Curriculum Knowledge 2: Physical Philosophers (X6615)

30 credits, Level 5

Autumn and spring teaching

This is the second module of the BA in Primary and Early Years Education (with QTS), focusing on developing secure subject and curriculum knowledge for teaching. You'll continue to draw upon established curriculum models and published guidance (policy and research) to build competence and confidence in understanding core substantive knowledge, second-order concepts, processes, and subject-specific skills for each curriculum subject.

This module will deepen your understanding of how strong literacy and numeracy skills underpin effective curriculum design and pupil progression, and how skilled practitioners use this knowledge to create rich, engaging learning sequences.

A distinctive feature of this module is the cross-curricular theme of “physical philosophers,” which will help you explore physical, personal, social, and emotional development, with a specific focus on:

• physical education
• PSHE
• Philosophy for Children.

You'll also enhance your understanding of how literacy and numeracy foundations contribute to these areas. This module challenges you to recognise, critique, and develop the interplay between planning, active learning, assessment, feedback, and differentiation to promote pupil engagement and progress. Good practice in teaching, assessment, and broader pedagogies will be central to each session.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 66 hours of contact time and about 234 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.