http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/admissions/precourse

Computer Science/Information Communication Technology

Dear Trainee,

Congratulations on being offered a place on the Computer Science/ICT PGCE here at Edge Hill University! We are looking forward to meeting you again and working with you during the next academic year. We would like to offer you some advice and guidance so that you can prepare yourself well for the demanding yet stimulating year ahead. Once the PGCE year starts you will probably find that it is very intensive so we recommend that you do some preparatory work beforehand.

GENERAL GUIDANCE

You should keep yourself well informed about general educational issues by reading, for example, the Times Educational Supplement and the Guardian’s Tuesday education section. Please also consider joining Computing At School (CAS), a national organisation supporting the teaching of Computer Science in Schools and part of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. You can sign up at http://computingatschool.org.uk.

Currently the English education system including Computer Science teaching and learning is undergoing a great deal of change and development. This will be discussed in greater depth during your course. Accessing the DfE website is a way of increasing your awareness of national trends and future developments.

Here are some other ways to prepare for the course:

-  Familiarising yourself with the Raspberry Pi a low powered Single Board Computer (SBC) aimed at education, hobbyists and tinkerers. Learning to use the Arduino and other similar kits.

-  Participating in Raspberry Jams, Maker Fairs and other maker events.

-  Involving yourself with organisations such as Code Club and CoderDojo which offer children the opportunity to learn to program for free.

-  If you have limited recent experience in school, try to arrange further observations in secondary schools. Please access the NCTL website for guidance. This is particularly important if you did not go through the English education system yourself.

-  There are many online resources to allow you to learn both to program and the other aspects of computing necessary to teach the subject up to A Level. You can access schemes of work from the various Exam Boards to give you guidance on the subject knowledge required for the various courses. Sites such as BBC BiteSize and Teach-ICT.com contain ideas for activities and content.

-  There are also sites such as Codecademy which will teach you the basics of programming in a variety of languages.

-  Common languages and programming environments which are used in schools include Python (version 3), Scratch, AppInventor and sometimes JavaScript and Visual Basic (including Small Basic).

In order to qualify as a teacher you are required to have a range of Information Technology (IT) skills. There will be sessions at Edge Hill devoted both to helping you to consolidate your own skills and to preparing you to use IT in the classroom for language learning. If you are inexperienced in IT we strongly recommend you develop your skills before the course begins. If you’re not sure what to do, see what courses your current university or college offers. Alternatively you could contact your local FE College and see what courses they have on offer. All your assignments must be word-processed. Typical, useful IT skills include:

-  digital recorders / audacity

-  using the internet

-  using a video camera, digital camera

-  using e-mail

-  video-conferencing

-  using the interactive whiteboard

-  word-processing – including clip art, images, tables, formatting

-  using PowerPoint / prezi

-  using spread sheets (Excel)

Our communication during the course will be via email and our VLE. This is especially the case when you are on school placement. It is therefore essential for you to have reliable access to the internet throughout the course.

THE COURSE IN BRIEF

The Computer Science/ICT course at Edge Hill University consists of four interrelated modules which examine different aspects of Computer Science teaching and learning. You will be given a detailed reading list once you get to Edge Hill but we expect you to do some pre-course reading. For the first part of the course we will be focussing on how programming and computing in general is learnt, on the National Curriculum, on how to plan lessons and how to put those plans into practice. In order to prepare for this you may like to obtain and read copies of the following publications:

Burton, N., Brundrett, M. and Jones, M. 2014. Doing Your Education Research Project. 2nd ed., London: SAGE

Curzon, P., Dorling M., Ng, T., Selby, C., and Woollard J., 2014. Developing computational thinking in the classroom: a framework. London, Computing At School. Available from: http://community.computingatschool.org.uk/resources/2324 [Accessed on 10/2/15]

Dorling, M, 2014. Progression Pathways Grid. London, Hodder. Available from: http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/Compute-IT/ProgressionPathwaysGrid [Accessed on 06/4/17]

Kemp, P, 2014. Computing in the National Curriculum: A Guide for Secondary Teachers. London: Computing At School. Available from: http://community.computingatschool.org.uk/resources/2252 [Accessed on 06/4/17]

Royal Society, The, 2012. Shutdown or Restart? The way forward for computing in UK schools. London: The Royal Society. Available from: https://royalsociety.org/education/policy/computing-in-schools/report/ [Accessed on 06/4/17]

During your Curriculum Studies at Edge Hill University you will spend time consolidating your computing skills for teaching purposes and exploring ways of making computing and programming accessible to your learners. You will be assessed at the beginning of the course and an individualised programme will be agreed with you. You will be required to complete a range of assignments relating to aspects of your course in the first two terms. These will, on the whole, have both a theoretical as well as a practical focus and give you the opportunity to reflect on the nature of your experience in schools. During the year you will spend much of your time in at least three different settings: one primary and two post-11 institutions. Post-16 enhancement will either be covered in one of your placement schools or by attending a post-16 setting during one of your professional practice blocks. You will be given the opportunity both to observe and to teach. The amount of teaching you do will increase as the year progresses. In this way you should find that there is a balance between your opportunities for reflective thought, practical teaching and individualised target-setting to enable you to meet the national professional standards for qualified teacher status.

We hope that this pre-course information has given you an insight into the nature of the PGCE Computer Science/ICT course. We also hope that we have given you some ideas about preparing yourself for the PGCE year so that you come to Edge Hill confident in your subject knowledge and feeling enthusiastic about the course. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact Edge Hill if you have any queries.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Best wishes

Dawn Hewitson and the Course Team

Dawn Hewitson

PGCE Secondary Computer Science Course Leader

Tel: 01695 650979

Email: