This module provides opportunity for students to become fully immersed in the classroom and wider school community. Supported and guided by university tutors, Treoraí and other school personnel, students will have an opportunity to address areas of further development identified in placement 1 to positively impact their placement experience. Placement 2 will extend students' knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning by bridging the connections between theory and practice. This module serves to enable students to develop further the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for the planning, preparation, management, reflection and evaluation cycle associated with teaching, learning and assessment. Students will build on knowledge and understanding, gained in their year three modules, to prepare creative and inclusive learning environments to meet the needs of all learners. They will also explore their role as members of a professional school community by interrogating the concepts of professional identity and agency and provide opportunities for professional collaboration and communication with parents. Through a cycle of inquiry, students, supported by Treoraí, will have an opportunity to engage in research on their own practice. Students will reflect on insights and learning gained and explore implications for their practice. A suite of online tutorials provides support to ensure students have the opportunity to experiment with digital technologies and engage in sustained professional collaboration. The tutorials create a space for students and teacher educators to discuss/negotiate, through professional conversations, the theory-practice connection via their deliberate practices experiences through a digitally flipped classroom. The module aims to develop self-appraisal to the highest level of critical analysis and student's ability to reflect on their own planning and performance. Through this, students will be facilitated in identifying strengths and areas for further professional learning for Droichead.

This module supports students in their preparation for school placement through the development of creative and inclusive units of learning and lesson plans. This module places an emphasis on the student to focus on the needs of the learners and by doing so will inform their own pedagogical understanding and ability to critically reflect on their practice. This focus will align with student's second experience of completing a cycle of inquiry which will be submitted as part of the student's portfolio. With an enhanced level of depth and exploration, students, supported by Treoraí, will identify an issue of concern and engage in a cycle of inquiry to gain new insights and explore implications for future practice. The concept of students as creative and reflective practitioners is central to this module. Students will be challenged to be innovative in their approach to planning and preparation, to include literacy and numeracy and assessment, and encouraged to stimulate creativity using digital technology. Supported by tutors and Treoraí students will critically reflect on key learning to teach concepts as well as broader socio-cultural issues, to include diversity and Global Citizenship Education, that impact teaching and learning. Links between the sites of practice are embedded in the module and the provision of online tutorials ensures that students are afforded an opportunity to build meaningful links between theory and practice and between placement 1 and placement 2. To reduce the isolation students may experience on placement the tutorials create a community of practice in which students can engage with key learning to teach concepts. They also provide opportunities for co-inquiry and collaborative critical reflection on the successes and challenges of placement experiences. To understand the school as an organisation students will participate in a variety of non-teaching and extra-curricular activities. This will include opportunities for systematic observation in the school, for collaborative work with school staff and parents and for structured participation in school life.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of instructional alignment through coherence between learning outcomes, learning intentions, success criteria and assessment. Use a wide range of strategies and resources to assist pupil learning, including Universal Design for Learning and ICT-enhanced approaches. Understand and apply teaching and learning strategies that relate local and global development issues to the teaching of their subject area. Demonstrate their understanding of, and capacity for, using ICT to support collaborative and creative learning. Develop an appreciation of the complexity of teaching and an understanding of the different dimensions to the assessment, feedback and grading process in school placement, both its formative and summative dimension. Identify the impact of professional collaboration and critical reflection on their practice of teaching, learning and assessment. Interrogate their own professional practice through engaging in a cycle of inquiry. Identify further areas for professional learning for Droichead.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: Appreciate the importance of contextual factors in the planning and practice of teaching and the professional judgement required to becoming a caring, creative, collaborative and critically reflective teacher. Empathise and develop quality relationships of learning with young people from diverse backgrounds. Adopt ethical standards in relation to their professional conduct on school placement and in their relationship with young people, with Treoraí and other school personnel. Appreciate and experience collaboration with peers and experienced teachers and school leaders on maximising their teaching capacities for pupil learning and their personal and professional development as emerging teachers. Show an appreciation of literacy and numeracy in their classroom practices. Gain an appreciation of the range of activities within schools, both curriculum-based and extra- curricular and contribute to the wider school community. Display an awareness of their own professional development by engaging in reflective practice and setting out areas for further development.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: NA

This module enables the student teacher to experience teaching and learning in a variety of contexts, and to participate in school life in a way that is structured and supported. The module includes a 10-week placement in a post primary school where students are supported through lectures and tutorials pre-placement and review and evaluation post placement. The students will also engage with a suite of online tutorials during the placement period through a flipped classroom approach. These tutorials provide support for off campus learners, fosters reflective practice in a collaborative environment and focuses on themes central to 'learning to teach'. On placement, students will be expected to collaborate with tutors and Treoraí to deliver well planned and innovatively resourced classes to both junior and senior cycle level. As part of the placement, the student teacher undertakes and observes a wide range of teaching and non-teaching activities, thereby developing an appreciation of the complexity of teaching and the variety of roles undertaken by teachers. The module facilitates the development of the student teacher's capacity for self-reflection and research, in dialogue with Treoraí, peers and tutors, and affords the student teacher valuable opportunities to develop a range of knowledge, skills, competences and professional dispositions which are critical to his/her professional identity as a teacher (School Placement Guidelines, Teaching Council, 2013). Students are mentored and assessed by two school placement tutors over the course of the placement. Professional dialogue and the development of a mentoring relationship is initiated in pre-placement meetings where tutors assess student's preparedness for placement by providing feedback on planning and preparation documentation. A student will normally receive three tutor visits during the ten-week placement. The assigned tutors will observe and evaluate a range of classes and provide an appraisal containing both specific and general guidance and identify areas for further development. Reflections on their experiences in their placement schools play an important role in analysing and documenting their experiences and these are shared with tutors on a weekly basis. The placement concludes with post placement meeting between students and tutors whereby the student has an opportunity to engage in reflective dialogue with their tutors and strengths and areas for further professional learning for Droichead are identified. The school placement experience is scaffolded with national and international research and informed by relevant policy documentation including the Teaching Council's Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers and School Placement Guidelines.