BBI-TAITE Units

Curriculum Objectives

This unit develops students’ skills to use Biblical scholarship, contemporary research, and theories about how students learn to provide high-impact learning opportunities. It covers:

• Teacher readiness to teach the text, including exploring how to interpret the Bible from a Catholic hermeneutical perspective and the identification and teaching of key concepts;
• Informed pedagogical decision-making, including investigating learner needs, learning processes and characteristics of age-appropriate pedagogies; and
• Designing and monitoring Scripture learning for school-aged students.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit of study, students will:

• demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding to use Biblical commentaries and tools to learn about Scripture
• demonstrate the ability to discover appropriate meaning from Scripture
• demonstrate the identification of age-appropriate content to teach Scripture
• demonstrate skills for informed pedagogical decision-making to plan engaging and innovative units of work, and
• demonstrate the application of knowledge and skills for analysing Scripture teaching to build stronger professional practice.

Assumed Knowledge

D8120 and D8121

Study hours

10 hours per week for 12 week session, comprised of:

• At least one hour per week for online lectures.
• At least three hours per week of reading.
• At least six hours per week of directed study, including optional and assessable online activities.

Teaching methods

Online lectures; online activities; guided reading; scaffolded assessments; feedback on assessments.

Indicative Assessment

At the Institute, we use a range of assessment tasks, including essays, research papers, online posts, critical reflections, projects and praxis exercises. Within a unit of study, each set of assessment tasks is designed as an integral part of your learning experience. These tasks vary across units and programs. All assessment tasks are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework level appropriate for graduate awards.

Curriculum Objectives

This unit provides opportunities for students to develop a foundational knowledge and understanding of governance in Catholic Church organisations. Theoretical insights from selected organisational research will be explored for their relevance to the variety of ways in which governance is exercised in the Church’s different contexts and organisational arrangements.  In particular it will focus on the relationship between governance, mission, ministry and work.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit of study, students will be able to:

• demonstrate specialised knowledge of the organisational and theoretical aspects of Catholic Church governance and its relationship to the wider field of the governance
  of non-profit organisations
• demonstrate specialised knowledge of the relationship between Mission and Governance, how work or ministry is organised to fulfil the Mission, and the capacity to apply such knowledge in specific professional contexts
• demonstrate an ability to analyse and critically evaluate the governance arrangements of the Catholic Church and its various organisational forms, and
• demonstrate skills in deploying imagination and creativity in solving problems related to governance in mission and ministry contexts.

Assumed Knowledge 

Not applicable

Study hours   

10 hours per week for 12 week session, comprised of

• At least one hour per week for online lectures
• At least three hours per week of reading.
• At least six hours per week of directed study, including optional and assessable online activities.

Teaching methods

Online lectures; online activities; guided reading; scaffolded assessments; feedback on assessments.

Indicative Assessment

At the Institute we use a range of assessment tasks, including essays, research papers, online posts, critical reflections, projects and praxis exercises. Within a unit of study each set of assessment tasks is designed as an integral part of your learning experience. These tasks vary across units and programs. All assessment tasks are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework level appropriate for graduate awards.

Curriculum Objectives

This unit will provide detailed analysis of the organisational structure of Church, with reference to relevant codes of canon law. Initial attention is given to the obligations and rights of all the Christian faithful as described by canon law. An understanding of the theological and canonical characteristics of the diocese, as an organisational unit of the Catholic Church, is developed. The concept of a public juridic person is studied, in relation to a wide range of Church organisations. Students are given the opportunity to analyse a specific Church organisation through this framework, including:

• Dioceses, diocesan agencies and parishes
• Religious Institutes
• Associations of the Faithful
• Ministerial Juridic Persons and other ecclesial organisations

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit, students will:

• demonstrate specialised knowledge of the relationship between theology and ecclesial structures
• demonstrate specialised knowledge of the relationship between theology and canon law in regard to ecclesial structures, and
• demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of ecclesial structures relevant to a diocese including its juridical personality.

Assumed Knowledge 

P8160 & P8169

Study hours    

10 hours per week for 12 week session, comprised of

• At least one hour per week for online lectures
• At least three hours per week of reading.
• At least six hours per week of directed study, including optional and assessable online activities.

Teaching methods

Online lectures; online activities; guided reading; scaffolded assessments; feedback on assessments.

Indicative Assessment

At the Institute we use a range of assessment tasks, including essays, research papers, online posts, critical reflections, projects and praxis exercises. Within a unit of study each set of assessment tasks is designed as an integral part of your learning experience. These tasks vary across units and programs. All assessment tasks are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework level appropriate for graduate awards.

