Diploma in Teaching (Further Education & Skills) (DiT)

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of lectures, seminars, interactive workshops, and practical activities etc. Interactive workshops take a variety of formats and are intended to enable the application of learning through reflective discussion and small group activities. Seminars enable the discussion and development of understanding of topics covered in lectures, and practical activities include simulation of real-life teaching through in-class microteaches.

In addition, one-to-one meetings with personal academic tutors and with subject specialist mentors are scheduled on a regular basis. Our recent Ofsted (2023) report said ‘subject-specific tutors are knowledgeable. They support trainees to develop their understanding of specific strategies to use while teaching their subject. Furthermore, tutors effectively teach and model current research in their teaching.’

Your teaching placement will provide you with ample opportunity to develop and hone your teaching skills and will provide a rich source of experience on which you can reflect during taught sessions.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have around 4 contact hours of teaching. Typically contact time will be structured around:

• 3 hours of lectures, interactive workshops, and seminars (group size ~15 to 20)
• 1 hour of tutorial

Over two years, 250 hours will be spent in placement, of which 150 must be spent teaching.

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 6 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve reading and research, assignment writing, preparation for teaching observations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including The Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes experienced tutors from University of Worcester, and college-based practitioners currently working in the Further Education and Skills sector.

Teaching is informed by research and consultancy, and a substantial proportion of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy.

You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Formative assessment tasks will generate evidence that can be used for summative portfolios. Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments, which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment methods include:

Year 1

• 2 x Microteach
• 1 x Annotated lesson plan & resources with written commentary.
• 2 x Individual Presentations
• 1 x Theory into practice reflective report
• 1 x Discussion board
• 1 x Podcast/vlog/blog
• 1 x Student Action Plan & Justification
• 1 x Professional Online Teaching Portfolio

Year 2

• 1 x Microteach
• 2 x Professional Discussion
• 1 x Peer Discussion
• 2 x Individual Presentations
• 1 x EdTech demonstration
• 1 x Professional Report on use of EdTech
• 1 x Professional Online Teaching Portfolio

Trainee teachers are also required to teach 150 hours in total across Year 1 and Year 2 along with five lesson observations each academic year. The additional 100 hours will consist of activities such as team meetings, planning, interviews, assessment, meetings, observations, provider wide sessions [eg CPD], etc.

Please note: Assessment methods are subject to change, these are provided for guidance only.

Feedback

Students receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback is intended to support learning, and students are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We will provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.