Print this page

Information Communication Technology

The ICT course aims to develop committed ICT teachers who are reflective, self-critical and informed. It is envisaged that trainees will join the course from a diverse range of academic and industrial or commercial backgrounds, with a wide range of IT skills.

The subject course is designed to develop trainees’ knowledge of the many forms of ICT used in schools and their understanding of how to develop pupils’ ICT capability. This capability involves information gathering, presentation and technical processing skills, underpinned by understanding of key concepts related to the nature of information and of technology. It includes, but is much broader than, a set of technical competences in common software applications. The course will provide the opportunity to experience and practise a diverse range of approaches for the classroom. It will focus on pupils’ ICT learning across the 11-16 age range, with enhancement to post-16 education.

Trainees are expected to have reached a high level of proficiency with a range of software applications and experience of using a variety of different types of software including: web design, sound and video editing, a range of educational software, as well as common office applications (word-processing, desktop publishing, presentation software, databases and spreadsheets). These skills will provide trainees with the best possible chance of gaining employment as a Newly Qualified Teacher at the end of the course.

The Subject Specific Course will enable trainees to demonstrate:

• secure subject knowledge of ICT;

• an understanding of the importance of ICT in the secondary curriculum both as a discrete subject in its own right and one which pupils can develop further in other subjects and use to support their learning;

• the ability to plan lessons effectively within schemes of work, taking account of the National Curriculum and the Secondary National Strategy;

• the ability to use a variety of teaching strategies and resources in an innovative and creative manner;

• the use of a range of techniques to monitor, assess, record and report pupil progress and achievement and use this to inform planning;

• the successful use of classroom management techniques and organisation, in order to promote good behaviour and a positive climate for learning;

• an understanding that ICT is an area of rapid development in schools which is transforming teachers’ repertoires and traditional pedagogies;

• an awareness of e-learning and e-safety and issues related to them;

• a willingness to embrace new developments in the use of ICT as an integral part of learning and for communicating within school and with parents/carers.

The course aims to produce reflective teachers who are able to evaluate and further develop their own subject and teaching skills.