PRACTICUM

v Although the Practicum carries zero AUs, a trainee teacher must pass the Practicum before he/she can be awarded the PGDE.

PPR511 Practicum

The Practicum is a very important part of the PGDE (Secondary) programme. Its principal function is to provide the trainee teachers with the opportunity to use knowledge and skills introduced in the Education Studies and Curriculum Studies courses and attempt to integrate theory into practice, and to develop teaching competencies in a variety of instructional contexts, and at different levels through close developmental supervision. They will learn from experienced cooperating teachers about the schooling process, and prepare themselves for their roles and responsibilities in teaching.

The Practicum is spread throughout the entire course of study. For the first semester, the trainee teachers will enjoy some school experience in secondary classes so that they can observe at first hand how teachers teach and students learn. During the second semester, trainee teachers will be sent out to schools for their teaching practice. They will be given the opportunity to teach their subjects of specialisation to students of different abilities at the upper and lower secondary levels.