Transcript: Postgraduate Secondary Education

I’d like to welcome you to the master of teaching in secondary education. The postgraduate information evening.

I hope you’re all fairing well and enjoying the transition out of lockdown. My name is Joanne Yoo,

and I’m the coordinator of the master of teaching in secondary education program at UTS. Today, I’ll be presenting with our professional experience director,

Annie Agnew. Our director of professional post-graduate coursework Sita Chopra. Three MTeach students; Kimberly Duncan,

Vrinda Sethi , Stella Hayman, And Shirley To, our senior teaching and learning officer. First,

I’d like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the various lands from which you join us today and to pay respects to those elders past and present.

I know that people are attending from all parts of Sydney. So I welcome you to pay respect to the traditional custodians from the land

where you reside. As I go through this presentation, please feel free to post any questions in the Q and A.

We will address them at the end of the presentation. Next slide. Thank you.

So why study secondary education at UTS. In the 2021, government survey quality indicators for learning and teaching,

we were rated over 80% for teaching and learning, facilities and resources, and 90% for graduate satisfaction.

This made us the highest ranking Sydney university for these indicators.

We also have strong partnerships with over 200 urban and rural schools,

which helps us to deliver an amazing professional experience program and innovative and current curriculum that is based on authentic classroom practice.

Next slide, the course is composed of seven core, two professional experience

and teaching methods and elective subjects. The core covers the New South Wales Education Standards

Authority (NESA) priority areas. They include topics such as sociology, inclusive ed,

indigenous education, professional learning, educational psychology, literacy,

and numeracy across the curriculum and digital technologies.

The study plan will include all the core and the professional experience offerings, but the number of teaching methods,

subjects and electives will depend on your teaching areas. For example, if you’re graduating with a single teaching area,

you will complete three teaching methods subjects as your major and

four additional electives. If you were graduating with combined teaching areas,

you will take three teaching methods subjects as your major and four electives.

And I can tell you a little bit about our teaching specializations, while Serena gets the slides back up. So the areas that we offer teaching specializations in, are

English, mathematics, science, and in the science, our suite of subjects, we offer biology, chemistry, physics,

and earth, and environmental science. In the area of human society and its environment (HSIE) we have business studies, economics,

society and culture, legal studies. And in TAS, technological and applied studies,

we have engineering studies, software design and development, industrial technology graphics

and multimedia, and information processes and technology. And we offer EALD / English as an additional language or dialect, as a

minor. So on the right hand side of the screen, you can see the various combinations of teaching areas and you may be eligible

for different kind of variations depending on your undergraduate pathway. These combined teaching specializations exist to increase our graduates

employability. So please look at our website for other options.

Do we still have Sita onboard? I’m back.

Great to see you. So Sita will now talk about the future focus electives that we have on offer. Thank you, Sita

Thank you. And sorry everybody about those technical glitches a moment ago. In terms of the electives that we have on offer in the program,

we’ve really tried to make sure that the list of electives are from a diverse range of areas and that they appeal to interests.

And also it’s been really important to us to make sure that they future proof your career and round out your studies. Um,

so we’ve made sure that we have a number of electives from different parts of the faculty and the university. Uh, for example,

the multi-lingual learner is from our TESOL and applied linguistics area. And the subject education rights and responsibilities is from our faculty of law.

Two of the subjects that we have available as electives are from our new graduate certificate in learning design,

which we launched this year. In the subject ‘Create’ you’ll explore what makes a good media interactive, and how that may support learning.

While if you choose ‘Crunch’, you’ll think about all the data that educators have access to.

And then how can this data actually be translated to improve learner performance.

Aboriginal Sydney Now is another popular choice of elective subjects. It looks at contemporary Aboriginal Sydney,

and it tries to provoke your curiosity about indigenous ways of knowing and being in Sydney today. So as you can see,

we have quite a broad range of electives on offer. Whilst not all subjects will be on offer every session,

there should hopefully be something that will attract your interest. I’ll now just pass over to Annie.

Yeah, so good evening, everyone. And welcome to, um, to our session tonight.

