Developing work at Masters level

Integrating Masters Level Work into the PGCE

Masters level PGCE courses are situated in a dual contexts and involve dual outcomes. For trainees to achieve the QTS standards a heavy emphasis needs to be placed on practical teaching experience. learning how to manage in the MFL classroom. Theoretical elements implicitly underpin ‘good practice’. However, writing at M level requires the development of capacities of critical reflection, analysis and articulation. The M level PGCE is a professional and not an academic Masters degree, delivering both a nationally recognised qualification (QTS) and Masters' Level credits.

It may seem that these requirements create two different kinds of demands on the trainee, who need both to manage the practical teaching and to write academically at M. Level. Their M level writing needs to be both informed by practice and to show development in the practice. Writing at M level in ITT includes articulating the applied theoretical elements and critical reflection on professional learning.

ITT tutors may come to these developments in the PGCE new to M. Level teaching, or with considerable experience. What is new for us all is the way in which the M level needs to be conceived in terms of professional learning, so that the trainee does not experience a split between the evidence and research informed contexts and skills developed primarily by university tutors, and the experience of practical teaching in school.

Resource support

The material in this section is intended to support the development of this integrated approach to the new M level PGCE:

Power Point Presentation: Integrating Masters Level Work into the PGCE
Editorial review and full paper download: Trends in modern foreign language initial teacher education – the role of higher education, Lawes, S. (2002) Language Learning Journal, 25, pp 40-45
Background to current work: The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)
The abstracts of these articles indicate further reading on the topic of scholarly teaching and learning (Sotl):
1. Reconsidering Graduate Students’ Education as Teachers: "It Takes a Department!", Heidi Barnes, 2001, The Modern Language Journal 85 (4), 512–530.
2. Toward a Socioliterate Approach to Second Language Teacher Education, John S. Hedgcock, 2002, The Modern Language Journal 86 (3), 299–317.
3. Teacher Learning: Towards a Professional Academy, Daly, C., Pachler N., Teaching in Higher Education, Volume 9, Number 1, January 2004 , 99-111.

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