Diploma in Education and Training

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Teaching and Learning

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement.  A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of lecturer input; collaborative, interactive group work and individual coaching.

The course will allow you to apply theory from taught sessions to your practice in the classroom.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in each academic year.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have around 4 contact hours of teaching. Typically, class contact time will be structured around:

• Short lectures
• Group activities
• Tutorial support

 

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 6 hours of personal self-study per week.  Typically, this will involve reading and research, assignment writing, preparation for teaching observations.

A range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources, supports independent learning. 

 

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes Jane Sisk, Andrew Thompson, Craig Tucker, Sarah Ward, Christine Watson and Trevor Wright.

Teaching is based on research and consultancy, and 85 per cent of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. Trevor Wright is a Senior Teaching Fellow. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Formative assessment tasks will generate evidence that can be used for summative portfolios.  Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments, which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.  

Assessment methods include presentations, observation and the development of online reflective portfolios.

A typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1
3 mini- portfolios (3 module commentaries with evidence samples)
4 observed teaching practice session

Year 2
3 mini- portfolios (3 module commentaries with evidence samples)
4 observed teaching practice session

 

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments, teaching practice and on formal coursework assessments. Feedback will support your learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Employability

The course has very high success rates (97%) and employability rates are excellent with significant numbers of trainees who move from part-time to full-time employment and full-time tutors who move into further career opportunities.

The programme also enables progression on to the final year of the Education Studies BA (Hons) (for those who haven’t got a degree already) delivered at the University of Worcester (additional credits at 4 and 5 are required to access the final year of the degree and opportuities are provided to gain these). There is also possible progression to Masters Level programmes for those who have a degree. A Diploma in Teaching English (Literacy and ESOL) is offered to current and former DET trainees.

Last Ofsted Report

What the Ofsted inspectors said were the key strengths of the PCET partnership in March 2014:

• Training across the partnership is of good quality. Some features are outstanding.
• Trainees develop strong teaching skills and understand very well the elements of good and better teaching. They are able to identify their learners’ varying needs.
• Very high success rates for trainees which have risen since the previous inspection, from 80% in 2009/10, to 97% in 2012/13.
• Trainees use successful and imaginative strategies to develop their students skills in English and Mathematics, as well as their students’ wider employability skills.
• Trainees are becoming thoughtful, effective teachers who are making good or better progress in meeting the professional standards for FE practitioners.
• A very high proportion of trainees either obtain full time employment, promotion, or increased responsibility following their training. They go on to work in the region, and the provision is making a good contribution to meeting regional skills needs.
• Trainees have very high level of trust in, and respect for, their trainers, mentors and university link tutors. They benefit from exceptionally high levels of personal support.
• Mentors play a very significant part in trainees’ development into confident and high quality teachers and trainers.

This course is delivered part-time and full-time at Halesowen College, or part-time at the University of Worcester.

If you would like to apply for Halesowen College please email the Tutor, Sarah Ward, at sward@halesowen.ac.uk.

To apply part-time at the University of Worcester for please complete our online application form.