I just want to talk to you for a moment about professional experience, because this is a really important part of everything that you do.

So what we’ve done is we’ve looked really closely at how to help you to be the most classroom ready that you can be.

And part of our course is that you’re immersed in professional experience,

both through experiences where we connect you, in other ways with schools,

but also in two major sort of blocks or segments of, of classroom time and practice and experience.

And I think the important thing is that throughout that period of time, you’re really well supported. So you’re supported pre before you go, you’re,

well-prepared, you’re supported while you’re on professional experience, both by your supervising teacher at the school and your tertiary supervisor,

who is your connection, your conduit between the university and, and the school. And they work for us with the, at the university,

all the tertiary supervisors are well experienced in education. Many of them have been in education for 30 years

plus, they have held various, um, capacities across their classroom teachers in leadership and

in mentoring new students or new teachers as well. So you’re well supported.

And the other thing to remember is that you have lots of opportunities in both Sydney and on the other side of the great divide or north or

south of, of, of Sydney. And, um, we’ll talk about the opportunities for you about teaching in a

little moment, but really think about the fact that as part of your experience, you get two major blocks.

If you are in a position where you might be able to go, um, to a regional or a more remote area,

certainly we make those opportunities happen for you or support you in that. And it can be an incredible experience. So, um,

if you can go to the next slide, please.

Okay. So you’ve probably heard in the news and read lots of reports

about the current teacher shortages. Um, and first of all, obviously, you know, the salary range is,

is pretty good for a beginning teacher and you can you move quite quickly through to the, to the at least the upper, um,

aspects of the financial recompense for, for teaching. But, you know, I think that, um,

and part of that is your accreditation that you have to do. And lots of things that you’ll find out a lot more about, but most importantly,

really are the job opportunities for you. Every day, just about, there are reports. And in fact,

today I just pulled up a new one that, um, maybe we can send some of these out when we,

when we send the recording from this session out. But this one that I pulled up today was from October the 11th and it projects

the numbers of, um, students who are enrolling in class,

who will be enrolling in schools over the next few years. And the discussion really centers around the fact that the enrollments will

enlarge by 20%. So as you invest this time, and it is a huge investment of time, um, retraining to be a teacher.

One of the things that we want to sort of assure you is this is a, this is a growth area.

And so not only is it a fabulous area to be, to be working in,

but you have a great future ahead of you and lots of opportunities to, to go to, you know, a whole range of places and to really make a difference.

Okay. So, and next slide, please Sita. So now we’re going to hear from a couple of our students who, um,

both current and past students. So we have Vrinda, Stella and Kimberly.

So I thought that I might just start by asking, um, Stella, why, why you wanted to become a teacher?

Uh, well, let’s say, um, I had sort of ended up in a lot of teaching roles through volunteer

work over the years and found that I really enjoyed it. So I volunteered with Fem Power,

which is an organization created from the USYD women’s collective that goes round to high school and high schools and teaches about issues of gender

equality. And I would also volunteer as an art teacher, uh, at Hazelhurst Art Gallery, my local gallery. And I found that I really,

really enjoyed it. And, um, I also really, really liked kids. And I also come from a bit of a long line of teachers.

Yeah. Thank you Stella. And Kimberly, I’m assuming you have quite a different story.

Uh, yeah. I was actually an ESL and academic English teacher for many years. And then I went back to university to study science and, um,

tutored in science at university for a few years. And so my, um, reason for doing the MTeach was to find a way to do what I loved,

which was teaching, but also to actually be teaching science, excuse the dog.

Thanks Kimberly and, and Vrinda. And I know that you’re sort of just freshly really into the classrooms. What,

what was it that really, um, inspired you to want to do teaching?

Um, mine is slightly different for the rest of the stories because I went straight from my undergrad into the master of teaching program. Um,

but I did do a little bit of teaching and I think what really made me decide was just being in a classroom and I, you just have to be there and,

you know, there’s not much to think there really. Um, but just watching students kind of have like a light bulb moment when they

understand what you’re trying to say, and you can see them actually improve. Um, that made me realize that I was actually interested in working in education

more directly, which is what led me to the master of teaching program. Thanks Vrinda, and I’m going to ask you the next, another question,

because my thoughts are as, as someone who’s actually in the classroom now, which is wonderful to hear,

um, what was it that maybe through studying with us at, at UTS?

