Overview AQAS Identification Number: 97757 Program Information The PGCE Program Rules should be read in conjunction with the University`s General Academic Rules (A Rules), which are available on the Internet. Nature and general objectives The PGCE program at North-West University`s Faculty of Education prepares future teachers to become competent professional educators in a variety of education and training professions. The overall goal of the educational experience in this particular program is to provide all of our students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to live and work in a globally interdependent world, as well as the support services to help them succeed. This requires a conscious, deliberate, sustainable, and social constructivist focus on students` actual learning, which may take place due to their interactions in certain study-related groups. For this reason, this academic program also aims to promote inclusion and develop a sense of personal and social responsibility and ethical behavior in and among our students by fostering engagement in environmental issues as well as in community and public service. It strives to provide and maintain a teaching-learning environment that is welcoming to diverse socio-conventional and linguistic interests and activities. The NWU Graduate Certificate in Education focuses on initial teacher training for teaching in the education and training phases. The PGCE serves as the final professional qualification for applicants who have obtained a relevant B degree or a qualification with at least 360 credits and wish to enter the teaching profession. Students who have obtained this qualification with their practice-oriented vision of teaching should be able to fulfil all the contextual roles and skills of an effective educator. With this certificate, an educator can teach grades 7 to 12. The programme empowers and empowers future educators at the senior and FET stages: develop and demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of the theory and practice of education; Integration of educational theory and practice as an applied skill; Demonstration and implementation of subject-specific pedagogical competencies of senior educators and FET, which include teaching, learning and assessment in practice; Develop and demonstrate knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to become responsible, independent researchers and contributors to the professional education community in a diverse and changing national and international context; and develop and demonstrate critical, creative and reflective problem-solving skills in educational and societal contexts. The qualification consists of a minimum of 140 credits divided into at least 15 modules.
These modules include core modules, generic modules and specialization methods, as well as additional modules. This specialist qualification offers the successful student horizontal and vertical articulation options. To articulate vertically, a student may apply for access to the Honours Bachelor of Education (NQF 8) or a Graduate Diploma in Education (NQF 8) that has further specialized in a subject, phase or related practice included in this initial qualification. These level 8 qualifications of the NQF ensure access to further postgraduate studies (Master`s and PhD) in related fields of study. Horizontal articulation is also possible for the Adv Dip qualification at NQF 7 level, for students who wish to develop a new role to support teaching and learning, e.g. school librarianship, education for the deaf, etc. Duration of studies The minimum duration of study is one year (two exam options) and the maximum duration of study is three years (six exam options) Specific objectives Students who have obtained this qualification through their focused vision of teaching practice should be able to fulfil all the contextual roles and skills of an effective educator. Language The language of instruction via ODL is English. Study guides for all modules are available in English. A student can take exams and submit assignments in Afrikaans or English. Contact sessions are conducted in English. Admission A first-level university degree with two recognised academic subjects or a recognised qualification with at least 360 credits at CNC level 6, comprising at least two recognised academic subjects.
Students must also be able to follow two methodological subjects to obtain the qualification. The curriculum of the qualification is structured as follows: a recognised school subject at level 3 + a recognised school subject at level 2 (depending on the specific requirements of the subject). In case of choice between methods for academic subjects already acquired for a previous qualification, a student must choose from these the two subjects acquired at the highest level. In the case of languages, the language subject concerned must be in the 3rd year. A recognized school subject is a subject that is included in the official list of school subjects of the Department of Basic Education. These are recognised school subjects which are supplemented by an acquired qualification. Examples of school subjects recognised in the basic qualification acquired are: languages (Afrikaans, English or Setswana), geography, history, mathematics, sociology and psychology, movement sciences, life sciences (physiology, botany, zoology), natural sciences (physics, chemistry), business administration, accounting, economics, tourism, information technology, music and the arts. Exceptions to faculty-specific requirements: A student wishing to follow the methodology of mathematics must have completed mathematics at level 2 or mathematics at level 1 with one of the following achievements at level 2: statistics, mathematical statistics or applied mathematics.
A student who wishes to follow the Life Orientation methodology must have psychology and one of the following subjects at university level: sociology, philosophy, political science, movement sciences, and labor and industry studies. Psychology must be one of the disciplines. The student must already have a second academic subject at the graduation level for the second methodology. Due to the high number of requests for life orientation, an average limit of 65% is set for the highest subject that contributes to the life orientation methodology. A student who wishes to study language methodology must have completed it at level 3. A student wishing to take life sciences as a methodology must present one of the following subjects physiology, zoology or botany at Level 3 and the other two at Level 1 for admission to PGCE. A student who wants to take physics as a methodology must present one in chemistry or physics at level 2 and the other at least at level 1. It is mandatory that students of the fine arts methodology have a basic knowledge of music. It is mandatory that students of music methodology have basic knowledge of art. A student who wishes to follow the methodology of business administration must have basic knowledge of accounting and economics in order to qualify for economics.