Bachelor of Teaching

The Bachelor of Education is a four year undergraduate degree. Given the strong emphasis on literacy and communication in the primary school curriculum, and the need for teachers to develop specialised knowledge about English language and the literacy demands of all areas of the curriculum, there are four compulsory literacy subjects in the degree program.

These compulsory subjects build on each other and so assist student teachers to develop breadth and depth in their knowledge and application of the theories, approaches and strategies that best meet the individual literacy learning needs of students in the primary school. This understanding begins with the foundational literacy skills required in the early years of schooling (Prep-Year 4). Student teachers learn about and investigate the role of oral language in all learning; the reciprocal relationship between oral language, reading and writing; the need for young children to hear and discern the sounds of English; the need to move students from a casual or conversational register in spoken language, to a formal, academic register, and the impact of vocabulary development on this process. They also learn about and apply theories of reading and writing acquisition; the approaches and strategies that support young children to develop skills in decoding and comprehending print-based texts; the significance of phonemic awareness for both reading and writing; the development of early writing skills, which include the move from speech to writing, a knowledge of the structures and linguistic features of simple written genres; and the application of spelling strategies and handwriting skills.

Second, student teachers learn about the advanced forms of literacy necessary for the engagement with, and comprehension of and engagement with, print and multimodal texts in the middle years of schooling (Years 5-9). Here they learn of the approaches and strategies that support students’ motivation and understanding of the more complex content and concepts that underpin all areas of the curriculum. The focus is on the approaches and strategies that support all students to develop and master the technical language, vocabulary and grammatical structures of academic reading, writing and oral language in the middle years, and the multimodal forms of communication that feature strongly in print, visual and electronic texts. These approaches and strategies include those which assist students to use oral language to talk through their understanding of content and concepts, as well as the formal register required for presentations, debates, and performances; to read and comprehend more complex literary, information, visual and multimodal texts; and to compose written genres across different forms of text.

In addition, the cultural and linguistic diversity of the student population in Victorian schools necessitates that teachers value the linguistic richness and variation of their students’ home backgrounds, and support all students in acquiring and developing English language literacy necessary for school education. Therefore, there is a strong emphasis across the four years of the Bachelor of Education degree on the impact of social factors - such as language backgrounds other than English, socio-economic status, Indigenous status, and gender - on literacy acquisition and development.

The learning focus of each subject in the degree is as follows:

Language and Literacy 1: Oral language and learning

Theories of language and learning; classroom discourse and the language required to scaffold learners; the development of phonemic awareness as foundational to oral language, reading and writing; the nature and scope of children’s literature; and the significance of storytelling to oral language development and to early reading and writing.

Language and Literacy 2: Foundational literacy.

Theories, approaches and strategies for teaching early literacy, predominantly around print-based texts; strategies to support early readers, including phonemic awareness, shared reading, guided reading; strategies to support early writing, including language experience, genre-based writing and strategies for spelling and handwriting; organisational structures which maximise personalised learning, including whole class, small group and individual instruction.

Language and Literacy 3: Curriculum planning and assessment.

Curriculum planning in English/literacy in relation to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards: English, and the Victorian Essential Learning Standards: Interdisciplinary Strand; strategies and techniques for the assessment of student learning in reading, writing, listening and speaking according to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards and the English learning continua and the ESL Bandscales; approaches and strategies to support the advanced forms of literacy required in the middle years of schooling, with an emphasis on the comprehension and composition of complex texts across the curriculum; the design of curriculum to meet students’ particular learning needs; and the design of assessment strategies for, of and as student learning.

Language and Literacy 4: Getting to teach all forms of literacy to all students.

A deeper examination of multiple forms of literacy, including print-based, visual and electronic, required across the curriculum; strategies and techniques to support students’ critical appraisal of various forms of texts - how texts are constructed, for which purpose and for which audience; a study of the particular learning needs of ESL students and the explicit and focused teaching that best supports their needs, including a focus on the language of the teacher and other strategies to support ESL students’ development of language and content knowledge; and a synthesis of the four years of study, where student teachers consider the knowledge and skills they have developed about student-centred learning, curriculum, assessment and classroom organisation necessary for their effective implementation of English/literacy teaching and learning in the future.

Specialisations and Electives

There are two additional literacy-based subjects that students in the Bachelor of Education can elect to study.

TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)

This subject provides student teachers with theoretical and practical insights into the problems that many English as an additional language students experience in functioning as effective learners in primary schools when the language of instruction is not their first language. The subject builds upon and extends the students’ previous studies of ESL learners in mainstream classrooms, and deepens their understanding of the linguistic and cognitive needs of these learners. Students study the nature of TESOL methodology, curriculum design and evaluation and are introduced to strategies, techniques and resources for planning, implementing and evaluating teaching, and for assessing student learning outcomes. Student teachers must complete a practicum in a specialised language centre in order satisfy the requirements, as stipulated by the Department of Education, Victoria, for this qualification.

Children’s Literature

This subject provides student teachers with the opportunity to broaden and deepen their understanding of the nature and scope of children’s and young adult literature. Emphasis is given to such topics as the ideological nature of picture books, fiction and factual texts; the pleasure of reading and deep engagement with literature; and the study of literary elements and the language of texts.