Welcome to the course

Over the next two weeks, you’ll hear from a team of passionate teachers about what it takes to be a first-rate educator and what life is really like in and out of the classroom.

If you feel you have what it takes to be a great teacher, this course will also equip you to pursue your initial teacher training by examining the different routes, funding options and next steps.

This week

Coming up in Week 1, you will have the chance to explore:

• Why teachers teach
• What it is like to be a teacher
• What it is like to study a PGCE and the level of support available
• The differences between teaching in primary and secondary settings
• Teaching in specialist schools
• Answers to frequently asked questions from teaching professionals

Along the way, you will be encouraged to share your thoughts and discuss key topics with your fellow learners. You will find these discussion threads at the end of most steps, so do not hesitate to join the conversation.

While our focus is on teaching and teacher training in the UK, we hope that wherever you are based, you’ll be able to take something useful away from this course.

Where you notice key differences from the country where you attended school or plan to train to teach, feel free to share these insights with other learners. It is always valuable to have an international awareness of teaching practice.

Meet the team

This course has been developed by our team at the National School of Education and Teaching (NSET), part of Coventry University.

Hi, I’m Su Bernard

I trained to become a secondary music teacher. As my career progressed, I thoroughly enjoyed developing teaching and learning and supporting colleagues and trainees to improve their classroom practices. I love talking to teachers about different approaches that can be used to teach the same content – it always leads to discovering new tips and ideas!

Hi, I’m Karla Coghlan

I completed a B.Ed in Primary Education in Dublin. Since then I have travelled all over the world working as a teacher. I am happy now to be able to pass on what I’ve learnt to future teachers. I am passionate about the profession and professional development in education and continue to work in schools as I feel strongly that that is the way forward for teacher education.

Hi, I’m Joanne DeBond

I originally trained in Secondary Education and Physical Education with English and progressed from a practitioner to supporting the learning and development of trainee teachers. I love the diversity within education from philosophy and educational psychology to general and subject-specific pedagogy and how knowledge and understanding of theories enables and supports excellent classroom practice.

You can follow them and see all the comments that they make by selecting the link to their FutureLearn profile pages by clicking on their names.

This course will be facilitated by our group of online teachers, who will be engaging with you and answering your questions each week. The course will actively be facilitated throughout the duration, with the exception of national holidays in the UK (30 August).

How about you?

Introduce yourself below and share what inspired you to take this course.