What was it that sort of helped that transition or made you feel classroom ready?

Um, I, I would say the reason why I chose UTS over other universities was because I’d

heard that the UTS program was more, um, professional focused as opposed to theory focused. And not to say theory focus is a

bad thing. I really enjoyed all the theories that I studied at UTS, but I think what’s really great about it is so many of the courses are very

classroom focused. So just in the sense that, um, we learn how to react to certain things, how to prepare for certain things.

So it’s all, it’s all leading up to you being a good classroom teacher. I think, um, of course there’s,

there’s a difference between actually being a good student and then going into your prac and realizing that it’s a lot of effort and a lot of like

application on your part of what you’ve studied. It’s not good enough to just be a student, a good student. Um, but yeah,

I think the support and everything that I got at UTS through the queries, the,

um, mentorship and everything, I think, yeah, I felt pretty prepared.

Wonderful. Thanks Vrinda. So, Stella how do you feel? Cause you haven’t ventured into the classroom

yet? What are you feeling that is supporting you in your studies at UTS?

Oh, um, let’s see. Well, the teachers are very good. That’s the big part of it that they’re very helpful. Um,

with replying to emails when assignments are coming up and things like that.

The library was still available to me during lockdown because it was in five kilometres and I could go up, pick up a book contact free.

That was pretty good. Yeah. Fantastic. Thanks Stella. And Kimberly, what,

is there something that you’ve really enjoyed about studying at UTS?

Yeah, I think that, um, similar to what Vrinda says, the fact that the theory is connected to the practice, right

from the very beginning. So right from the very beginning, even in the theoretical subjects, you’re often looking at the syllabus and you starting to think about how you’re

going to apply the theories that you’ve learned in the classroom. So a lot of those assessments are very authentic. They’re sort of, you know,

creating a learning activity or a lesson plan or a unit of study.

And so I think that really practical hands on practice is, is very useful. And I think that’s what I’ve really enjoyed.

Yeah. Thanks, Kimberly. And I’m going to go back to Vrinda. So last question for each one of you, Vrinda, um,

one of the subjects that you really enjoyed at, at UTS, what,

what was something that sparked you? Uh, I think this would be related to my previous answer was Understanding and

Engaging Adolescent Learners. Um, I enjoyed it was, it’s a lot of, um,

educational theory and it’s a lot of psychology as well, which is fascinating, just studying about, um, adolescent, um, psychology. Um,

but then also I had my prac around the same time and just kind of seeing the application of what I was studying in the classrooms quickly,

looking at students’ attention spans and, um, what made them actually motivated to study and things like that.

So just that kind of, both of that together was really good. Um, so yeah, I would say it would be, um, the Understanding and Engaging Adolescent Learners.

Okay, fantastic. Thank you. And Stella? One of the subjects that you’ve really loved?

Hmm. Um, I really like all of them. Um, possibly my favorite would be my, uh, uh, elective,

um, uh, Sendak to Shakespeare, Shapes and – it’s got a really complicated names.

Sorry, great subject. Isn’t it? Yeah. Learning Futures as well. Um,

that was at the top of the list of the core subjects. A few slides ago. I really, really enjoyed that one that one’s, uh,

very focused on pedagogy and, um, making sure all students’ needs are met in the classroom.

Fantastic. Thank you Stella. And Kimberly, a subject that has inspired you?

Uh, yeah. I agree with Stella in that I’ve enjoyed actually most of them.

Um, but I think that for me, the science teaching methods subjects for the ones that I enjoyed the most, because they were the, the most practical,

instead of the most different for me coming from an English teaching background, it was just a huge leap.

To be thinking about how to teach science well. Um, and so I really enjoyed those.

Fantastic. Thank you. Well, thank you to all three to put any one, have anything that you feel you haven’t had an opportunity to share that you’d

like to, or would you like to just catch up at the end with a questions and answers?

