At present, we are in a transitional phase with most media being taught either within small departments or as part of a wider English department or faculty. At the start of a training course, most trainees will most likely be asked to deliver one of the more established courses, for example GCSE Media Studies or A level Media Studies. The most sensible way of mapping the terrain of the subject is in terms of the concepts that have come to be seen as providing a framework for media study. The British Film Institute synthesised the various ways in which media has been studied in their curriculum guidance books in the late 1980s. Most examination boards simplified the number of concepts to make teaching of media more manageable, particularly for the non-media specialist. These concepts endure as the bedrock of formal media study:

Institutions
Forms/Languages
Representation
Audience

Most media textbooks at A level offer introductory definitions for each concept, while Julian McDougall’s (2006) book aimed at media teachers has chapters on each of these theoretical concepts.

Some examination boards define the terms slightly differently and also use alternative terms for essentially the same concept, for example ‘organisation’ (WJEC) instead of institution (OCR).

This conceptual focus for media study has been somewhat under scrutiny because of a range of contemporary factors. Some relate to more recent conceptual models from Higher Education media studies, some from changing consumption patterns. ITE courses in media should contend with these challenges to traditional approaches to media study in school.

There have been profound changes to young people’s media interaction in the last 10 years. A media studies programme which focuses solely on the traditional media (television, film, magazines) will become increasingly irrelevant to young people whose media consumption is far more likely to involve social networking, video gaming and creating media texts themselves.3
Some academics, e.g. David Gauntlett4 have offered a Media Studies 2.0 thesis for how the subject should develop at HE level. At the heart of this critique is a questioning of the use of traditional tools for media analysis. For example, how useful is the concept of genre in relation to video gaming. The concepts can be applied but miss potentially more relevant areas of study like game play or giving students the tools to create their own games5.

Media Studies as a separate subject has become less text based, both in terms of analysis and reliance on the written medium. Practical work is now intrinsic to all forms of media study. The quality bar for this type of work has been raised with schools and colleges using the same hardware and software as ‘real’ media industries.

With the most recent changes (2008) to the A level specs for Media Studies, where practical work now accounts for 50% of the overall grade, new methods of assessment utilising media technology have become part of the accepted way of presenting research, planning and evaluation. Rather than the formal essay, students are expected to present their work interactively via websites, blogs, audio commentaries with media rich content: images, sound, text

Some courses are essentially vocational, for example, the BTEC and OCR National. This offer courses at level 1, 2 and 3 with pathways to vocational media level 4 and 5 courses. This model of media education is less interested in the psycho-sociology of media influence and more on instrumental transference of technical skills and induction into industry practices. This type of knowledge is very far from the conceptual model of traditional media courses at GCSE and A level. However, it is sections of the media itself which have been some of the most trenchant sceptics of media courses6. Maybe this model of media education will provide a level of validity for such media professionals. Bodies such as Skillset7 provide excellent support for those new to the industry working practice.

Keith Perera, GTP trainer, Sussex

The Curriculum Studies component of the course is organised into 13 sessions mapped against the QTS standards8 but also the TDA framework for improving subject knowledge9. Nationally, the GTP has been criticised by OFSTED for a lack of sustained input on ‘subject knowledge’. Following this the TDA have given clear guidelines of the four strands of ‘subject knowledge’ as it apples to trainee teachers. Subject knowledge is defined broadly to include: subject knowledge per se, pedagogy: subject theory and practice, Pupils development and attitudes.



Keith Perera, GTP Trainer, Sussex

How do you address pedagogy in media education?
This area is covered through the TDA area of pedagogy: subject theory and practice. Historically, media education has witnessed a range of approaches to media study, each with their own assumptions about curricular aims and pedagogical practice. It is useful to offer a schematic history of media study not just to contextualise the history of the subject for trainees but also to show how most of the arguments about ‘what to study’, ‘how to teach media’, ‘what students should learn’ ‘what is the relationship between teacher and student’ are still as contentious today as they were in the particular historical periods in which the arguments first surfaced. They range from F.R Leavis’ 10notion of inoculation, whereby the function of introducing media texts to children is to uncover their debasing effects, particularly in relation to the more positive features of literature. From here, you can move to discrimination, a broadly left wing critique11 which makes a distinction within popular forms, i.e. good films/bad films, good newspapers/bad newspapers. These value judgements were essentially political but also hoped that media education would be some kind of salvation to disenfranchised groups within society. The 1970s saw a more theoretical form of demystification12, a more overtly political endeavour using the tools from Critical Theory to deconstruct the ideological nature of popular media texts. In the 1980s, media educationalists13 sought to redress what was seen as an overly textual framing of pedagogical questions and tried to shift the focus to the media audience, documenting what went on in real media classrooms. The media studies 2.0 thesis14 offers an alternative model of what the aims of media education should be.

