems arising from educational issues. Topics will be selected from the following: The national curriculum, the concept of education, education and knowledge, values and moral issues in education, teacher authority and student interests.

Social, Political and Organisational Themes: Education occurs in a milieu which is shaped in very powerful ways by a complex array of political, economic, legal, technological, socio-cultural and demographic forces. These forces as they are encountered today have, in turn, been shaped by what has occurred in the past and will shape what occurs in the future. These forces are, to a large extent, global in their scope, suggesting that developments in Victoria should be examined in a long-term national and international perspective. The seminars are concerned with perspectives and issues that prospective teachers can be expected to face in their school placements and will face in the future.

Educational Psychology/Special Education: This area is concerned with the application of principles of psychology to classroom learning and teaching; with individual learner characteristics and their effects on educational achievement, including teaching children with special needs in the regular classroom; and with child and adolescent development including physical growth and maturation, cognitive and social and emotional development, including some behavioural disturbances of adolescents.

Electives: Students must complete 3 electives (six 2-hour sessions each). There will be two series of electives, one in each semester. Electives deal with issues such as cooperative learning, education for the gifted, communication skills, IT and teaching, school systems and outcomes, alternative schools, and constructing a teaching portfolio.

Assessment

Essays and assignments in each of the three components (groups, lecture/seminars and electives) totalling 15,000 words.