You’re all good. Okay. Fantastic. Thanks very much Sita.

Ah, thanks, Annie. Um, so, uh, thank you, to the

uh, MTeach students. Uh it’s yeah, it’s just, um, uh, really good to hear, uh,

the kind of relationships that you have with your tutors and that you’re enjoying your course. So I’m going to move on to, um, more bread and butter, uh,

information about the admissions. Uh, so to be admitted to our MTeach course, you’ll need a UTS recognized bachelor degree or an equivalent

qualification that includes at least one major discipline to the first, um, in regards to the first teaching area.

And this is six subjects, uh, with no more than two at the first year and no more than two at the third

year, you will also need, um, a non-academic entry requirement, which is a personal statement.

And, uh, for international students or local students are with an international

qualification, you’ll need to meet the English language proficiency requirements, which includes an IELTS score of a 7.5 overall,

a minimum of eight in speaking and listening and seven in reading and writing.

Next slide. Thank you. So as mentioned in the previous slide,

NESA specifications for subject content knowledge requirements include six

discipline subjects for a major and at least four for a minor. If you’re missing a couple of the disciplines subjects, that’s fine.

So it’s possible to use two elective spaces to make up the shortfall.

And those are the kinds of questions that you’ll tic-tac with me as a course coordinator. So I can help you map out your study plan,

according to the subjects that you’ve got in your undergraduate degree. Okay. Next slide. Thank you. So this is a personal statement, as I mentioned,

are all initial teacher education students need to complete this. The format is available on our website.

It involves a 250 word response to four short answer questions.

Um, based on why you’re interested in teaching, how would you describe your leadership,

your time management and your problem solving skills? So it’s quite straightforward. Um,

but that’s another thing that you have to put in with your admissions. Okay. Next slide. Thanks Sita.

And now we’re able to move into the question and answer section of the evening.

So thank you. I can see, um, that people have been busy uploading their questions. The first question is,

is this course NESA accredited. Uh, and yes, definitely,

uh, the course is, uh, fully, NESA accredited because, uh, I helped with the NESA application. So, uh, and so, um,

once you graduate, uh, NESA would acknowledge, um, your teaching degree, of course. Uh, uh, another question, uh,

are math and science teaching jobs in demand? They are particularly in demand at the moment, anything in the area of STEM, uh,

in the area of secondary teaching, uh, there will be, um, a significant number of jobs coming up as, as reported in the news.

Um, so, uh, they are areas that, um, that we have students particularly interested in, um,

completing in this teaching specializations. And you can do a combination of, of, of those areas as well. As Sita,

mentioned. I was going to say Jo, sorry. Um, so I’ll answer the next question if you like about the prac placements.

And I do apologize for not mentioning that when, when I was first talking about professional experience,

but the university finds your placement places for you. You’ll fill out some forms and things in your,

my placement area, which you’ll know you’ll find out all about when you, once you’ve enrolled and started. And within that system,

we try to locate you in the best possible way for your MTeach. You do have to teach at two different schools,

but we still do the best we can to, um, you know, just sort of accommodate whatever your needs are.

But certainly under most circumstances we find the placement for you and organize, um, all the paperwork, basically that has to happen.

Thanks Annie, uh, so there’s another question that is connected to that one. That’s a, um, another question Molly’s asked when does prac occur?

Yeah, so under whatever normal means, if we put that in quotes under a normal year,

prac is normally in your second and fourth semester,

but, um, obviously in years, like 2021, sorry, 2020 and 21, that’s been a little bit all over the place,

but again, even if, even if it is disrupted for various reasons, we’re still there to support you a hundred percent and to make sure that you

still manage to get the professional experience that you’re expected to get, and that you’re supported in, in making sure that, that,

that happens at appropriate times and, um, in accordance with the NESA requirements. So yeah,

generally in the spring semesters. So, um, Annie, do you want to answer, how long does the master of teaching take.

Short. Generally it’s around about two years. Okay. So, um, well it’s not quite two years really, but it’s four semesters.

