In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
In this unit you will develop an understanding of both the content and pedagogy required to teach science in early childhood education and care settings and in primary school classrooms. You are introduced to concepts on how children learn science, the importance of science education in an Australian and international context and current views regarding effective pedagogical practice. You will examine research that has informed the selection of pedagogy with children in early childhood education and care settings and in primary school classrooms. Practical application of skills related to the Australian Curriculum: Science will focus on learning and teaching across the four Understanding Substrands of Biological Sciences, Earth and Space Sciences, Chemical Sciences and Physical Sciences. There is an emphasis on science inquiry skills, in particular, identifying and posing questions; planning, conducting and reflecting on investigations; processing, analysing and interpreting evidence; and communicating findings. The unit includes an emphasis on effective student engagement within science education through the appropriate selection, application and assessment of science content knowledge.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2025
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student feedback
Focus on more practical examples.
Revise unit materials to include more practical, tangible examples of student activities.
- Evaluate examples of teaching and assessment practice in science education to identify how connections are made to students’ prior knowledge or experience to promote learning
- Access and apply professional literature on contemporary science education to critically evaluate or justify planning and assessment practices
- Plan learning experiences that use appropriate research-based pedagogy and ICTs to structure content and address students’ possible misconceptions in science education
- Develop diagnostic, formative and summative assessment tools that identify students’ understanding of scientific phenomena
- Select teaching and learning and assessment strategies that draw on understandings from research of how students learn in order to support active learning, promote higher order thinking and scaffold students’ understanding of core concepts in science
- Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.
Successful completion of this course provides opportunities for students to demonstrate the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers focus areas of:
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students.
1.2 Understand how learners learn
2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs
3.3 Use teaching strategies
3.4 Select and use resources
3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs
4.1 Support student participation
5.1 Assess student learning
5.5 Report on student achievement
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 50% | ||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 50% | ||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | ||||||
| 2 - Communication | ||||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | ||||||
| 4 - Research | ||||||
| 5 - Self-management | ||||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | ||||||
| 7 - Leadership | ||||||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||||