Curriculum

The University of Exeter ITE Curricula for our different programmes and subjects are all carefully designed to ensure that trainees become confident, skilled, professional teachers with:

1. the strong subject-specific and phase-specific pedagogical knowledge required to enable pupils to make good progress,
2. a thorough understanding of the intellectual basis of teaching, with the capacity to think critically about and interpret research in education and related fields in order to ensure their ongoing practice throughout their career is research-informed, and
3. a reflexive, thoughtful and pro-active stance towards their ongoing professional development.

 

All of our programmes have at their heart the Exeter Model of ITE, built around phases of development from Anticipating Practice, through Beginning Practice, to Consolidating Practice and Developing Independence, with an Extension and Enrichment phase for those trainees who have met the teachers’ standards before the end of the course. The sequencing of our curricula is different for different programmes, phases and subjects, with distinctive blends of declarative and procedural knowledge woven through the curriculum as appropriate for that particular placement pattern, subject and phase. In all of our ITE curricula, the CCF is covered in full as a minimum entitlement, with each subject and phase-specific curriculum map demonstrating for trainees and mentors where the CCF is taught, how it is contextualised for the relevant subject and phase, and what else is included, building on this minimum entitlement to ensure thorough, research-informed, subject-specific training.

 

The training tools used by University Tutors and School-based Mentors support the implementation of this curriculum through modelling and deliberate practice of key teaching skills using our demonstration and agenda tool, and expert feedback and coaching using lesson observations and our Exeter Model Framework. Trainees’ teaching is assessed formatively at weekly meetings and at the end of each phase of development using the FRAPs, enabling mentors and tutors to work with them adaptively, drawing carefully on the taught curriculum, to ensure they continue to be supported and challenged as appropriate.

 

In this section you will find the Curriculum Blogs, Core Content Framework, the Primary, Secondary and School Direct Distance Curriculum Maps, some slides detailing the Module Maps and the taught course timetable. This information will enable mentors to draw on the taught curriculum during their interactions with trainees, particularly during mentoring sessions and feedback following observations.