Education

This course examines the ideas, policies, and practices surrounding education and learning with children and young people outside of formal school-based settings. The couse looks at diverse approaches to informal education, including youth work, play work, social action, social pedagogy, and educational work in other settings such as museums, libraries, science centers, and outdoors. What these approaches have in common is a child-centered or youth-centered ethos; a holistic approach to learning; a central focus on anti-oppressive practice; and a high value placed on respectful and trusting relationships between learners and staff. The course considers what out-of-school practices offer to children and young people, reflects on the vital role of informal educators in such settings, and discusses how policy can support and/or create challenging conditions for learning out of school.

This course equips students with the knowledge and skills needed to foster socio-emotional development, enhance teamwork, and embrace digital competence in educational settings. Through a blend of theory, practical application, and collaborative exercises, students gain a comprehensive understanding of how these elements interplay to create an enriched learning experience. The course has three main topics. One is to help students to become an advocate of emotional education, understanding and regulating emotions, and providing emotional support and resilience within educational organizations. Students learn skills in emotional expression, understanding, and regulation. The second topic is the importance of teamwork and collaborative work, focusing on the dynamization of groups, group observation, and essential social skills in educational contexts. Through networking, communication, and the use of digital tools, students learn to work effectively within educational teams. Lastly, students develop the skills to master digital technologies in education, conceptualizing digital competence, and utilizing digital resources for teaching, learning, and professional development. The course explores digital resources for teaching and learning, digital content, evaluation and feedback, and professional development with digital technologies.

This course offers students the opportunity to improve their mastery of skills necessary for success in university study, including time and workload management, written communication, note taking, academic writing, successful use of the library, and approaches to research. Students are introduced to university structures, systems, and resources.

This course examines the science of what enables individuals to operate at the peak of their potential, including the conditions that are thought to give rise to optimal motivation, emotional agility, resilience, and other factors that support wellbeing and performance. It explores skills and pathways for cultivating wellbeing while giving consideration to relevant individual differences and cultural factors. The content draws on a variety of disciplines, including psychology, education, philosophy, sports science, and organizational science. It covers the historical and philosophical views of wellbeing, motivation, and performance; the paradigm shift from problem-focused to strengths-based approaches; and the evolution from individual- to system-level perspectives of what contributes to wellbeing. 

The course introduces students to the role of drama in the second-level school classroom as a structured learning experience and also as an art form. It equips students with the appropriate skills and confidence necessary to use drama in the teaching of a variety of subjects and provides students with practical experiences of using the art form collaboratively to enrich and extend the study of other subjects. This course plans and evaluates learning episodes for students arising from meaningful engagement with the art form in applied settings. It also enables students to engage in reflective practice about the teaching of drama at secondary school level.  Students enact drama as a cross curricular pedagogy, through participation in and experience of practical drama-based workshops. They create, plan for, and deliver effective episodes using drama for their own teaching needs. Students focus on applying innovative practice in the area of arts in education and display leadership in future school planning in arts in education. This course teaches students how to identify and synthesize the skills and competencies to engage in a wide range of dramatic activity in interdisciplinary contexts.