So, um, yeah, so generally it’s over 18 months, like 18 months to two years. So four semesters in,

in general, and I think there are some variations to that. And of course you can, you know, take longer and go part time.

And after you finished your first professional experience, and I think this is a really important thing to,

to understand once you’ve completed successfully completed your,

um, first professional experience, you are able to start teaching casually in a school.

So whilst the course work itself, takes you a while and you’re not finished and you’re not graduated and fully

accredited. You can – after that first 12 months – get your conditional accreditation and actually start

teaching in a school. So it’s really not that terribly long before you can do that. Vrinda, if you’re there,

we have a question that is asking what was the most challenging parts of a prac?

Um, I would say the most challenging part of prac was the fact that you kind of have

to be a sponge. Um, you’re going to be surrounded by a lot of teachers and hopefully you’ll be

surrounded by a lot of, uh, people who are giving you feedback on your teaching and you kind of always have

to be in learning mode. You always have to be soaking up any advice that you can get and improving.

And then even then there might be something that a teacher would say, you know, maybe you could do this differently. So initially it might feel a bit overwhelming,

but I think that’s one of the more important parts of it because it’s like the more you’re learning during the prac, the easier things are going to be once you actually start teaching. Um, so yeah,

having to be switched on and having to soak up all, all of that information and also like working a fair bit as well, because,

um, it’s honestly harder being at prac than actually teaching because the teachers are going to need you to develop those skills and show them and

kind of be as sure as possible that you can be a good teacher. So it’s a lot of work, but yeah.

And what years did you take in schools when you’re on your prac?

Um, when I was on prac, um, I did all the stages. So in my first block I did years seven, nine, ten,

and a little bit of eleven. Um, my second prac was slightly lesser was just seven, ten. Um,

yeah, it was mostly a year seven and year ten. So you’ve got quite the range there on that prac experiences. That’s great.

Schools try to give you a larger range, I think as far as I’m aware. My schools did so. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks Vrinda. I think that they’re fairly,

they’re normally fairly supportive in trying to give you as much experience across the grades as, as possible. And one other really exciting thing,

um, that I think I’d like to mention too, is that the vast majority of UTS MTeach

students before they have finished their second prac, um, have actually been offered temporary, casual or some other

kind of work often at the school that they’re at. Um, so, you know, or many, you know, a huge number of them.

So that’s kind of a really exciting thing. So we often say to everyone, see your second prac in particular as a sort of like a very extended job

interview, um, because you’re often asked the day after, can you come back and start doing some prac, sorry,

some casual work for us. So I don’t, Yeah, so I can see that Andrew and Jeremy have, um,

mainly asked around having a minor teaching area in mathematics.

Um, and this is a really common question that we get from a lot of, uh, prospective applicants, because a lot of people might have done a lot of studies in science,

for example, but then are interested in teaching maths as well. Um, so just to put it plainly though, as noted in the presentation,

you are able to undertake up to two electives within the discipline content area. Um, if you are missing those particular subjects,

unfortunately if you’re missing more than that, you will need to undertake some of it outside before commencing your studies into

the MTeach. So, um, for example, if you currently have a first teaching area in science,

but you want to teach maths as well and your undergraduate doesn’t have any mathematics within it, you’ll need to undertake two mathematics subjects

outside, as not award perhaps, or within another course before you can enter it and then have that science

mathematics combination. Um, if you are planning to have maths as the first station area, which is,

which is a major, then you’ll need to have completed at least four of those subjects prior to entering into the MTeach, because we will have the elective space to two,

but only a maximum of two for the MTeach. Um, so I think that covers both of the questions there for about mathematics.

So the HSIE major, what junior subjects does this, let me teach? It covers all junior subjects, the junior syllabus,

um, and that’s for HSIE. And Molly, if you are interested, uh, further about the HSIE options, uh, please send us an email.

I don’t know if my, um, I can put my email up on the chat. Is, is that okay?

Um, and so, uh, um, before we leave, so you can contact us and let us know.

