General
Program Description
Overview
Choose our Bachelor of Education (Secondary) degree and learn from world-leading academics and outstanding teachers seconded from local schools. This gives you access to cutting-edge practice and research throughout your secondary teaching degree.
Our pioneering approach to professional education gives you time to develop as a secondary school teacher. With our four-year teaching degree, you’ll be able to grow in confidence and critically reflect on your skills. Taking a one-year conversion course to become a teacher doesn’t give you this flexibility.
We enable you to study the practice of teaching (pedagogy) and two specialist subjects simultaneously. So, for example, you could study English and History to degree level alongside teaching.
You’ll gain a research-informed degree, making you well equipped to enter the world of secondary education from the day you graduate. In the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014), our Educational research had the highest quality of research outputs of any Scottish university, with 100% rated either world-leading or internationally excellent.
Top reasons to study with us
#1 We’re 1st in Scotland for Education Studies (The Guardian University Guide 2018) and top 10 in the UK (The Complete University Guide 2019)
#2 We give you time to develop your skills as a teacher over four years – instead of a traditional one-year course
#3 100% of our students were employed in a professional or managerial job, six months after leaving this course (UNISTATS, 2016)
Course details
You’ll follow a course of eight semesters (four years), to gain an Honours degree in Professional Education (Secondary). Alternatively, seven semesters (three and a half years) leads to either a General degree or to a Bachelors degree in Professional Education. General degree students may only be able to qualify in one teaching subject.
Semesters 1 – 2
You’ll take the following core modules:
- Education: Purposes, Principles and Practice
- Education: Learning and Teaching
To give you confidence before going out on teaching placements, you’ll take part in microteaching on campus. This involves teaching small groups of children. Your practical experience starts in Semester 2 with a two-week placement.
Semesters 3 – 6
You’ll take a range of core and advanced modules in Education, including a range of teaching skills in your chosen subjects. You’ll also go on two school placements, each lasting three-to-five weeks, between Semesters 3-4 and 5-6. Physical Education students will take part in an additional four-week placement. During Semester 6, you’ll spend five half-days in schools.
Semesters 7 – 8
Semester 7 includes a ten-week placement, as well as supplementary taught classes.
In Semester 8 you’ll complete an Enquiry into Practice that’s closely related to your placement, as well as doing further study in your teaching subject.
If you’re a student studying Chemistry, Physics or Engineering Technologies at Heriot-Watt, we offer you the opportunity of combining this with a teaching qualification at the University of Stirling. You’ll study your subject at Heriot-Watt, and take your education modules alongside Secondary Education students at Stirling. You’ll follow the same core and advanced Education modules as other Education students, as well as going on the same four, five and 10-week school placements.
Find out more about our STEM Education courses.
Teaching
Our Secondary Education degree is taught through seminars, lectures and workshops. You’ll also have the opportunity to go on school placements to get practical teaching experience.
Fieldwork
Students on the Geography or Biology course may have the opportunity to go on a residential field trip.
Assessment
Assessment is by continuous assessment. School experience placements are supported by school-based teachers and University of Stirling tutors. There are no examinations in Education.
Work placement opportunities
School work placements are an integral part of this course, culminating in a 10-week secondary school experience where you can teach your chosen subjects.
Study abroad
If you intend to teach Modern Languages in a school after you graduate, you must fulfil residence requirements in a country where that language is spoken. For eligible students, this means applying for an English Language Assistantship via the externally-administered British Council scheme. Students should note that this is a competitive scheme and that the British Council is responsible for its eligibility criteria. It is the student’s responsibility to check these criteria (via the British Council website) and to discuss any potential problems both with staff in Education and with the French/Spanish Programme Director. Students should note that taking two languages from Beginners' level where those languages are core to the programme is pedagogically inadvisable. Any student wishing to go down that route will need the written permission of both the French and Spanish Programme Directors or their appointed representative before being allowed to do so.
If your specialism covers other subjects, you’ll also have the option of studying abroad for a semester.
Contact
Dr Jane Smithson, Course Director
+44 (0)1786 467681
ite@stir.ac.uk
Fees - 2018/2019
- Overseas students (non-EU): £12,140
- Scottish and EU students: £1,820
- Students from the rest of the UK: £9,250
Last updated Nov 2018
About the School
At the University of Stirling, being the difference is in our DNA – providing education with a purpose and carrying out research that helps to shape society.
At the University of Stirling, being the difference is in our DNA – providing education with a purpose and carrying out research that helps to shape society.
Read less
Ask a Question
General Information
Program Dates
Program Type & Duration
How to Apply
Other
