Secondary Physical Education PGCE

About the course

Develop as a highly qualified effective and confident teacher of physical education with the knowledge and skills to put innovative teaching approaches into practice to achieve Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

Through the course you examine the role of physical education in - and beyond - the National Curriculum. You develop an understanding of physical education as a subject; how it relates to pupils in school and wider society; and how to apply the knowledge gained in your first degree to teach pupils.

You will attend subject-specific sessions lectures and seminars designed to develop your awareness and understanding of general professional issues. Areas of study include practical application; PE theory; planning and evaluation; teaching styles and strategies; differentiation; organisation; assessment; and reporting.

When you successfully complete the course you achieve Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) enabling you to work in a school as a teacher. You are also well placed to pursue further awards such as Chartered Teacher Status.

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 physical education lesson

• 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 Physical Education)

This unit aims to develop your knowledge of learning and teaching in
the specific context of Secondary Physical Education. You will
explore the development of Physical Education specific pedagogy by
considering recent research about the teaching and learning of
Physical Education 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 Physical
Education 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 Physical Education, you
will develop a personal pedagogic stance which will prepare you to
assume the role of a leader of Physical Education 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.

How will you be assessed?

The assessment strategy is based upon the premise that critical evaluation of theoretical perspectives as they apply to your own teaching is an intrinsic element of best teaching practice. Throughout the course therefore you will continually be encouraged to explore what is known about teaching and learning and to demonstrate independence and creativity in evaluating the relevance of that knowledge in your own context.

Sound subject knowledge is a fundamental quality of an effective teacher and you will be expected to demonstrate a commitment to ongoing development of that knowledge throughout the course in preparation for the final assessment.

Also key to the course is a focus on the development of evidence informed teaching culminating in an extended systematic study of your own practice.

By embracing the professional requirements for Qualified Teacher Status within the course it supports you in developing the qualities which define the University of Bedfordshire graduate teacher: an independent reflective creative innovative collaborative and resilient professional who is committed to ongoing personal and professional development.

The assessment for this course seeks to support you in developing your understanding of the interplay between theoretical perspectives and practice based experience. You will be developing your skills of reviewing and evaluation of evidence critical thinking creativity and independence.

The themes for your evidence informed writing are developed from local and national subject priorities and therefore allow you to develop the evidence of your understanding of values and principles underpinning the Teachers Standards as they apply to your working context.

By building your work around these themes you will generate rich evidence which can contribute to the assessment of your professional performance: the Profile Review Points. Hence the assessment items are intrinsically connected and in combination allow you to demonstrate your achievement of all learning outcomes.

The Profile Review Point is the process by which the mentor reviews your progress in your teaching practice and offers this evidence to your university tutor to review against all the other evidence that they see of you on the course.

The Teachers Standards 2012 provide the framework by which this progress is judged and are supplemented with descriptors which support you in understanding the qualities which define the level at which you meet the standards. The Teacher Standard descriptors are included in the School Experience unit assessment information.

Formative use of assessment is embedded throughout the course and is a principle which we would expect you to adopt in your own teaching. You will be supported to become familiar with self- and peer-assessment approaches and to make effective use of feedback on both academic and practice-based aspects of the course to identify targets for your ongoing development and plan actions to address them.

The passing of all four units will mean the course will recommend you to the TRA for QTS. In exceptional circumstances approved by the head of school it may be possible for recommendation for QTS to be made without completion of all four units.

This option is not an automatic entitlement. Engagement with published research is a fundamental aspect of the course and you will be supported in developing skills of critical analysis of the literature.

Rigorous attention to referencing conventions is therefore essential and you will be required to adopt the Harvard system. You will be supported in developing your understanding of plagiarism and in the use of Turnitin as a means of ensuring that referencing requirements are satisfied.