• Deakin University

Secondary Science Education

Enhance your secondary science teaching skills by designing engaging and research-informed learning sequences aligned with Austral

  • Duration

    6 weeks

  • Weekly study

    10 hours

  • Accreditation

    AvailableMore info
Overview
Syllabus
Accreditation
Requirements
Educators
The CPD Certification Service

This course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles. Find out more.

This course is part of the Secondary Science Education program, which will enable you to advance your secondary science teaching with Deakin University’s microcredential.

Advance your secondary science teaching with Deakin University’s microcredential

Build practical expertise in delivering innovative, differentiated science education for Years 7-10 students. This course helps teachers apply curriculum and contemporary pedagogical theories to boost student engagement and learning outcomes.

Refresh your science content knowledge

Focus on science subjects relevant to secondary education while integrating updated content knowledge suited for contemporary classrooms.

Strengthen your pedagogical practice

Learn to design teaching sequences that foster scientific thinking, ethical understanding, and inclusivity based on evidence and curricular frameworks.

Learn from expert educators

Deakin experts guide you through curriculum-aligned pedagogy, assessment strategies, and discipline-specific approaches to effective science teaching.

Apply learning in your teaching context

Develop tailored teaching and learning sequences supported by formative feedback to enhance your impact in secondary science classrooms.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 2 seconds [ROCKET LAUNCHING]

Skip to 0 minutes and 7 seconds PETA WHITE: Are you ready to transform your secondary-science teaching practise? This microcredential in secondary-science education is designed for educators who want to deepen their content knowledge and extend their pedagogy for years 7 to 10. [INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC] Grounded in evidence-based research and aligned with the Australian and the Victorian curricula, you’ll explore how to design innovative, inclusive, and engaging learning sequences tailored to diverse student needs. You’ll deepen your knowledge across the science disciplines, particularly related to contemporary ideas. You’ll be able to apply those into pedagogies and assessment theory to your science teaching, create strategies that maximise engagement and learning across diverse cohorts, and design sequences that meet curriculum requirements while inspiring ethical and sustainable scientific thinking.

Skip to 1 minute and 8 seconds Connect science to a broader context by making it relevant, equitable, and empowering. You’ll also sharpen essential professional skills like problem solving, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement, preparing you to lead change in your school and community. So join us and reimagine what science education can be. [INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC]

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Teaching Science

    • Let's Get Started

      Meet your teaching team and other learners, and find key information about this course, including useful tips and links to help you get the most out of your learning.

    • Teaching Science

      Explore the foundations of science education by reviewing key curriculum elements and global frameworks.

    • Weekly Wrap

      Reflect on the key ideas presented this week and find out what's coming up in Week 2.

  • Week 2

    Science Pedagogy

    • What is Science Pedagogy?

      Unpack the concept of science pedagogy and its influence on classroom practice.

    • Pedagogical Approach: Representation Construction Approach (RCA)

      The Representation Construction Approach (RCA) engages students in actively creating and coordinating multiple representations to build scientific understanding and develop inquiry, problem-solving, and creative skills.

    • Pedagogical approach (Representation Construction Approach (RCA)) across the science disciplines

      RCA is a pedagogy with specific phases that can be applied across the science disciplines.

    • Weekly Wrap

      Reflect on the key ideas presented this week and find out what’s coming up in Week 3.

  • Week 3

    Approaches to Teaching and Learning Biology and Chemistry

    • Science Disciplines

      This week you'll choose to focus on biology or chemistry applying the Representation Construction Approach to build content knowledge inquiry, differentiated activities, and multiple representations.

    • Biology

      Explore biodiversity, ecosystems and body systems and the importance by linking scientific research to climate change impacts, fostering inquiry and critical thinking through local investigations and real-world examples.

    • Chemistry

      Understand the chemistry and impact of fossil fuels and critical minerals and the impact on the environment.

    • Weekly Wrap

      Reflect on the key ideas presented this week and find out what’s coming up in Week 4.

  • Week 4

    Approaches to Teaching and Learning Earth and Space Science and Physics

    • Let's Get Started

      This week you'll choose to focus on earth and space sciences or physics applying the Representation Construction Approach to build content knowledge inquiry, differentiated activities, and multiple representations.

    • Earth and Space Sciences

      Explore Earth’s dynamic systems and their interactions. Understand how human activity affects these systems and why sustainability is critical.

    • Physics

      The physics strand investigates energy transfer with a focus on electricity for a sustainable future, covering circuits, current, voltage, and electromagnetism, while exploring multimodal strategies for teaching physics concepts.

    • Weekly Wrap

      Reflect on the key ideas presented this week and find out what’s coming up in Week 5.

  • Week 5

    Applying the Learning

    • Let's Get Started

      Find out more about what we’ll learn this week.

    • Interdisciplinary Learning Biology and Earth & Space Sciences

      Engage in interdisciplinary activities that integrate biology and earth and space sciences, reflecting real-world contexts where understanding multiple sciences is essential.

    • Interdisciplinary Learning Chemistry and Physics

      Engage in interdisciplinary activities that integrate chemistry and physics, reflecting real-world contexts where understanding multiple sciences is essential.

    • Weekly Wrap

      Reflect on your learning from this week as we prepare to focus on your assessment task, which we'll be looking at in more detail next week.

  • Week 6

    Assessment details

    • Assessment Preparation and Submission

      Learn practical tips and information about how to complete and submit your assessment. Reflect on what you've learnt throughout this course, and how you'll integrate this into your assessment task.

    • Course Wrap

      xx

Who is this accredited by?

The CPD Certification Service
The CPD Certification Service:

The CPD Certification Service was established in 1996 and is the leading independent CPD accreditation institution operating across industry sectors to complement the CPD policies of professional and academic bodies.

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Apply contemporary pedagogy and assessment theory to the design, delivery, implementation and evaluation of innovative teaching practices and differentiated learning in specific science disciplines.
  • Analyse a range of student assessment strategies relevant to secondary science and create theoretically informed approaches that maximise student learning and engagement across diverse cohorts.
  • Evaluate curriculum requirements and synthesise these with learner needs to generate teaching and learning sequences that incorporate contemporary practice principles in science education.
  • LO4 Formulate teaching and learning strategies that connect the discipline of science with broader contexts to develop ethical, equitable and sustainable scientific thinking in young people.

Who is the course for?

This microcredential is ideal for secondary educators seeking to update their science teaching knowledge and skills aligned to current curricula and research.

Who will you learn with?

Amanda Peters

I am an experienced secondary science teacher and science education researcher. I currently co-design professional learning for secondary teachers bringing contemporary science to the classroom.

Who developed the course?

Deakin University

Deakin University is one of Australia’s largest universities with more than 61,000 students and over 15,000 online.

  • Established

    1974

  • Location

    Melbourne, Australia

  • World ranking

    Top 280Source: QS World University Rankings 2021

Learning on FutureLearn

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  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
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Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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