Dear Student
Welcome to the PGCE Computing course at Sheffield Hallam University. I am sure you will enjoy studying with us and working in your placement schools. The PGCE course is very intensive and it is important that you are able to make a good start in September, so I’m going to suggest a few things that you might do before then. For those who have a conditional offer, the most important thing is to let admissions know when you have fulfilled the conditions!
First, consider the subject knowledge audit you completed: where were the gaps? Read material designed for pupils studying those areas and see what is involved. You can get good books on many areas from http://www.payne-gallway.co.uk. As will be aware, computing is a new area and schools will be expected to deliver at KS3 from 2014. Therefore, you need to go to the National Curriculum website and familiarise yourself with the requirements for 2014. I would strongly recommend that you also do some reading about self awareness and social deftness as well as dipping into some ideas about behaviour management, which will be one of the areas which most students have most concerns about. To this end, I would suggest Surviving your Teaching Practice by Phil Spencer and Getting the Buggers to Behave and Starting Teaching by Sue Cowley. All three books are, I feel, highly readable and informative.
It is however, important to note that in schools, you will have to teach a mixture of ICT and Computing. so be aware of this and look at some of the ICT based teaching books. I would recommend Learning and Teaching using ICT in Secondary Schools by John Woollard.
Regarding software in schools, you may be expected to teach a range of packages, but the core ones you will need and that I will be working around will be Scratch, Small Basic and Python. All of these are freely available on the internet, so please make sure you download them and familiarise yourself with them.
Try to spend as many days in secondary school ICT departments as you can. Watch what happens in the classroom and try to work out why things happen as they do. Be an active observer and join in helping the pupils where you can.
It is important to arrive ready to learn and contribute. Use all the opportunities you can to develop your ideas about Computing/ICT. It may be useful for you to be thinking about some of the following questions.
What is the role of a teacher? What makes a good Computing/ICT teacher? What inhibits learning in Computing/ICT and how can we overcome this? What skills will I bring to teaching? What methods of teaching will best involve, excite and educate young people in Computing/ICT?
You may wish to bolster your ideas by looking at the Department for Education’s and the TES websites, both of which have lots of information about teaching and learning in the secondary area. I would also suggest that you join Computing at School which you can find at http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/ . Its the main area for the discussion on the new computing agenda and has a number of ideas/lesson plans and resources on the delivery of computing in the classroom.
On the first day with me, you will be expected to bring something which is personal to you as a show and tell to introduce yourself to the group. The only rules are nothing large (no canoes) nothing alive (no cats or relatives) and nothing religious (no stone circles), apart from that, its up to you.
Finally remember that you are going to need a break and a rest before starting the course, so have a good summer and I look forward to working with you in the autumn.
Phil Spencer Course Leader Computing Phil.Spencer@shu.ac.uk 0114 225 6022
Key Preparations/Readings (3 or 4):
National Curriculum for Computing
Connel,A and Edwards, A.(2015) – A Practical Guide to Teaching Computing and ICT in the Secondary School. Routledge. London
Denby,N (2012).Training to Teach – A Guide for Students. Sage. London
Fee,S and Holland-Minkley, A (2010). Teaching Computer Science through problems not solutions. Computer Science Education, 20(2), 129 – 144
Reading Lists:
Ellis,V(2011). Learning and Teaching in Secondary Schools. Learning Matters. Exeter
Shilvock,K and Pope,M Successful Teaching Placements in Secondary Schools. Learning Matters. Exeter
Papert,S(1980) Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas. Basic Books. New York
Papert,S(1993) The Children’s Machine. Rethinking School in the age of the Computer. Basic Books. New York
Link to subject association website (if appropriate):
Computing at School www.computingatschool.org.uk/
British Computer Society http://www.bcs.org/
Curriculum and/or Key Specifications:
National Curriculum for Computing https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study
OCR Computing http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/by-subject/computing/
OCR ICT http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/82572-specification.pdf
AQA Computing and ICT http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/ict-and-computer-science
Preliminary Subject Knowledge Audit:
After reading through the National Curriculum programmes of study for Computing and GCSE specifications, identify the following:
- 3 key areas in which you feel confident / have substantial experience.
- 3 key areas where you feel less confident / lack experience in.
You will be required to complete a more detailed subject knowledge audit at the start of your course.
In order to keep up to date with developments in education we recommend that you read the TES (Times Educational Supplement- www.tes.co.uk) and the Guardian Education supplement (www.theguardian.com/education). We also recommend that you regularly read a broadsheet newspaper.