472-204 Schools: Challenges and Innovations

476-100 Learning and Teaching; 476-101 Curriculum and Assessment; 482-101 Education Policy, Schools and Society

460-203 School Experience and Practice Teaching 2T

This subject investigates current challenges and innovations in schools. It involves a rethinking of structures and processes set within a theoretical framework drawn from curriculum theory, education policy, sociology and philosophy. Students will explore issues such as the needs of students in the middle years of schooling (Years 5 to 9), catering for the learning and welfare needs of a diverse student population, the rethinking of traditional subjects to produce a thinking curriculum, new learning theories such as multiple intelligences and enactivism, problem-based learning as a vehicle for developing self-sufficient learners, calls for the internationalisation of the curriculum, the impact of innovations in information and communication technologies, the provision of vocational education and training in secondary schools, the desire to build collaborative learning communities in schools, critical and feminist pedagogies and their role in challenging curriculum conventions and postmodern perspectives and the disappearance of truths and certainties. Students will have opportunities to work in small teams to investigate particular problems of interest to themselves and to the school communities in which they undertake their school experience placement in Semester 1.

Two assessment tasks totalling 4000 words (each worth 50%)