Master of Teaching

Full-time

Minimum

1 year

Maximum

2 years

Part-time

Minimum

2 years

Maximum

4 years

Course Descriptors

MTC901 Nurturing Learners and Learning (4 AUs)
In this course, participants will be introduced to:

1) The art and science of positive education to encourage and support students thriving and flourishing. Participants will be introduced to the concepts of flourishing and well-being and gain an overview of the principles of Positive Education and how it can help school communities to flourish. This course explores the benefits of Positive Education, the underlying research that guides teaching practice and interventions drawn from successful frameworks of social-emotional learning, mental health and positive psychology. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on how the concepts in the domain areas of positivity, positive relationships, positive engagement and positive accomplishment can be nurtured and embedded in classroom and school contexts.

2) The science of positive psychology to encourage and support schools and individuals to flourish. Participants will be introduced to the concept of wellbeing and its constituent components, with specific focus on Character Strengths and Mindfulness. Hence, participants will have the opportunity to develop and practice the skills, knowledge and strategies needed to enhance their students, children's or employees well-being, while developing their character strengths and mindfulness.

3) The concept of motivation and the various approaches to motivational studies, namely the behaviourist, humanistic, cognitivist and socio-cultural perspectives. They will explore the factors influencing learner motivation, and the reasons why some learners are more motivated than others. Finally, they will have the opportunity to develop and apply the skills, knowledge and strategies needed to enhance their students, childrens or employees motivation to learn.

MTC902 Designing Curriculum: Theory and Practice (4 AUs)
A good understanding of the elements of curriculum and the complex factors and relationships that contribute to or otherwise influence curriculum design and enactment can provide educators with new insights into their relationship with curriculum and the roles they do and can play in curriculum design and enactment. This course expands participants understanding of curriculum beyond the narrow conception of curriculum as a plan that teachers simply deliver and invites them to use different conceptual tools and perspectives to examine their personal experiences with curriculum. In this way, the course helps participants to reconsider teachers agency and responsibilities in curriculum designing and enactment and bring about improvements in curriculum practice.

MTC903 Assessment for Learning: Theory and Practice (4 AUs)
Assessment for Learning (AfL) is referred to ubiquitously in Singaporean classrooms, but its meanings, implications and applications in schools and wider workplace learning contexts are less clear. This course first examines the discourse of AfL and formative assessment, against its varied and different theoretical constructions from Anglophone countries (e.g. USA and UK), before examining regional case studies from more recent times.

This course also aims to equip participants with an understanding of the effects of assessment design and practice on participants  learning in a curriculum, and how choice of assessment methods, assessment task design, classroom formative assessment and feedback practice may be situated for reiterative (constructive) alignment of assessment, curriculum and pedagogy.

Participants will learn and apply assessment for learning pedagogies to revise/develop an assessment design in a complete unit lesson plan in ways that ultimately enhance their students construction of learning.

MTC904 Facilitating Learning in the Digital Age (4 AUs)
With the advent of the digital age, the profile of the learners in the education system has changed dramatically. It is, therefore, imperative that educators evaluate their instructional strategies for designing learning and adapt existing practices to better meet the learning needs and preferences of the digital generation. This is to empower them to handle the complex challenges of a highly globalised and digitised world. Rethinking pedagogy for the 21st century is as crucial as identifying the new competencies that todays learners need to develop in this digital age. This course explores the pedagogies, learning environments, theories, perspectives and considerations on the use of various digital media technologies to develop 21st century competencies and skills in the learners.

MTC905 Understanding and Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge (4 AUs)
Among the various aspects of teacher knowledge (e.g., content or subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of students, instructional knowledge, knowledge on assessment, curriculum knowledge), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has been proposed to pull together these knowledges. Hence, its relevance to educators, especially teachers (or pedagogues) is of high importance. The need to be highly skilled in PCK become very salient in the context of the demands placed on professionals to bring about effective learning in learners in order to nurture competencies required for the future society and economy.

In the context of the programme, this course will bring together the interconnections of learning of the four courses: curriculum designing, assessment for learning, and learning using technology. This course allows participants to understand the concepts of PCK, and identify and explore a topic within the curriculum that are of key interest and relevance in their respective subject disciplines. For each created topic, the constituent knowledge domains of curricular knowledge, knowledge of representations i.e. teaching strategies for teaching the topic, and knowledge of student conceptions and assessment will be included.

MTC906 Educational Inquiry into Teaching and Learning (4 AUs)
A strong foundational knowledge of research methods is generally essential for all masters students doing research work  even inquiring into specific areas such as teaching and learning. This course will sensitize and familiarize participants with the understanding of the research process and the key concepts, principles and techniques of both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. Specifically, course participants will be introduced to the fundamental processes of research work (e.g. formulating research questions, literature review, designs and approaches, data collection, data analysis, and interpreting research data).

MTC907 Integrative Project (2 AUs)
The Integrative Project is a capstone course which provides the learning opportunity for participants to tie together and culminate what they have learned in the courses offered in the programme into proposal report that addresses a specific problem or issue in education through the process of rigorous inquiry.