Since it was launched in Fall 2016, there has been healthy competition for places in the Castle’s Concurrent Education Program. This trend is set to continue as the BISC is pleased to announce that from fall 2018, Con-Ed students at the Castle will take PROF 110, the theory component of the first-year Concurrent Education Program at Queen’s.
“Adding PROF 110 will be great for the students beginning their Con-Ed studies at the Castle because, for the first time, it will keep their progress synchronised with their cohort on main campus, since they will no longer need to catch this core course up in summer,” says Dr. Christian Lloyd, the BISC’s Academic Director.
It is indeed great news for our students, who will free up their summers, but also an exciting development for Con-Ed at the Castle, which will see it become a more well-rounded, complete international experience for budding student teachers. We believe that offering first year students a comparative international experience so early in their teaching careers already sets this program apart from all others currently offered in Canada, so adding PROF 110 will benefit the program further.
PROF 110 at the Castle will cover all the topics that the main campus version does, but will also take advantage of a wealth of opportunities for comparative analysis of the British educational system by the students. In only their first year of study, students spend one term making observations at a local primary school and the other in a secondary school environment. Added to this is an outstanding chance to work closely with professional educators in both public and private academic institutions, providing ample opportunity for discussion as the students critique the contrasting pedagogies they witness.
“It will give our student teachers a chance to reflect on their practicum work in progress with the help of an expert instructor, and an opportunity to start thinking about the broader theoretical, philosophical, and policy contexts in which educators operate,” Dr. Lloyd adds.