Applicants must hold a minimum of a bachelor’s degree majoring in either accounting, mathematics, science or technology subjects.
Applicants must be employed as teachers in the secondary school at the time of applying and must have accrued at least one year’s teaching experience.

Candidates shall pursue an 18-month programme of study consisting of three semesters (or stages) on block-release.
The programme consists of taught modules, work-based experience assessment and a research or design project.

Assessment
All modules shall be assessed through both coursework and examination unless specified otherwise in the module synopsis.
The research project shall count as two modules for purposes of assessment and all the other modules shall be equal in weighting.
The weighting of written examinations and coursework shall be 60% and 40% respectively.
Candidates must pass at least 66% of all modules in one stage before proceeding to the next stage. The pass mark in each module shall be 50%.
A candidate who fails one or two modules in the first year shall be required to carry that/those module(s) into the second year.
A candidate who fails more than two modules in Year 1 will be required to repeat and pass those modules before proceeding to the next year.
To be awarded the diploma, candidates must complete a minimum of 180 credits.

PST 5101              Theoretical foundations in STEM education I                       

Philosophical considerations, national goals, ideology and paradigms of educational practice; ethics, epistemology; educational policy, science and technology curriculum theory; modernism and postmodernism; positivism, determinism.  Sociological considerations; society and socialization; family, culture and community influence, public schooling and social development, multi-cultural education.

 

PST 5102              The teaching profession                                

Norms and values of the teaching profession, standards and benchmarks of professionalism;  teacher profiles; teacher-student interaction; staff relations; external relations; the school as an organization, introductory organizational behaviour, staff development, promotion; recruitment, probation, remuneration, termination of service. Quality issues and standards in science and technology education, quality control, quality management, quality assurance in teaching and assessing students

 

PST 5103              Instructional Design in STEM education                                   

Methods and strategies of lesson delivery; Learner involvement and participation; group work, discussion, practical subjects, and project work; Curriculum, syllabus, schemes of work; taxonomy of educational objectives; setting objectives, lesson planning and preparation,  learning documentation, delivery and evaluation of lessons; types of lessons.

 

PST 5104              Curriculum development and evaluation                                  

Curriculum terminology and concepts; ideology and philosophy underpinning curriculum planning, development and evaluation. Curriculum needs assessment models. The impact of social, economic, political, technological, psychological, philosophical and cultural, environmental influences on the curriculum. Process and product models of curriculum development; objectives models e.g. Tyler, Wheeler; decision-making models e.g. Stufflebeam (CIPP); Designing/developing, delivering and evaluating a curriculum. Curriculum change and innovation; strategies for change (Havelock’s RD&D, SI, PS, L). Evaluation; Curriculum evaluation models.

 

PST 5105              Assessment and evaluation in STEM education                    

Principles of assessment in science and technology studies; Learner performance measurement, standards, methods of assessment; formative and summative assessment; types, functions and structures of tests and examinations. Types of test questions; objective and subjective; assessment and the taxonomies of educational objectives; standardized tests; assessment for science and technical subjects.

 

PST 5109              Statistics in education                    

Descriptive and inferential statistics in science, education and research, methods of summarizing and interpreting data, frequency distribution, measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, fractiles, measures of strength and association. (X-ref PST1209 and SMA2204)

 

PST 5119              Didactics and Pedagogy I                             

The variety of science and technology lessons (Mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, accounting, technical subjects, etc.); preparation of teaching documents and resources; designing and conducting experiments and practical lessons; supervision and assessment of projects; handling equipment and tools; peer teaching; peer and tutor evaluation of mock lessons; review of recorded lessons; using evaluation instruments; teacher reflection; case studies, journal/log book writing.

 

PST 5201              Theoretical foundations in STEM education II                         

Understanding the learner; physical, social, mental and emotional development; Psychological perspectives, learning and cognition, the non-western science and technology learner; education ideologies, humanism, behaviourism, Gestalt theory, cognitivism and constructivism, neural learning, multiple intelligences. Guidance and counseling, inclusive education, discipline.

 

PST 5205              Designing assessment and grading tools                               

Item writing, structuring of examination questions and papers. Marking guides, scoring and recording; grading; criterion and norm-referenced testing; local and standardized tests. Continuous and terminal assessment, assessment of practical work, projects and field wok. Student expected to set at least three original examination papers with marking guides in their teaching subjects.

 

PST 5206              Learner backgrounds & characteristics (Optional)                

Theories of human development, adolescent and adult learners, learner needs identification, needs hierarchies, motivation, mental intelligence, emotional intelligence, multiple intelligences, HBDI, neural learning, learning styles, small and large groups, learners with special needs, learning with technology.

 

PST 5208              Leadership, Supervision and Management in STEM education        

The administration of education; administrative tasks; school-based management; results-based management; power, authority, leadership and institutional governance; leadership styles; school effectiveness; change and improvement; quality control; delegation, decentralization, empowerment. Models of supervision. X-Ref PST2208.

 

PST 5211              Research Methods                         

Teacher as researcher and reflective practitioner; qualitative and quantitative research methods; research and designs; ethical issues and problems in educational, scientific and technology research; data collection methods; populations and samples; proposal and report writing. Statistics in education and research; sampling theory, methods of summarising and interpreting data; frequency distributions; measures of central tendency; measures of dispersion, significance and hypothesis testing.

 

PST 5212              Computer applications in STEM education                              

Concepts of human communication; planning and using educational technology; learning environments; computers and learning; computer literacy; word processing, spreadsheets, document production, e-learning and online education.

 

PST 5213              Learning resources in science and technology education                  

Resources in education; categories of resources; resource management; planning, acquisition, allocation, utilization, maintenance and disposal; finance, saving and investment. Books, stationery, equipment, buildings and facilities; classrooms, laboratories, library, workshops, resource centres; research and development.

 

PST 5219              Didactics and Pedagogy II                            

Peer teaching; peer and tutor evaluation of mock lessons; review of recorded lessons; using evaluation instruments; teacher reflection; case studies, journal/log book writing.

 

PST 5300              Work based Experience                                  Credits: 20

Supervised and assessed professional practice in schools. Review of professional documentation, resources and learning environments; observation of lessons; discussion and counseling. The module counts as two taught modules.

 

PST 5312              Online learning principles and practice                     Credits: 20

Theory and practice of online learning. Students engage in a virtual learning experience to gain skills in online lesson planning, delivery and assessment of students. The module counts as two taught modules.

 

PST 5310              Research Project                                               Credits: 20

A short experimental, theoretical or design project preferably linking the specialist subject of the candidate to teaching and learning. The project counts as two taught modules.