Teaching Focus [30.0]

IMPORTANT NOTE: In accordance with article 138 para. 4 of the decree of 7 November 2013 concerning higher education and the academic organisation of studies, teaching practice placements will not be assessed in the September session. Students are required to make every effort to successfully complete the teaching practice in the June session, subject to having to retake the year.

The teaching focus is concerned with preparation for teaching at the higher levels of secondary education. The programme is designed to develop the following skills:

• design, planning and assessment of practice;
• ability to assess practices and their context;
• understanding of the educational institution, its setting and players.

Three kinds of activities are involved:

• teaching practice at the higher levels of secondary education (60 hours);
• seminars;
• lectures.

They are divided into two categories:

• teaching practice, multidisciplinary courses and seminars, common to all subjects. They have the code LAGRE (13 credits);
• subject-based teaching practice, courses and seminars (17 credits).

The aim of the teaching focus is to train future teachers to pass on the knowledge they have acquired in the core curriculum courses and their additional options and to teach them how they can support pupils pursuing a drama career, encourage them to take risks, pursue self-development and improve their self-knowledge. Training takes the form of practical drama work in schools and acquiring a knowledge of general teaching methodology and discipline-specific teaching practices. The teaching practices of the performing arts is offered as a thesis topic.

The teaching focus of the 120-credit Master's degree includes training leading to a qualification for teaching in secondary education (Agrégation de l'enseignement secondaire supérieur - AESS) (300 hours - 30 credits), pursuant to the Decrees of 8 February 2001 and of 17 December 2003 (concerning the basis for neutrality) relating to the initial training of upper secondary school teachers in the French Community of Belgium. These 30 credits also make up the AESS programme in Performing Arts, which can be taken after a 60- or 120-credit Master's degree.

In practical terms, successful completion of the Master's degree with a teaching focus also leads to the award of professional status as a qualified secondary school teacher. Assessment of the skills in the AESS programme is spread over the two years of the Master's degree. However, graduates with the full qualification (titre requis), at present the AESS or a Master's in Performing Arts with a teaching focus, may currently teach History of Literature and History of the Theatre at arts academies.

For further information about full qualifications (titres requis) and partial qualifications (titres suffisants): www.enseignement.be/primoweb.

Students wishing to do so can combine this focus with an Erasmus or Mercator exchange programme, which must be taken either during the second term of the first year or during the first term of the second year. All teaching focus classes must be taken at UCLouvain, however.