Module: Professional Practice & Partnerships in SPHE/RSE

Module Specifications.

Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025

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Date posted: September 2024

Module Title	Professional Practice & Partnerships in SPHE/RSE
Module Code	HD527 (ITS) / EDU1111 (Banner)
Faculty	DCU Institute of Education	School	Human Development
Module Co-ordinator	Leanne Coll
Module Teachers	Catherine Maunsell
NFQ level	9	Credit Rating	20
Pre-requisite	Not Available
Co-requisite	Not Available
Compatibles	Not Available
Incompatibles	Not Available

None

Description

This year-long module will act as a fulcrum for participants' learning by providing scaffolded support for reflection on the integration of theory-practice and opportunities for participants to contextualise their learning from other taught modules on this programme. This module will seek to utilise, advance and integrate the existing skills and knowledge base that teachers of SPHE/RSE will bring to the classroom. Participants will receive formative feedback on their learning from experienced educators and peers. They will be supported to work collaboratively through Professional Learning Communities (PLC) which will help to scaffold leadership skills needed for collaborative practice in SPHE/RSE within/beyond their own school communities. Module aims: ● To develop teachers’ skills in becoming effective, responsive and confident teachers of SPHE/RSE. ● To support participants to continually advance their professional practice from a holistic and systemic perspective, understanding their role as a skilled SPHE/RSE teacher but also leaders of SPHE/RSE within their schools and communities. ● To develop a critical inquiry perspective, allowing participants to creatively audit, map and respond to the needs of key educational stakeholders (including young people and parents) in their school contexts. ● To provide opportunities for participants to critically reflect on their evolving practice, its strengths, its challenges and links to the current body of literature on contemporary approaches to SPHE/RSE.

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the unique role of the teacher as professional in responding to the complex and intricate nature of teaching, learning, professional issues in SPHE/RSE.
2. Critically reflect on their evolving practice, its strengths, its challenges and links to the current body of research and evidence on high quality SPHE/RSE.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of sharing professional learning in a collegial manner to support and enhance teaching and learning.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of necessary skills needed for collaborative practice and leadership in SPHE/RSE at a whole school level.
5. Audit and map the needs of key educational stakeholders (including young people and parents) in their school contexts.
6. Create bespoke learning programmes and initiative that are responsive to the needs of young people and their school contexts.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full-time hours per semester
Workshop	96	12 days of workshops spread across the full calendar year. Made up of ½ and full days.
Group work	24	Professional Learning Communities: 2 hour x 6 weeks x 2 Semesters
Professional Practice	30	Mentorship and Professional Consutlations - Individual/Group with Tutors
Online activity	20	2 hours x 5 x 2 Semester
Directed learning	180	E-Portfolio and Project Planning, Preparation and Writing and Articulation
Independent Study	150	Independent Reading
Total Workload: 500

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Indicative Content/Syllabus
• Attuning to the needs of key stakeholders (young people, teachers, parents, school leaders & community members)- engaging with contemporary evidence-based case studies and findings from participatory oriented research with young people, teachers, parents and school communities on what more SPHE/RSE might become • Living curriculum in SPHE/RSE- exploring the concepts of responsive and responsible curriculum that connects and builds upon young people’s own learning and experiences. • Creative Auditing- exploring what is means to be responsive to the needs of school contexts using creative activities that invite young people and key stakeholders “to feel, think, question, and share sensitive or difficult issues, without revealing too much of themselves” (Renold, McGeeney and Ashton 2020, p.22). Participants will be supported to design their own creative audits in which they use creative methods to gather the views of young people and other key stakeholders in their contexts about how SPHE/RSE is being provided and possibilities for change (as per assessment 1). • Partnerships approaches to SPHE/RSE- focus on unpacking professional practice in SPHE/RSE and the unique role of partnership based approaches to and frameworks for SPHE/RSE. • Building Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in and through SPHE/RSE- introducing PLCs and their unique role in professional learning. Emphasis on scaffolding the support needed to co-create meaningful and sustainable PLCs for participants' own learning journeys throughout the programme. • Leadership in SPHE/RSE- exploring potentials of and for leadership in SPHE/RSE at whole school-level and allowing participants to critically consider their own roles as leaders of SPHE/RSE within their schools and communities. • Critically Reflexive SPHE/RSE Practitioners-exploring the important role of reflexive practice in the continuum of teacher education and professional learning in SPHE/RSE. Opportunities to engage in individual and collaborative forms of reflexive practice will also be provided through engagements in PLCs and professional conversations with tutors.

