Erin Burns

I studied for my PGDE at the University of the West of Scotland. I completed my placements at St. Matthews Academy and Queen Margaret Academy. The course provided me with an excellent foundational knowledge of pedagogy as well as the Curriculum for Excellence. For my first assignment I focused on the validity and reliability of formative and summative assessment within the Scottish Secondary Sector, which allowed me to learn about how to implement this in the classroom and the benefits of doing so. Later, I chose to write about Citizenship, Inclusion and Learning out with the classroom. These modules have taught me about the use of a series of lessons about the attainment gap and prevention, the moral obligations of teaching young people about citizenship within the school and wider community, preventing bullying of those with learning disabilities and the importance of learning out with the classroom and how children and young people can utilise skills gained from classroom learning to the real world and real-life scenarios. Not only did I learn from it, but it also helped me to think about how to address such issues in the classroom.