Do most students have more than one teaching area? Uh, uh,

most students have, yes, they do have more than one teaching area and that is, um, to,

uh, increase their employability. Um, it does, it is determined by an undergraduate pathway and, um,

we can creatively map up your study plan, uh, to accommodate that the electives are there, um, for us to be able to,

um, possibly add teaching areas and also to, um,

make up the shortfall of the content knowledge requirements that you might be missing when you enter. So, uh, yeah,

please contact me with any of those questions. Yeah. And Jo, there’s one, there’s one more that you might be able to address it’s: what if I find a job while

studying in the MTeach, will I be able to defer the degree for certain amount of time? So I can complete my grad job first.

Uh, Shirley, um, do you know how long our students can defer their studies for?

Um, so at UTS you can have a maximum of up to two years worth of leave, but my main concern would be more the fact that even if you do find a grad job,

um, you will only have an interim teaching number up until you have officially conferred your course,

because you will need to provide that transcript to NESA in order to be a fully accredited teacher. Because up until that point,

you will only have an interim number. And that only, I think, um, that has an expiration of 12 months, I believe.

Yeah. Um, but we do have, um, students working closer to the end of their degree, um,

while studying at the same time. Yeah. We also do have a lot of students who become those. Um,

I can never remember the acronym for this, but it’s like the teaching and learning support officers, uh, at schools.

So, um, perhaps if you can work out a contract at a school there, you should also study part-time if you’re grad job will allow that as well.

Let me get this up in, in regards to the maths topic. Um, so we can enroll in an undergraduate degree and withdraw from the

application after we’ve completed the two units and enroll in a master’s of teaching.

So Jordy, I would actually recommend that you contact Jo with your transcripts, so we can confirm that before you apply and make all those changes into your

future studies, just because, um, it’s always good to double check. We can run a pre-assessment for you. And this is again, open to anyone. Um,

if you would like to get your transcript, pre-assessed feel free to send through your transcripts. Uh,

I’ll put in our email, but you can also contact Jo and Jo will contact me anyway, and we can get that assessed for you.

So I don’t think I’ll answer that particularly. Um, we have had students who have, uh,

admitted themselves into undergraduate courses before and then, um, withdrawn once they’ve completed the right amount of subjects and then come to

the master teaching, but it’d be good to double check what your eligibility is

before you’ve made all these decisions. Uh, thank you, Shirley. And the final question is how many hours roughly is the course per week?

Uh, so I would say it just depends on whether you do, um,

uh, the course part-time or full-time, uh, depending on, um, your study load, um, the subjects would vary. So, um,

maybe Annie for, uh, one of the subjects that you’re taking in the MTeach, would you roughly estimate how much time students would need?

And I guess it varies because, you know, from, from week to week and certainly before professional experience,

because all of the subjects I teach are, uh, or most of the subjects I teach are related to experience,

particularly in second semester, we do a lot of what’s called front loading because we have only a few weeks, um,

before you go out on prac and then the semester sort of completes. So we do what’s called front loading. So certainly in that, um,

second part of the year, you might be doing more hours per week than you would do in the first

semester of the year. But on average, you’ll do, um, two,

two hours of, um, online or face-to-face sort of teaching and learning and workshops

and, and sort of what we used to call tutorials and then you’ll have,

you know, an hour or a couple of hours more, probably one to three hours of preparation and consolidation time

afterwards. So, you know, roundabout, I suppose, three to six hours per subject,

per week out without doing additional interest areas or, or perhaps writing an assignment or something like that.

So it, it does ebb and flow a little bit.

Okay. So thank you. I’m going to slowly bring us to a close, uh,

um, thank you to the team, uh, uh, carried on so smoothly without me. Uh, um, we have a wonderful team,

uh, at, um, UTS for the MTeach, um, any questions that you might have.

Um, it’s my email address, uh, the school’s professional experience office, um,

email address is in the chat now. So please contact us. Uh, this is what we do.

We’re so excited to meet new students and help you on your journey towards teaching as, um, Kimberly was saying, and Vrinda was saying, um,

and Stella was saying, our heart is in teaching and, um, it’s just a wonderful profession to be in,

and I wish you have a wonderful evening. Um, we hope to see you next year. Thank you.