PGCE Sciences

Typical course content

Our PGCE Secondary course will equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge to teach science across the secondary age range, including some opportunities to know more about 16-19 teaching. Candidates should note that the majority of schools in the Southampton partnership serve 11-16 cohorts and access to post16 experience is limited.

Two-thirds of your time will be spent in schools (minimum of 120 days) with the remainder spent at the University with a full programme of lectures, seminars and tutorials. You will spend time in real classrooms during your school experience. You will gradually be introduced into whole class teaching; initially it is likely that you will observe lessons and work with small groups of pupils. The expectation though is that you will quickly develop the skills and confidence to work with whole classes, with the support of your school-based mentor.

Our course aims to prepare you to play an effective role in the work of a school or college science department. The central focus of the course is on teaching science in a challenging yet accessible way, understanding how children learn, and to produce reflective practitioners through engaging in personal, critical reflection and evaluation. We believe that this is best done by working from your own subject knowledge and skills while also having the ability to teach material from the sciences which lie beyond your specialism. In a combined effort from the university and our partnership schools, you develop your subject knowledge in science through a range of approaches: workshops, seminars, lectures, practicals and demonstrations, simulations and micro-teaching activities, independent and group research.

You will work as a member of different groups during the university-based part of the course. In a specialist science group (biology, chemistry or physics), you will consider how learning in your specialist area may be encouraged and how key concepts may be integrated into school science courses. As a member of a mixed science group, you will work with students from the other two specialist groups, examining ways of promoting learning across the sciences, and carrying out a range of tasks related to teaching school science.

Please note: This specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the programme and the learning outcomes that a typical student might reasonably be expected to achieve and demonstrate if s/he takes full advantage of the learning opportunities that are provided. More detailed information can be found in the programme handbook (or other appropriate guide or website).