What Makes This Course So Special?
Gaining a Mandatory Qualification (MQ) enables you to become a specialist teacher. You may then join a network of professionals with the same qualification by attending meetings within Wales and beyond and by accessing various forums on the internet.
A prize (currently named the Glan Davies Award) is presented to the highest achieving student within this pathway each year.
As all pupils with hearing impairment are entitled to support from a Teachers of the Deaf (Dof) specialist (?), your potential for employment is very good.
Course Intro
This course is for you if you are a teacher wanting to specialise in teaching children and young people with hearing impairment.
For this you need to obtain a specialist qualification, known as a Mandatory Qualification (MQ). This also includes gaining a qualification in Sign Language. The course is recognised as a specialist qualification for Teachers of the Deaf (ToD). Mandatory Qualification status can only be awarded at the end of the course to those who hold Qualified Teacher Status (Schools).
On the course the majority of students aim to gain ToD status, however the course may also be followed by teachers, who may exit after completion of the taught modules with a Postgraduate Diploma SEN. The course is taught in conjunction with Mary Hare School for the Deaf, Newbury, Berkshire. Mary Hare Training Services is one of the leading specialist institutions of its kind in the UK.
What you study
To gain a Postgraduate Diploma in Hearing Impairment participants must pass four modules.
Three taught modules:
• Language, Learning and Understanding Literacy
• Issues in Audiology
• Classroom Practice and Support Issues
Participants must also pass the fourth module:
• Understanding Learning Difficulties and Disabilities: which is taught on the campus or can be accessed via e-learning (please refer to prospectus entry E-Gateway to SEN, page ?).
The programme includes lectures, seminars, visits, workshops and teaching placements and aims to prepare students to become specialist teachers who can work in a range of educational settings and across all ranges. Teachers of the deaf work in homes, mainstream nurseries and schools, special schools and resourced bases within mainstream schools. They provide expert advice, support and expertise to parents and to mainstream and special school teachers who have pupils with hearing impairment in their classrooms. They also provide teaching of specialist skills such as sign language, alternative methods of communication and use of specialist hearing aids as well as ensuring that the curriculum is suitably modified to meet the needs of individual pupils.
Teachers of the deaf also work closely with school staff, providing in-service training on the needs of individual pupils with hearing impairment to ensure that they achieve the highest possible standards.
A programme specification for this course is available.
Where Next?
Upon successful completion, most students will undertake the Research Methodology module and will then proceed to the MA dissertation, in order to achieve the award of MA SEN.
After completing their Masters award, some students take further qualifications in SEN at the University. If you are interested in the possibility of a higher degree by research, your tutors will be pleased to discuss the opportunities for doing so here at Newport.
Interview Required
Yes. All candidates will be interviewed
Assessment
Each module is assessed by submitting a written assignment of 5,000 words, or equivalent. The Classroom Practice module is assessed via the teaching practice component where students are observed in their placement (eight weeks over 2 years) and on submission of their teaching practice file. Participants must also successfully complete an approved Sign Language qualification and an assessed Teaching Practice component.
Student Soundbite
“The course gave me the means and the confidence to change my career and do what I always wanted to do. Everyone on the course was so willing to support me. I am now working as a peripatetic teacher for deaf children in Wales.”