Postgraduate courses - Faculty of Education

The Faculty of Education's postgraduate courses develop effective, innovative and sensitive professionals who support the learning and development of a diverse range of individuals, organisations and communities. Students can choose from an extensive range of programs, disciplines, specialisations and research options to meet their learning needs.

Initial teacher education courses

The Master of Teaching suite of courses are graduate entry teaching courses that prepare students from a range of disciplines for careers as teachers. The Master of Teaching courses are offered over three sectors: early years, primary and secondary, and each two-year course qualifies graduates to teach in their relevant sector. These courses are available to applicants with a bachelor degree, generally in a field other than education.

The courses comprise six core units and two depth units. Depth units enable students to select from three different streams; advanced professional learning, professional inquiry or research. These options direct students towards advancing their professional knowledge, further study in professional inquiry, or provide a direct pathway to a PhD respectively.

Master of Teaching (Early Years)

The Master of Teaching (Early Years) is offered on the Clayton campus and provides a qualification to teach in the birth to eight years. The course develops students' theoretical and practical knowledge in the area of early years teaching, with a focus on play-based learning, families and transition to school. Students form a broad conceptual understanding of the field of pre-school education as active participants in both on-campus classes and professional experience placements.

Master of Teaching (Primary)

The Master of Teaching (Primary) is offered from the Berwick and Peninsula campuses and provides a qualification to teach in primary schools. The course provides students with the opportunity to build on strengths developed in their undergraduate degree. Students develop deep knowledge of how primary aged children learn and how best to provide opportunities to develop and support integrated and differentiated learning. Students gain valuable classroom experience by completing professional experience placements.

Master of Teaching (Secondary)

The Master of Teaching (Secondary) is offered in an 18-month accelerated mode from the Berwick campus and as a two-year standard course at the Clayton campus and provides a qualification to teach in secondary schools. The course provides students with the opportunity to build on strengths developed in their undergraduate degree. Secondary education studies focus on adolescent and post-compulsory school learning, policy and social contexts of education, student engagement and the theory and practice of secondary teaching. Students also study two teaching methods that provide disciplinary expertise and gain valuable classroom experience by completing professional experience placements.

Professional studies

The faculty offers a wide range of courses in fields related to education, counselling and psychology, which may be taken either as coursework or research programs. The courses span the range of learning settings and issues that pertain to each setting. These include pre-school and school contexts, higher education, community and vocational education and workplace learning.  Topics address a wide range of issues that apply to learning across the lifespan.

The Graduate Certificate in Education Studies offers a short qualification that orients participants to concepts and practices in education. Successful completion of this award offers a pathway into a master's program for applicants without prior qualification in the education field.

The master’s program orients students to education, introduces key ideas and thinking at the core of contemporary educational debates, extends specialised learning in areas of interest and builds capacities to engage in scholarly work such as research.

The master’s program presents opportunities either to build a program by selecting units of interest, to enrol in a specialisation which allows choice from a selection of specialist units or to take a specialist master’s course in which students follow a particular sequence of units.

The Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (Clayton) and the Graduate Certificate of Higher Education (Sunway only) provide a qualification for staff currently employed at Monash University or at another tertiary institution or for those preparing for a career in higher education.

The faculty offers a Master in Counselling course designed to provide counselling knowledge and skills for professional people working in a range of education, community and service-related industries who wish to obtain a qualification in counselling.

The psychology degrees offered by the faculty are accredited by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC) and qualify students for membership of a range of professional psychology organisations.These courses develop graduates as specialist professionals with a commitment to lifelong learning of the theoretical, research, assessment and therapeutic skills involved in psychology.

Refer to the relevant course entries for further information.