Five Initial Teacher Education Programmes accredited by the General Teaching Council for Scotland
Our Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes at Aberdeen aim to support student teachers as they embark on their professional journey of becoming a critically responsive, reflective practitioner who facilitates the learning of children and young people.
Our four-year undergraduate programme in Primary Teaching, MA (Hons), as well as PGDE Primary and Secondary programmes (full-time and part-time DLITE), has been successfully accredited again by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS).
Our re-structured programmes continue to provide high quality, ‘fit for purpose’ student experiences which are innovative and enquiry-based to prepare students for the first phase of their professional lives. We continue to deliver academic excellence as well as enabling our students to achieve a professional qualification by meeting the Standard for Provisional Registration with GTCS and enter their induction year with confidence.
We will provide a flexible approach to the education of trainee teachers in order to meet the developing educational needs of pupils for the 21st Century. With collaborative learning (on-campus and online) and a commitment to providing opportunities for breadth and depth, all students can develop academically and the skills, competences, knowledge and attitudes necessary for successful entry into the teaching profession. We work in partnership with schools across a number of Local Authorities.
We will enhance the student experience through providing a range of opportunities for learning underpinned by the following principles: Developing skills for critical self-evaluation; Providing student choice and flexibility; Encouraging collaborative working; Understanding the value of engaging in professional enquiry; Enabling shared understandings through support and challenge; Using a research base to inform professional learning. Key pedagogical features of our new programmes include:
- Innovative blended learning course design - combining, where appropriate, intensive blocks of face-to-face collaborative learning on campus and weeks of ‘anytime-anywhere’ learning online.
- In year four of MA and PGDE Primary full-time, extended school placements support experiential learning.
- Learning in Context (LinC) Tutors in Primary programmes will provide advice and support both on campus and during school experience on Placement+ Days (non-class contact days during placement when students meet with their tutor and peers via online collaborative sessions, creating time to discuss, reflect and make connections between theory and practice).
- Engaging with pedagogy and curricular studies through creative inter-disciplinary contexts and methodologies.
- Problem-based learning, explored through key questions, critical incidents and school-based scenarios.
- Personalised practitioner enquiry, establishing an understanding of the professional power of ongoing critical reflection.
ITE students will engage with a learning continuum to develop an understanding of the socio-cultural context; themselves as a lifelong learner; the origins, purpose and nature of education; the historical and political context of Scottish Education, current issues, policy drivers and practices; children and young people and the communities in which they live and the school as part of that community; research informed approaches to teaching and learning; towards becoming a critically, reflective, responsive practitioner as they enter the profession.