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Module

EDU8325 : Developing critical perspectives on teaching thinking skills (Primary)

  • Offered for Year: 2024/25
  • Module Leader(s): Mr Fred Clark
  • Lecturer: Mrs Susan O'Hagan, Dr Gail Edwards
  • Owning School: Education, Communication & Language Sci
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 1 Credit Value: 10
Semester 2 Credit Value: 10
ECTS Credits: 10.0
European Credit Transfer System

Aims

Module Summary:

This module introduces students to the practice of teaching thinking, theories of metacognition, the significance of dialogue for learning and the relevant research evidence.

This module has two key practice components:

1)Developing and trialing a teaching thinking skills intervention within the context of subject teaching
2)Using lesson study as a collaborative approach to support this process and ensure critical engagement with the outcomes

Aims:

a)To provide a theoretical and practical grounding in metacognition and teaching thinking skills
b)To ensure students can demonstrate the attributes, skills, knowledge and understanding that make up the Teachers’ Standards for Qualified Teacher Status as set out by the Department of Education
c)To enable students to develop as critical and analytical teachers through their reflective practice and engagement with research related to teaching thinking skills pedagogies
d)To allow students to develop as new teachers through collaborative planning and peer review
e)To enable students to enter the teacher profession with the capacity to continue to explore and develop pedagogic practices within changing policy frameworks contexts

Outline Of Syllabus

Understanding what is meant by metacognition and its role in learning
Introduction to practical strategies for teaching thinking
Developing an understanding of the significance of classroom talk in developing thinking and engaging in productive learning
The relationship between teaching thinking and subject pedagogy; opportunities and constraints as exposed in practice and research
The nature of lesson study as a professional development process
Learning from collaborative planning and peer review
The use of reflective and evaluative enquiry tools to understand the efficacy of teaching thinking skills

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Placement/Study AbroadEmployer-based learning128:0096:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture111:0011:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion125:0025:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyDirected research and reading120:0020:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesSmall group teaching311:0031:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyReflective learning activity110:0010:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study17:007:00N/A
Total200:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

It is important that students develop critical perspectives on a range of specific pedagogies, to make sense of their potential and constraints within specific subject disciplines and learning contexts. This process is being modelled through developing a robust practical and theoretical understanding of teaching thinking skills and the expected impact on student learning. This requires not only an awareness and capacity to engage with various theoretical ideas and concepts, but importantly the opportunity to debate and reflect on the meaning and implications of such ideas for their own situation and practice. Integrated readings introduce key issues and contexts from research, theory and practice which form the basis for taught sessions where students are able to discuss and reflect upon these questions in an informed way. The taught sessions introduce both pedagogical theory and methods, and tools for planning and evaluating learning. These can then be used by the students to support the process of lesson study, an approach to professional development through which students will practice collaborative planning, peer review and the scrutiny of practice evidence. This model of practitioner enquiry is consistent across modules and combines professional learning with criticality and evaluative skills. It is also forms a means through which student teachers access the Teacher Standards (QTS).

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Portfolio2M100Word count 4,000
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

N/A

Reading Lists

Timetable