Indicative Teaching and Learning Activities
This module is research-driven, participatory and creative, modelling promising practice in SPHE/RSE and providing the opportunity for participants to put their learning into practice. The core praxis of this module is to find new ways to bring ‘what matters’ in SPHE/RSE to life, by supporting participants as they become attune to the complexity of young people’s SPHE/RSE related learning needs, respond to the needs of other key stakeholders in their own contexts and re-assemble the dissonance they may feel in doing so. Participants will engage in Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) which will include professional conversations with experienced mentors/teacher educators and peers. PLC’s will provide opportunities: (i) for mentors/teacher educators and peer groups to develop deeper, shared understanding of effective and evidence-based approaches to teaching, learning and assessment in SPHE/RSE (ii) for participants to provide examples of their own practice to support their progress with a view to receiving thoughtful, constructive feedback from the Mentors, Teacher Educators and Peers. The formation of PLC’s requires that mentors/teacher educators and participants work across the boundaries between the individual schools and university contexts to create a deeper, shared understanding of evidence that demonstrates quality teaching and how this can be used constructively and systematically to support participants progress. Participants will also be encouraged to draw on evidence from their e-portfolio to support assignment submissions, their creative audits and in identifying areas of their practice that require further support or guidance. Participants will also avail of professional formative feedback from programme tutors through: ● onsite/in person professional consultation to identify the application of the key learnings from the programme to their practice ● formal discussion of artefacts of practice and reflections on learning within their e-portfolios ● discussion regarding the ways in which their learnings are supporting the broader school community - e.g. initiatives they may have set up within the school, internal sharing of professional learning with SPHE/RSE teams, collaborations with parents and other professionals.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	100%	Examination Weight	0%

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Course Work Breakdown
Professional Portfolio	E-Portfolio: Participants will organise and articulate their personal and professional learning journey throughout the programme. Their e-portfolio is intended to reflect, inform and support the professional development of their agency, adaptive expertise, and identity as inclusive, innovative and creative professionals. It will also assist with links between their University studies and various sites of professional practice. The e-portolio is a live working document rather than an archive. It’s envisioned that students will share elements with tutors and peers to form the basis of professional learning conversations.	0%	n/a
Project	Creative Audit - Participants will individually carry out a creative SPHE/RSE audit mapping the views and needs of young people, staff and parents in their school context. The use of creative and arts-based audit strategies which will enable participants to focus on what key stakeholders know and wonder about RSE, the contextual needs of their school community and challenge assumptions about ‘what matters’ in SPHE/RSE. Participants are encouraged to consider what is doable (pragmatic) and possible (speculative), with whom, and how they might share the findings of their creative audit.	100%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories: Resit category 1: A resit is available for both* components of the module. Resit category 2: No resit is available for a 100% continuous assessment module. Resit category 3: No resit is available for the continuous assessment component where there is a continuous assessment and examination element.
* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a Continuous Assessment/Examination split; where the module is 100% continuous assessment, there will also be a resit of the assessment
This module is category 1

Indicative Reading List

Lupton, D. and Leahy, D. (Eds.): 2022, Creative Approaches to Health Education: New Ways of Thinking, Making, Doing, Teaching and Learning 1st ed. Abingdon UK: Routledge. 195 p. (Critical Studies in Health and Education).,
Leahy, D.: 2022, Addressing the complexity of school health promotion through interdisciplinary approaches: an invitation to think wildly about research. Potvin, L. & Jourdan, D. (Eds.). Global Handbook of Health Promotion Research. 1st ed. Vol. 1. p. 6,
Kara, H.: 2020, Creative Research Methods: A Practical Guide. Bristol University Press., Bristol University Press.,
Leahy, D., Fitzpatrick, K. and Wright, J. (Eds.): 2020, Social Theory and Health Education: Forging New Insights in Research 1st ed. Abingdon UK: Routledge. 270 p. (Critical Studies in Health and Education).,
Mannay, D.: 2016, Visual, Narrative and Creative Research Methods: Application, Reflection and Ethics., London: Routledge.,
Thomson, P. ed.: 2008, Doing Visual Research with Children and Young People., London: Routledge.,

Other Resources

59325, Website, 0, Teaching Council (2016) Cosán: Framework for Teachers’ Learning. https://www.teachingcouncil.ie/en/teacher-education/teachers-learning-cpd-/cosan-the-national-framework-for-teachers-learning.pdf, 59326, Website, 0, Teaching Council (2016) Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers. Updated 2nd Ed https://www.teachingcouncil.ie/en/publications/fitness-to-teach/code-of-professional-conduct-for-teachers1.pdf, 59327, Website, 0, Renold, E., McGeeney, E. and Ashton, M. (2020). CRUSH: Transforming Relationships and Sexuality Education. Cardiff: Cardiff University. www.agendaonline.co.uk/crush,