Bachelor of Education (Primary) (43B)

In the first year of your Bachelor of Education you will complete 8 compulsory units.

In your second year you will complete 8 compulsory units and a 20 day professional experience placement in ESH101 Professional Experience 1.

In your third year you will complete 7 compulsory units, 1 unit towards your teaching proficiency and a 30 day professional experience placement in ESH200 Professional Experience 2.

Your teaching proficiency unit will depend on your intended proficiency. Descriptions of each proficiency are provided at the bottom of this schedule. You should consider your choice carefully and seek academic advice if you are uncertain of your intended proficiency.

English: ESH314 Literature, Multimodality and MediaLanguages: ESH311 Languages TeachingMathematics: ESH321 Mathematics for Middle School

In your fourth year you will complete 6 compulsory units, 2 units specific to your teaching proficiency and a 30 day professional experience placement in ESH300 Professional Experience 3.

The English proficiency pathway will provide you with a deeper subject knowledge of English, an enhanced enthusiasm and confidence for teaching English, and an appreciation for the role of all aspects of English in our broader culture. Teacher expertise in English and Literacy is one of the key demands from prospective employers. Taking this proficiency will provide a pathway for leadership in English and Literacy in your schools. It is also anticipated that graduates with a specialisation in English will purposefully contribute to reinforcing literacy outcomes for students across the primary curriculum.

In our core units, you are introduced to the three strands of the English curriculum: Language, Literacy, and Literature. The proficiency units expand upon what you have learned in the core units. Some topics will be explored in more depth in the new units, such as spelling, grammar, and writing. Other topics will be explored more broadly, such as Australian literature, screen studies, and performance. There will also be new topics, such as digital fiction, and the study of creative writing for children.

The first proficiency unit is Literature, Multimodality and Media. In this unit we aim for you to develop a deep appreciation of the changing nature of English by considering how images, sounds, movement, and space contribute to the meaning-making in narratives. You will study multimodal literature including picture books, film and digital literature. This will include the ways in which new literacies and technologies have impacted narrative. You will also learn multimodal approaches to pedagogy, such as performance and drama.

The second proficiency unit is Linguistics for Literacy. In this unit you will learn more about the research base underpinning the essential components of effective early reading and writing instruction, with a particular focus on spelling, and develop a sound knowledge of the metalinguistic foundations of the English language. You will have opportunities to go more in depth with the pedagogy, and create your own classroom resources.

The third proficiency unit is The World of Children’s Books. In this unit you will learn from leading Australian scholars about the world of writing for young people. You will explore how children’s books are read, written, and published. This unit explores the diverse and challenging world of writing for children and young adults. Through a variety of genres—such as picture books, graphic and prose novels, and short stories—you will investigate how books for young people deal with the big themes of growing up and living in a changing and challenging world.

Your final proficiency unit will be Teachers as Reflective Practitioners and Action Researchers. This unit will provide you with the opportunity to recognise the role that reflection plays in forming a link between the conceptual and theoretical bases of teaching and learning.

In your final year you will be expected to teach English in your final placement and focus upon this area for your GTPA final placement task. Your assessment within the English pathway will require you to demonstrate expert content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and highly effective classroom teaching. To gain entry to this pathway you will need to have successfully passed ESH110 and ESH210.

The Australian Curriculum: Languages suggests that learning a language enables the participant to develop a deeper understanding about a community’s social, economic and international capabilities. On a personal level, learning a language provides the learner with, firstly, an ability to communicate, but more widely an ability to understand other cultures thus developing intercultural competencies that supports members of our increased globalised world to participate more meaningfully - socially, personally and culturally. Intercultural understanding is a foundation for developing positive attitudes towards cultural difference and offers opportunities to experience other points of view and ways of seeing the world. Language learning is, in this sense, a pathway towards greater cultural awareness in young learners.

