This module enables students to widen their studies and to engage with diversity in a wide-ranging sector involving technical, adult and further education and training. It addresses the place of education within the wider experience of individuals and within the curriculum, enabling students to reflect critically on the purposes of education and its roles in society as well as on the practical implications for curriculum design and quality improvement. The module also encourages students to consider notions of professionalism, their own development and the extent to which their own subject has its own pedagogies.

This module aims to:

Enable student teachers to gain an understanding of general and subject specialist, where appropriate, theories and principles of curriculum design, and to relate these to their professional practice.
	Enable student teachers to understand and reflect on what is meant by inclusive classroom practice and curriculum in general and in their subject.
	Explore the concept of professionalism within the context of the technical, adult and further education and training.
	Explore key policy and educational developments that affect technical, adult and further education and training.
	Evaluate the significance of subject specific/context specific pedagogy in the role of the professional teacher.
By the end of the module student teachers will be able to:

Apply theories of curriculum design in their professional practice
	Engage with issues relating to cultural diversity, gender, multilingualism and social deprivation and reflect on how these impact on teaching, learning and assessment in their own subject specific/content specific areas
	Engage in an informed and critical manner with different notions of ‘professionalism’ as they impact upon the teacher in technical, adult and further education and training
	Engage with the wider community to explore opportunities for developing professional practice, and to exchange ideas and share practice within this community
	Be able to critique recent policy initiatives and developments and to analyse factors influencing government policy
	Evaluate the roles of regulatory bodies and inspection systems in technical, adult and further education and training.
	Debate the extent to which their teaching subject has a pedagogy peculiar to itself, and how such pedagogies impact upon classroom practice.