TEACHING ABOUT ICT IN SECONDARY EDUCATION TO PRE-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION STUDENTS: CHALLENGES FACED AND PROGRESS MADE

The Master of Teaching (Secondary) course at the University of Melbourne, Australia, commenced in 2008 and is an innovative approach to teacher education, where teacher candidates are in schools two days each week in parallel with their university studies. Teacher candidates have extensive support while in school — in addition to their mentor teacher, teacher candidates are in groups of 20-25 in a neighbourhood group that is supported by a Teaching Fellow placed at one of the schools and a Clinical Specialist who is a member of the University’s academic teaching staff.
This paper will first briefly describe this graduate teacher education course and then explore the subject ICT in Secondary Education, its design and the reasons behind the design of the subject. The subject focuses on teacher candidates learning to integrate ICT into their teaching and into students’ learning, with the goal of supporting their students’ learning, rather than focussing on ICT skills or tools, although many ICT skills are developed through the subject. Challenges of designing a compulsory ICT subject in a course for future secondary teachers, who enter the course with a wide range of ICT skills and discipline interests will be explored, as well as ways that we have been meeting these challenges.