There is a developing understanding of the importance of Languages as part of a balanced curriculum amongst Australian educational precincts. As examples, Victoria require, as a condition of school registration, that all school include Languages instruction, all schools in the ACT are required to provide a languages program, Queensland schools are encouraged, through a global schools through languages program, to support languages learning and in NSW specific language centres have been developed to support languages learning and access to learning programs. In Tasmanian schools, external providers are beginning to provide schools with opportunities for languages learning. The Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA), “ My Chinese Teacher’ and Education Perfect programs are providing such opportunities and it is necessary that classroom teachers have understandings of good practice for languages learning to be able to support, to reflect upon and to review the impact of programs on learners.

As a provider of teachers across Australia it is important that our pre-service teachers are prepared to be part of such a community.

Choosing a Language pathway will involve:

• The completion of the prerequisite unit, ESH215.

• Completing ESH311: Languages Teaching. This unit will build upon your pedagogical content knowledge:

The unit will investigate the principles and practicalities of teaching a foreign language within a primary school context. The unit will include evaluation and application of Languages teaching and learning theory and contemporary language teaching methodologies. Existing understandings, skills and processes to plan and implement Language teaching and learning experiences into the primary school curriculum will be built upon. In this unit you will develop understandings about supporting Languages in the primary school and associated curriculum frameworks.

• Selecting a Language from the availabilities and completing 1A and 1B in your 4th year to develop content knowledge and more confident personal language fluency.

• Completing ESH304 – a unit enabling reflection on your Languages proficiency

• Securing some Languages teaching experience in your final school placement through a short program.

Mathematics is a key learning area for all students in primary schools. Mathematics is essential for an individual to fully participate in society as well as to access STEM based subjects in higher education.

The Mathematics Proficiency Pathway is intended to provide specialist knowledge in the teaching and learning of mathematics in primary and middle schools, by addressing two areas of demand:

The development of expert content and pedagogical content knowledge for a classroom teacher.

It is widely recognised that a teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) impacts on student learning. The Mathematics Proficiency Pathway is intended to prepare you for teaching across a wider range of age groups, both to develop your own content knowledge (CK) and to extend your PCK across the horizon by helping appreciate where learning has stemmed from and where it is going.

The development of skills relevant to the role of a mathematics coordinator in a primary school.

A mathematics coordinator (or numeracy leader) has a key role in developing whole school approaches for teaching mathematics and numeracy. The Mathematics Proficiency Pathway is intended to develop your passion for mathematics, critique recent research and initiatives in pedagogical practices, and review whole school approaches to teaching mathematics.

Content of the mathematics pathway:

The Mathematics Proficiency Pathway consists of three additional mathematics specialist units (linked to an additional reflection unit) intended to complement and build on the three core mathematics units taken by all students in the BEd Primary Programme. These additional proficiency units are intended to address dimensions of higher order CK and PCK in relation to middle school mathematics, inclusive practices, and an understanding of issues across whole school planning and assessment. These units will provide you with greater confidence and the mathematical vision to lead the teaching of mathematics in your school.

Description of the content and rationale of each of the mathematics units:

ESH321 Mathematics in the Middle School: Deepen content knowledge (CK) relevant to middle school mathematics; extend PCK in the teaching of topics such as integers, proportional reasoning, geometry, statistics and algebra; use a range of media for teaching and assessment such as digital technologies.

ESH321 builds upon the content knowledge developed in ESH120 by extending confidence in CK beyond the primary grades. ESH321 also complements ESH220 and ESH320 by exploring student learning and PCK across an extended range of grades.

ESH322 Inclusive Mathematics: Extend PCK by challenging established practices for differentiation, such as ability grouping, in mathematics classrooms; examine equitable strategies to support inclusion including the use of questioning, classroom talk and communication, and use of a range of resources and media.

ESH322 develops the initial review of strategies for differentiation in ESH220 and ESH320 and extends PCK in relation to inclusive equitable practices that will impact on a range of learners.

ESH323 Issues in Mathematics Teaching: Explores the focus and structure of ACARA numeracy progressions; uses the numeracy progressions to inform whole school planning for mathematics across units and year groups; examines the role of assessment in whole school development; explores issues such as the integration of numeracy across the curriculum;

ESH323 develops PCK beyond that of a classroom teacher to appreciate whole school issues and develop a broader understanding of theoretical and societal perspectives.