New degrees for aspiring teachers
In Summary
Aspiring teachers now have a greater choice in learning options following the unprecedented success of Swinburne Online education courses.
Swinburne University of Technology has announced it will now offer a range of campus-based Bachelor of Education (Secondary) degrees.
The decision to provide a campus-based study option is a direct response to a 150% increase in demand for Swinburne Online courses over the past year and will also tap into Swinburne’s reputation as a premier university for science, maths, ICT and design: all disciplines where teacher shortages have been identified.
The degrees which include Bachelor of Education (Secondary), Bachelor of Education(Secondary)/Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Education (Secondary)/ Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Education (Secondary)/Bachelor of Science will be offered from March 2015 at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus.
Graduates will be qualified secondary school teachers with specialisation in at least two teaching disciplines such as mathematics, information technology, visual communications design or languages such as Chinese or Japanese.
The degrees will incorporate innovative teaching with a focus on problem based learning techniques and strong partnerships with local schools.
In order for pre-service teachers to become familiar with the classroom environment, students will be immersed in the secondary teaching environment across three professional placement periods including two six week blocks.
Swinburne introduced education degrees three years ago as online only courses. Its move to now making the courses available on- campus is in contrast to many institutions which are taking on-campus courses into the online space.
Dr Mick Grimley, Academic Director of Teacher Education and Associate Professor of Education says “We set out to make a difference in the way teachers are educated; we wanted to provide an innovate approach to teaching degrees and have done that in our online delivery.
“We’re now keen to translate that experience into our own classrooms to develop teachers who are inspired problem solvers who are going to make a difference to the lives of the young people they teach.”