Secondary Drama PGCE

About the course

Develop as a highly qualified effective and confident teacher of drama studying with an experienced specialist team to gain the knowledge and skills you need to teach your specialist subject.

This largely school-based course is designed to give you the subject-specific knowledge secure understanding of educational theory and practical teaching skills to lead learning; initiate change; and thrive as a teacher in a challenging and rewarding profession.

In your taught sessions you attend lectures and seminars designed to develop your awareness and understanding of professional issues; the nature and content of the drama curriculum; the role of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the teaching of drama; and aspects of teaching such as planning and assessment.

During the course you spend around 70% of your time in placement schools where you are trained to teach across the 11-16 age range. You develop the skills and knowledge to teach drama in a creative and imaginative way using a variety of different approaches.

When you successfully complete the course you achieve Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) enabling you to work in a school as a teacher.

Intermediate qualifications available:

• Professional Graduate Certificate in Education

Why choose this course?

• Study at our Bedford campus home to one of the largest education providers in the region with a long and established history of teacher education

• Benefit from our well-established links to more than 500 schools across the eastern region a network that puts us at the forefront of educational developments

• Learn to apply your subject and theoretical knowledge to practical areas of teaching expertise including different teaching approaches; planning and preparation; and managing the drama classroom

• Be able to evaluate the impact of applying theory to your teaching practice and use your evaluations to inform your future actions

• Hone your skills of critical self-evaluation and gain confidence in analysing your own practical experience during your school placements

• Engage with relevant research literature and develop the skills of a reflective and research-informed practitioner

• Develop your creativity and team-working skills preparing you to influence and lead in educational settings while enhancing your own sense of independence

What will you study?

The Curriculum Specialist (Secondary Drama)

This unit aims to develop your knowledge of learning and teaching in the specific context of Secondary Drama. You will explore the development of Drama specific pedagogy by considering recent research about the teaching and learning of Drama and evaluating the impact, in your own teaching practice, of the ideas and theories presented.

You will be supported to evaluate and improve your knowledge of the school Drama curriculum content and to apply your pedagogic and subject knowledge creatively in the planning and evaluating of your own teaching.

By selecting, applying and evaluating a range of theories about the teaching and learning of Drama, you will develop a personal pedagogic stance which will prepare you to assume the role of a leader of Drama learning.

The Evidence Informed Curriculum Specialist

This unit aims to encourage you to build on your knowledge about learning and teaching and the application of that knowledge in practice. Key to the unit is a focus on the development of evidence informed teaching, through an extended systematic study of your own practice.

The unit is underpinned by a belief that evaluation of theoretical perspectives as they apply to your own teaching is an intrinsic element of best teaching practice.

Within the unit, therefore, you will continually be encouraged to explore what is known about the learning in your subject and to demonstrate independence and creativity in evaluating the relevance of that knowledge in your own context.  

School Experience 1

As part of this unit, you will undertake a school placement designed to enable you to observe and practise the procedures which support effective preparation for beginning to demonstrate the teaching and learning in respect to achieving the Teachers’ Standards (DfE, 2012).

This placement’s teaching pattern is designed to ensure that you successfully make the transition from observing and supporting lessons to independently planning and delivering lessons during the placement.

It also aims to help you to develop a range of school contextualised behaviour management strategies, which you are increasingly able to apply effectively and appropriately in keeping with the placement school’s behaviour management policy.

School Experience 2

As part of this unit, you will undertake a school placement designed to enable you to demonstrate the teaching and learning in respect to achieving the Teachers’ Standards (DfE, 2012) by the end of the course.

The unit ensures you continue to develop and apply your experience from School Experience 1 and develop the integrated additional elements of promoting good progress, effective use of assessment, adapting teaching to suit groups of pupils and fulfilling wider professional expectations.