TE0490 - Enhanced Curriculum Studies 1

In Enhanced Curriculum Studies 1 your learning will be experiential and collaborative as you are introduced to communities of practice. This will enable you to develop an understanding of the basic concepts and principles that underpin subject and pedagogical knowledge across all of the subject enhancement areas. You will work with peers and individually on formative projects which will enable you to consider the role of these subjects within the curriculum. Supported virtual and off-site visits and experiences will enable you to experience the potential of learning through educational visits. Tutor led sessions will support your study as you seek to develop an understanding of the nature of your off-site learning with the early and primary education and in contemporary society. Involvement in Conference Week will challenge your thinking and develop your ability to justify your own opinions. You will be encouraged to make full use of established social and professional networking tools in addition to the online resources provided by the University and Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums to enhance your learning and support your academic and professional development, a central aspect of this will be the utilisation of the eLP. You will learn through university-based collaborative sessions which aim to underpin professional learning with academic knowledge and increasingly critical understanding.

As with all other modules on your programme, successful academic achievement requires a system of robust support and guidance to help you focus on your learning needs. In addition to the pastoral support you will receive, the tutors involved in delivering this module will provide guidance and academic counselling to ensure that you are able to confidently engage with the academic rigour of this module. This dialogue will be face-to-face in collaborative groups, in small online learning communities, lectures, workshops or individual tutorials and is an essential aspect of the programme’s assessment for learning strategy. There are also extensive peer-support opportunities built into this module as you work collaboratively with peers from the same subject enhancement area. Extensive support is also accessible online as part of the University’s commitment to technology enhanced learning. This employs the use of the e-learning portal (Blackboard including Pebble+) and social networking and collaborative tools.

A central feature of the academic support available to you is the service provided by the University Library. This 24/7 service caters for all your learning needs, has extensive access to electronic texts and tutorials that will directly support the development of academic skills aimed at improving your critical thinking and analytical writing.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

Knowledge & Understanding:
• Evaluate and interpret concepts and principles of teaching and learning within the subject enhancement areas of the curriculum
• Begin to develop subject knowledge within the subject enhancement areas primary curriculum
• Evaluate and interpret international approaches and perspectives to learning across the primary age phase

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
• Develop arguments to support key approaches and techniques to teaching and learning outside the classroom

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
• Begin to develop transferrable skills and consider your own strengths and areas for development within collaborative group work

Summative Assessment

An visual presentation with accompanying reflective portfolio and enhancement application will form 100% (33 / 33 / 34%) of your summative assessment for this module.

The presentation is designed to enable you to demonstrate your learning drawn for the core experiences in the module. You will explore your learning in broad terms but will focus significantly on those aspects that have informed your choice of subject enhancement for this module in Years 2 & 3.

Proposed (Draft) Assignment Title:

Drawing on your reflective portfolio, share your learning within this module and how this has influenced your choice of subject enhancement.

None

Educational Placements 1
Professional Studies 1
Curriculum Studies 1
Educational Research and Enquiry 1

This module provides you with a broad and balanced knowledge of the basic subject and pedagogical theories and concepts relating to the subject enhancement areas. You will begin to explore the delivery of these subjects through physical and virtual educational visits and guided experience with Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums. You will have opportunities to consider education from a range of perspectives through engagement in lectures and workshops, lead by academic staff from within the faculty of Health and Life Sciences and beyond , during Conference Week. Much of your work will take the form of independent collaborative ‘project’ learning which will enable you to develop key transferrable skills. Your assessment for this module takes the form of a presentation through which you will share your learning and the learning that has led you to choose a specific area of enhancement to follow for the next two years of this module.