As curriculum tutors of media trainees, it is not our job to opine on which strategy is the most viable. The mongrel nature of the subject means students will be working within different paradigms within the same course or being in the position of having to choose a pedagogical approach for a particular unit. For example, a unit on advertising could simply explain how simple language attempts to create a strong message aimed at getting consumers to buy a product they don’t need (inoculation). A unit might discuss the merits or otherwise of charity advertising (discrimination) or look at how an advert reinforces gender stereotyping (demystification) or the pleasures for the audience of quirky campaigns or examine the way in which consumers can subvert campaigns through publishing online spoofs/spoilers.

Having said all of this, an alternative approach to pedagogy in media education would be to develop a student centred approach through which learning starts with what students already know. Using this method, it is less likely for trainees to gravitate towards the films, TV programs and music that they like and would be forced to use culturally relevant texts as the starting point. This is not to say that the media classroom run by student taste, it just acknowledges that media education has the concepts and tools to understand any media text. You might read For a further summary of this pedagogical foundation see Buckingham and Sefton-Green’s reading of Vygotsky15. According to Vygosky, spontaneous concepts are derived by the young person in their everyday lives. A good deal of media literacy happens beyond a classroom. For example, students have a working knowledge of genre in relation to film, music and television without having formally been taught the definition. Scientific concepts are defined by the teacher, for our purposes these can be institutions, forms, representation and audience. In this notion of media education, the unit on video games allows the students to use their own spontaneous understanding and with the help of the teacher’s scientific concepts work within what Vygotsky calls the Zone of Proximal Development. In this way learning can be measured from where the student started to where they ended. The written Critical Evaluation is a key component of all media pre-production and production work and it is here that students articulate the learning that has taken place.

Assessment in the Media GTP programme
There are three formal assessment assignments which allow students to fulfil QTT standards.

First is a 2000 word assignment on an aspect of subject knowledge that the student has identified as an area of weakness but also something that will be relevant to them in their training year. As explained in section 1, trainees will complete a subject audit and decide on a focus.

Examples include:
1. The impact of Social Networking Sites on youth audiences
2. The future of Public Service Broadcasting
3. Detailed semiotic analysis of high fashion magazine front covers
4. Changing relationships within the music industry in the downloading age
5. Auteur study on Pedro Almodovar
6. Representation of gender in situation comedies
7. Genre and video games

Trainees can present work in progress to the group at regular intervals.

The aim of the study is to enable the trainee to:
- demonstrate secure knowledge and understanding of their media, and extend thoroughly a previously unfamiliar area
- use that knowledge to illustrate briefly the aspect of the subject's application in the classroom at the Key Stage 4 or 5 in relation to fulfilling the examination board specification requirements
research and communicate information at an appropriate professional level.


The second assignment is an oral presentation in which students have to present their ideas on one of the following:

Literacy in teaching and learning in media
Numeracy in teaching and learning in media
The Citizenship curriculum in relation to media

Examples of assignment titles include:
1) Media and technology as a cross-curricular strand in the new National Curriculum
2) Multi-modal texts within the revised orders in the English curriculum
3) Quantitative research methods in media audience research
4) National Identity: A media education approach to citizenship

Presentations will be approximately 10-15 minutes long, and supported by the use of appropriate methods and materials, e.g. interactive whiteboard, data-projector, overheads, video or audiotape, handouts, diagrams etc as appropriate. The use of ICT in the preparation of supporting materials is essential.

