PGCE in Information and Communication Technology

The School Centred Initial Teacher Training PGCE programme in Information and Communication Technology sets out to introduce students to a range of strategies for teaching ICT. It is envisaged that students will join the Course from diverse range of academic and industry/commerce backgrounds with a wide range of IT skills. These skills should be in the underpinning theories as well as software use. The Course will audit these skills and build upon them to produce teachers capable of delivering ICT courses from 11 to 18 years. Skills training will be an individualised process for each student. The programme will also enable the teacher to become familiar with the many forms of ICT in schools. Students will also be able to help colleagues develop the use of ICT within other National Curriculum subjects.

Students will acquire knowledge about key concepts in teaching and learning ICT as well as the current formal arrangements for the assessment of ICT within the context of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 3, 4 and Post 16. They will be able to see progression from Key Stage 2 through the compulsory secondary years to the continuing developments at Post 16. A key feature of the PGCE programme is an emphasis on action learning and on the use of local resources to provide learning contexts for ICT applications to enhance learning in the subject area. To help develop these skills and place them into a real world context there is a short Industrial/Community placement.