Master of Secondary Teaching

The Master of Secondary Teaching program is offered full-time and part-time. International students must complete 75% of the program via face-to-face on-campus.

Professional experience is a mandated component of this program. The placements in secondary schools are organised by the School of Education and Professional Studies. Upon enrolment into the program, students will be asked to provide information to facilitate their placements.

Compulsory Tutorial Attendance for All Professional Experience Courses

Students must reach an 80% threshold for tutorial attendance and active participation in the lead up to placement for all Professional Experience courses. Students who cannot attend the full tutorial and thus cannot actively participate during the tutorial will not be able to proceed with the placement and complete the course.

Please be aware that courses in this program may not follow the standard academic calendar. After you have completed your enrolment each trimester, please check your timetable on myGriffith for details of when classes commence and the duration of professional experience placements.

Student Income Support

To be classed as a full-time student, you are required to enrol in a minimum number of credit points each standard study period. The minimum credit points for full-time enrolment in this program is 30 credit points.

Trimester 1 and Trimester 2 are deemed standard study periods. As Trimester 3 is a non-standard study period, continuing students moving from one year to the next will not be required to study during this trimester to be eligible for student income support.

Domestic students who commence in Trimester 3 may be eligible for student income support from the onset of study provided they are enrolled full-time in this study period.

Please refer to the Australian Government website for more details.

Managing Study Interruptions

Taking a leave of absence from this program is permitted, subject to conditions outlined in the Enrolment Procedure and receiving approval from the Program Director or their nominee.

Students will undertake 12 weeks of supervised professional practice. Total work placement (hours): 450.

Graduates of the Master of Secondary Teaching will be eligible to apply for registration with the Queensland College of Teachers and be prepared for teaching positions in the public or private sector which can lead to senior positions such as a head of department or principal.

Students wishing to seek teacher registration in another state or internationally should seek advice from the appropriate professional body.

The Master of Secondary Teaching is accredited by the Queensland College of Teachers (QCT).

To obtain registration with the Queensland College of Teachers, graduating teachers must have evidence to demonstrate that their English language proficiency meets the minimum requirements for registration.

Students must reach an 80% threshold for tutorial attendance and active participation in the lead up to placement for all Professional Experience courses. Students who cannot attend the full tutorial and thus cannot actively participate during the tutorial will not be able to proceed with the placement and complete the course.

Working with Children Check (Blue Card)

Information for placements within Queensland

Before undertaking professional experience placements, all students in this program are required to:

• undergo the Working with Children Check and
• be issued with a Blue Card.

Students must hold a current valid Blue Card throughout the duration of each professional experience. Students may be asked to present their Blue Card to facility staff on the first day of each placement and should keep their Blue Card on them at all times while attending a professional experience placement.

The University is legally obliged to warn students that it is an offence for a disqualified person to submit a Blue Card application. Further information may be obtained from Queensland Government Blue Card Services, the Education Professional Experience Office or from any Griffith Student Centre.

Blue Card applications must be submitted online by the student via the Queensland Government Blue Card Services website. There is no fee for a student Blue Card.

Upon graduation, students with a GPA of 5.0 or higher will be eligible to follow a research pathway via the Master of Education and Professional Studies Research (5608) and then onto a PhD. Graduates may also choose to undertake a Graduate Certificate offered by the School of Education and Professional Studies to further specialise their teaching practice.

Teaching Areas

Depending on an applicant's expertise and prior experiences (for example, in relation to vocational education areas), a student will be offered a place based on knowledge and experience that relates to two junior secondary and two senior phase curriculum areas. The majority of applicants will be offered a place in two teaching areas that are offered at both junior secondary and senior phases of learning.

Some applicants may be offered a place linked to only one teaching area through to Year 12 with the second area suitable for teaching only in junior secondary. In the event that a student is offered a place in the program with discipline knowledge for one teaching area through to Year 12 and the second area only to Year 10, the fourth study area will be reading intervention and can be replaced with an approved elective (e.g., senior curriculum course) by the program director.