Subject Knowledge Enhancement Courses Physics

Pre-Initial Teacher Education subject knowledge enhancement courses are designed for graduates who need to develop a greater depth of subject understanding prior to commencing a PGCE programme.

Why study Subject Knowledge Enhancement Courses Physics?

Teaching and learning will include a range of methods to enhance your knowledge and understanding including tutorials, practical tasks, essays, investigations, collaborative projects and presentations. In addition, there may be opportunities for school visits, fieldwork, trips and visits to help place your subject in a wider context.

Course structure

The subject knowledge enhancement courses will aim to achieve the following objectives:

• Prepare you for the PGCE programme through highlighting issues of relevance to teaching and learning in your chosen subject.
• Inspire passion for the subject including all aspects of local, national and global developments within it.
• Develop a deep understanding of the knowledge, concepts and skills associated with your chosen subject.
• Model imaginative and creative approaches to teaching and learning, and excellent practice in assessment.
• Prepare you to teach your chosen subject up to Key Stage 4 (11 -16 year olds). The intention for the majority of subjects is that you would have the potential to teach up to A-level.

Teaching and learning will include a range of methods to enhance your knowledge and understanding including tutorials, practical tasks, essays, investigations, collaborative projects and presentations. In addition, there may be opportunities for school visits, fieldwork, trips and visits to help place your subject in a wider context.

Physics

• Full-time course commencing in January 2012 for 28 weeks.
• Four days of taught sessions and one day of self-study to complete directed tasks.
• A strong emphasis on practical work
• Modules include Mechanics & Materials, Waves, Fields, Electricity & Electromagnetism, Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics, Solar System & Cosmology, Thermal Physics, Quantum Physics & Special Relativity.

Course assessment

Assessment on the course takes two forms;

Formative Assessment (assessment which feeds into your on-going subject knowledge development)

The emphasis throughout the course is upon formative assessment of your progress in subject knowledge enhancement. This is diagnostic in its purpose and aims to provide you with constructive feedback about your performance before the course is completed. This feedback will encourage you to build upon your strengths whilst pinpointing areas which need further development.  At the end of the course you will help produce a Profile of Strengths and Areas for Development in Subject Knowledge, which will be signed by the Course Leader for the Enhancement Course.  The purpose of this is twofold; to recognise the necessity for Continuing Professional Development (C.P.D.) in subject knowledge and to identify areas that will need development during your Initial Teacher Training and at the beginning of your career.  The Profile will also indicate the marks or level at which you have passed each module.

Summative Assessment (what is required for successful Enhancement course completion)

i) You are expected to complete successfully the required tasks and assignments which relate to each module.  Details of each task and assignment, together with the submission dates and success criteria, in some cases at two levels, are made available to you at the start of each module in the Module Booklet.   Where two levels of success criteria are provided these relate to the demonstration by the student of subject knowledge at a level sufficient to teach up to GCSE (Level 1), or to AS/A2 (Level 2).  A pass at Level 1 and/or Level 2 is required in order to pass the module in question.  In addition you must have submitted and completed, to a good standard, all the formative tasks set by the tutor.

These courses are ideal for graduates who are interested in teaching a secondary priority subject but who may not necessarily have a degree in that subject. They vary in length depending on the subject and run prior to the Initial Teacher Education programme.

Teaching methods

The Enhancement Course takes place in an exceptionally well-equipped Physics laboratory, taught by a team of tutors, each with specialist expertise. The course is divided into specific modules, varying in length and style of delivery.

 During the university day you will experience different methods of teaching and learning including:

• Lectures
• Seminars. You are set tasks such as giving a presentation on a famous physicist or an application of physics and this requires you to carry out research.
• Peer Presentations. From time to time you are given presentations to prepare for the rest of the group and routinely you are asked to explain your solutions to problems to the rest of the group
• Solutions to homework explained  by you  to the rest of the course
• Laboratory work (including demonstrations, computer modelling and  experiments)
• A practical investigation of your own choice which will require initial researching before you begin the assignment associated with it.
• Problem solving
• Time for self- study and carry out the work set.
• Using IT to support your learning and future teaching.
• Laboratory ReportsYou will be required to write-up the experiments carried out for the Experimental Skills module.  These will be marked and returned to you with written & verbal feedback.
• Visits to sites of interest including an astronomical observatory and nuclear Power Station.
• The opportunity to attend weekend seminars and conferences under the auspices of the Institute of Physics.

 You will have at least 18 hours of study during the 4 ‘taught days’ within the university. In order to consolidate your understanding, complete the learning activities set by the tutors and prepare for assessments, you will have a study day at home.  It is expected that you will carry out a minimum of 25 hours of study, which includes the ‘taught sessions’, however you should expect that at certain times it will exceed this number of hours. 

Application method

You should apply direct to the University, and application forms are available from the course administrator. In addition you will require a referral from your ITE provider.

Course enquiries

Entry requirements

• You should demonstrate a passion for your chosen subject and a real desire to teach it at secondary level.
• You must have been offered a conditional place on an ITE programme, and therefore met the standard PGCE entry requirements for your intended route.
• It is desirable to have experience of the subject to at least A-level standard, and this could be through holding an A-level in the subject, having an element of it in your degree course and/or occupational experience of the subject.
• GCSE English and Maths at grade C or above (or recognised equivalents).

An ITE provider may refer an applicant to an enhancement course where either the applicant does not have a degree that contains more than 50% in the subject or where they consider the student’s subject knowledge is weak and offers no specialism.

Career opportunities

The over-riding aim of the Physics Enhancement course is to encourage the development of deep conceptual understanding of Physics, in particular as featured in the school curriculum.  As an outcome of this aim; you who will enter the teaching profession as physics specialists and bring enthusiasm and interest of physics into the classroom. This course will develop the physics subject knowledge of all participants, sufficiently to progress to an ITT course for physics key stage 3 and 4.  During the Enhancement course participants may also develop the subject knowledge required to teach AS and A2. 

What students say...

I started volunteering as a teaching assistant after leaving my job, and this inspired me to apply for the PGCE. I don’t have science degree so I was referred to the SKEC and I chose physics as it was the subject that enjoyed most at school. Bath Spa has an excellent reputation for ITE and my neighbour, who is a Bath Spa Teacher, is doing very well in her career. The course has given me hands-on experience with the experiments and apparatus, alongside systematic, in-depth coverage of the topics that I’ll be teaching. I’ve also learnt new approaches that I had never come across before. I particularly enjoyed participating in the Liquid Nitrogen show and the Rocket workshops at local schools. The tutors are very helpful, and are themselves examples of what it takes to be an excellent teacher. I look forward to using the strategies and techniques that they’ve generously shared with us, in a class of my own!

Kim Yeap