Assignment Objectives
To enable the trainee to:
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of cross-curricular aspects of teaching media
- Develop awareness of the teaching and learning implications of media study across the curriculum
- Develop an awareness of their own professional responsibilities in relation to school policies and practices, understanding the need for reflection on their own contribution and involvement
- Use a variety of methods to communicate at an appropriate professional level through an oral presentation to tutors and peers

The third unit gets students to plan a unit of work. Trainees have a curriculum session on short, medium and long term planning. This unit is a medium term plan (see separate doc) for a scheme of work which would last 6-10 1 hour lessons. The unit is panned in the Autumn term and delivered in the Spring term.

Assignment Objectives
-demonstrate sound medium and long term planning in media, with clear teaching objectives and learning outcomes, assessment opportunities and appropriate tasks
incorporate a relevant and purposeful ICT dimension
-show that they are aware of their pupils’ backgrounds, interests and previous achievements, and are committed to helping them all making good progress set challenging objectives relevant to all pupils, taking account of evidence of past and current achievement, expected standards, and relevant range and content of work
-use teaching objectives and learning outcomes to show how they will assess pupils’ learning, using a range of monitoring and assessment strategies, and use the information to improve their teaching.
-select and prepare resources, taking account of pupils’ interests and their language and cultural backgrounds
-show that they are aware of the support provided by other adults in the classroom

At least four lessons in the unit should be taught and evaluated. Secure knowledge and understanding of the subject should be evident in the planning of the work with some reference to recent research if possible. The scheme is presented in the format of a grid and is accompanied by an essay showing how the unit of work incorporates ICT, differentiation, SEN and EAL pupils, cross curricular requirements, assessment etc. Personal research into the topic should be incorporated in the assignment and also examples of marked pupils work including homework links and resources used. Links to the GCSE, A level or BTEC specifications must be shown.

Appendices
Full appendices are essential for this assignment. Typical appendices might contain some or all of the following which are not part of the word count:

Grid outlining of the unit of work
End of unit expectations
Examples of materials prepared
Lesson Plans and evaluations
Examples of marked and assessed work
Video of portion of media lesson to illustrate assessment
Bibliography of websites, books or articles used to research the topic or read about new methods of teaching.

Most media teaching at GCSE and A level is mixed ability and this poses its own particular challenges in terms of differentiation. In some schools, students have the choice of English Literature or GCSE Media Studies to take with GCSE English.

All schools have a statutory requirement to implement equality schemes for race16, gender and disability. Added to this are policies to reduce the influence of socio-economic factors in educational achievement. The citizenship agenda dovetails very well with media education as can be seen in the session on National Identity.

General issues of SEN and diverse learners can be undertaken through observation of practice in the department the trainee is attached to. They can be set tasks which can form the basis of a discussion with the mentor about how the department caters for diverse learners.

1) focus on one/two pupils who have relatively weak literacy skills.
Consider the range of differentiation strategies used by the teacher in this class, for example, is it through task, outcome, resource (e.g. writing frame? glossary of key words?) through the use of teacher scaffolded whole-class talk and/or through paired/group talk? Evaluate the extent to which the target pupils are able to achieve the given learning objectives through these strategies. What are the particular strengths of the lesson in terms of targeting these pupils’ and other pupils’ learning needs?

2) Now do the same as the above, with the focus on one or two gifted and talented pupils.

3) What does the department do to promote diversity within the school? Race Equality Policy, Gender Equality Policy Disability Equality Policy.

Given the place of media within English programmes of study it would be unusual to find English PGCE courses that don’t provide some initiation and training into teaching media within English. This might be cursorily through referencing to the role of media within English and, on occasions and in some specific courses, with reference to the teaching of Media Studies. Prospective candidates interested in teaching media would do well to read the profiles of English courses on the websites prior to making application and to asking course tutors about the potential of taking some media training into their practice. Nevertheless prospective candidates need to be aware that it is harder for media graduates to enter English PGCE courses without a 50% degree in English.

In a survey conducted to inform the QCA publication Media Matters in 2005, ITE tutors who responded to questions about media in English PGCE courses expressed a positive reason to include media in the English ITE curriculum and on occasion to use external experts from schools and/or match trainees to certain departments where media was more advanced or widely taught. Some courses with joint designation were able to offer more substantial training in media than those with English only in the title. If you are looking for a place on a teacher training course, your eligibility is tested through three key mechanisms:

A subject knowledge match
Relevant experience with children and young people
Demonstrable evidence of good communication skills and ability to learn

Research your route carefully
Make your case for a place based on the above criteria and
Apply!