PGCE Secondary – Biology

Begin your career as a secondary school science teacher with this QTS–registered course.

The PGCE Secondary Biology course is the first phase of three-year entitlement for beginning teachers. The first phase of the entitlement is the Core Content Framework and this is embedded into all of our ITE courses. The PGCE Secondary Biology course is accredited by the DfE, and upon successful completion you will be recommended for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). During our last Ofsted Inspection we were graded as “Outstanding” for all aspects of our provision.

Subject pedagogy (how to teach the subject for understanding) is explored in an innovative university / partnership model known as the POD (Professional Opportunities and Development). The ITE course is delivered using a blended approach and is research informed.

The process starts with an online interactive resource which introduces a weekly theme e.g., behaviour management, assessment, SEND and inclusion (all of which are components of the Core Content Framework).

The theme is then expanded upon in relation to your science specialism in a Teaching and Learning

Community (TLC) and finally theory and application come together in the POD (Sedgefield Community College, King James 1 Academy and St Bede’s School and Sixth Form College).

Beginning teachers work in classrooms in POD schools with expert staff to develop knowledge and strategies that can be drawn upon during their own teaching placement. Subject knowledge is enhanced through work with subject specific University staff and with subject experts from the POD setting.

We believe strongly that to be able to teach successfully you must acquire a good understanding of the ‘big ideas’ of science as well as learning about how to teach science. Core Science addresses your own understanding of the key concepts underpinning science, covering substantive and procedural knowledge in detail. We utilise research and evidence-informed progression toolkits for key concepts in science to provide:

• appropriately-sequenced steps for learning progression
• diagnostic questions to reveal preconceptions and common misunderstandings
• response activities to challenge misunderstandings and encourage conceptual development

Course structure

The course is organised into three modules:

• Professional Issues in School-based Education
• Teaching and Learning in the Curriculum
• Self-directed Study

The Professional Issues in School-based Education relates to the Teacher Standards and is delivered through the Research Related Professional Practice curriculum (RRPP).

The RRPP is designed to bridge the gap between research and professional practice. It encourages trainees to focus on key subject specific threshold knowledge linked to deep thinking in terms of how to teach in order to have maximum impact on pupil learning.

Teaching and Learning in the Curriculum and Self-directed Study assignments are studied at Masters Level. The Teaching and Learning in the Curriculum Module draws on the international research expertise within the School of Education enabling student teachers to engage critically in issues relevant to the classroom and school community, particularly those that impact the success of children as learners.

The Self-directed Study module draws on aspect of teaching and learning in a small-scale action research piece of work, and links this to critical engagement with published educational research.

These Masters modules provide an opportunity to consolidate theoretical knowledge, through lectures and mixed subject and phase seminar groups taught during a Reflective Practitioner Conference. In addition to covering Teachers’ Standards, these modules will enable assessment work to be carried out for the award of PGCE.

On successful completion of the course, our beginning teachers have 90 credits and QTS.

Students who have successfully completed the PGCE at Durham in the previous academic year have the option to use 90 credits they have accredited towards a part-time MA Education. These students only need to do the core modules, Education Enquiry and the Dissertation over 2 years, to complete the course.