The course develops through the four themes of Part A. Education studies, Part B. Curriculum studies, Part C. Discipline studies and Part D. Professional experience. The nature and proportion of units required among these themes will differ depending upon your specialisation.
- A. Education studies
These studies are the nexus for the Bachelor of Education (Honours) course and focus on the core discipline of education including an examination of the learning and teaching relationship, fostering of positive behaviour, and classroom practice. You will build your professional skills, knowledge and understanding of teaching through a process of personal inquiry into effective teaching practice. practices. These units will challenge you to consider global and local influences on education to ensure the relevance of your teaching. You will build a deep understanding of learners, families, schools and communities. Societal trends are explored as well as how to effectively engage local communities, parents and carers. In the final year of the course you will consider your personal role as a change agent in the profession. You will consider how you may contribute to continuous improvement through processes of professional learning and individual and collaborative leadership efforts, as you transition from a pre-service to beginning teacher.
- B. Curriculum studies
With a focus on the Victorian curriculum, these units will provide you with the discipline specific pedagogies, covering Years 7-10 curriculum, as well as specific pedagogy appropriate for teaching to Year 12 in a particular discipline/s. Through these studies, you will develop the knowledge and skills you will need to become a skilled and effective educator who is able to draw on an ever-growing and flexible repertoire of strategies to suit particular children, educational contexts and learning outcomes. You will learn how to design, plan and implement engaging learning experiences in order to meet diverse learners' needs. You will develop your own knowledge and skills in key learning areas relevant to the educational level of your specialisation, deepening your understanding of teaching and learning strategies, theories and practices related to the subjects you will be teaching.
If you are enrolled in the Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Secondary Health and Physical Education, you will be prepared to teach in three secondary teaching areas: Health, Physical Education and one other area of your choice.
If you are enrolled in the Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Secondary Education course, you will be prepared to teach in two secondary teaching areas. You will also be required to successfully complete a unit that develops skills in teaching literacy and numeracy across the curriculum, ensuring you have the skills and abilities to share in the responsibility of educating literate and numerate learners.
- C. Discipline studies
The discipline studies units are designed to develop your content knowledge in the key learning areas that you will be teaching in schools or other education settings. Offered as integrated curriculum/discipline studies in the Early Childhood-Primary and Primary specialisations, and as a standalone discipline studies sequence in all other specialisations, these units will provide you with a focused sequence of study, that will deepen and advance your knowledge in your teaching specialist areas. The number of units completed in this sequence is unique to each specialisation and accordingly aligns and reflects the different needs of the Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary school sectors.
- D. Professional experience
Integral to the course, the professional experience opportunities have been designed as a developmental learning sequence that you will engage with at every stage of your course. The professional experience component is an opportunity for you to build connections between the education, curriculum and discipline theme unit content and apply these in a professional context. You will operate within a particular social and legislative environment unique to your placement setting, and you will interact with sector professionals as you work collaboratively with them whilst on placement. An opportunity to further explore these professional elements is facilitated through your Research project in education and the Teaching Performance Assessment.