Curriculum Objectives

This graduate course unit provides students with demonstrated initiative and creativity an opportunity to focus at an advanced level in a particular area of Leadership, under the tutelage and guidance of a specialist in the field. The unit is designed to refine the skills of independent study by allowing the student to define their own study, and to set their own goals by means of an extended guided reading program.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit, students will be able to:

• develop a focused topic for independent scholarly investigation
• conduct independent research, under supervision, in terms of locating, utilizing and referencing a wide range of appropriate primary and secondary sources
• analyse and evaluate with critical empathy a range of disparate scholarly positions
• defend an independent perspective on the topic of the investigation, and
• produce a cogent set of researched findings in an extended piece of academic writing.

Assumed Knowledge 

For Governance and Canon Law students: P8160 & P8169, and for Leadership students: P8155, M8161 & P9264

Study hours

10 hours per week for 12 week session, comprised of

• At least 10 hour per week of directed study, including reading, research, consultation with tutor and writing up of assessment tasks.

Teaching methods

Online lectures; online activities; guided reading; scaffolded assessments; feedback on assessments.

Indicative Assessment

At the Institute we use a range of assessment tasks, including essays, research papers, online posts, critical reflections, projects and praxis exercises. Within a unit of study each set of assessment tasks is designed as an integral part of your learning experience. These tasks vary across units and programs. All assessment tasks are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework level appropriate for graduate awards.

Curriculum Objectives

This unit provides opportunities for students to develop knowledge and understanding of religious education in both its conceptual and practical aspects. Theoretical insights from research in general education contexts will be explored for their relevance to prominent theories of religious education. The importance of historical, philosophical and theological insights to current religious education practices will be examined for their significance to particular settings and the practical context(s) of the students in question. The unit will ultimately challenge students to relate their knowledge of religious education to a specific setting in which religious education is practised.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit, students will be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge of the conjunction of religious education theory and educational research and theory in general
• understand prominent religious education theory in formal religious and public education contexts, and
• demonstrate knowledge of current models of religious education to be found in religious and public education settings.

Assumed Knowledge 

Not applicable

Study hours

10 hours per week for 12 week session, comprised of:

• At least one hour per week for online lectures.
• At least three hours per week of reading.
• At least six hours per week of directed study, including optional and assessable online activities.

Teaching methods

Online lectures; online activities; guided reading; scaffolded assessments; feedback on assessments.

Indicative Assessment

At the Institute we use a range of assessment tasks, including essays, research papers, online posts, critical reflections, projects and praxis exercises. Within a unit of study each set of assessment tasks is designed as an integral part of your learning experience. These tasks vary across units and programs. All assessment tasks are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework level appropriate for graduate awards.

Curriculum Objectives

This unit introduces the discipline of religious education in Catholic schools in Australia, in its history and current practice. Attention is paid to the current context of religious and cultural pluralism, and the challenges that this presents in religious education contexts. The unit provides overviews and practical approaches to key topics in religious education.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this course unit, students should be able to:

• utilise a general understanding of religious education as a diverse field in developing their own personal philosophy of religious education
• demonstrate an advanced understanding of, and capacity to critically evaluate, some of the major debates that characterise religious education as a field, and some of the most prominent scholars associated with various schools of thought, and
• identify practical issues and problems associated with the current context of religious education, including in the areas of religious and cultural pluralism, and synthesise their skills and knowledge in religious education.

Assumed Knowledge 

Not applicable

Study hours

10 hours per week for 12 week session, comprised of:

• At least one hour per week for online lectures.
• At least three hours per week of reading.
• At least six hours per week of directed study, including optional and assessable online activities.

Teaching methods

Online lectures; online activities; guided reading; scaffolded assessments; feedback on assessments.

Indicative Assessment

At the Institute we use a range of assessment tasks, including essays, research papers, online posts, critical reflections, projects and praxis exercises. Within a unit of study each set of assessment tasks is designed as an integral part of your learning experience. These tasks vary across units and programs. All assessment tasks are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework level appropriate for graduate awards.

Curriculum Objectives

This graduate unit allows students to focus at an introductory level on an area of study within a discipline or subdiscipline not available elsewhere in the curriculum. It stimulates the analysis of a current or emergent issue that presents contemporary challenges to Religious Education, distinct from a more general overview. The issue to be investigated will be determined in consultation between the student and the teacher.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit of study, students will be able to:

• articulate clearly the major elements of challenge involved in the topic
• analyse the factors that have shaped the current form of the issue
• incorporate a range of relevant primary and secondary scholarship into a study of the issue
• analyse the likely impact of the issue in its immediate context, and
• produce a recommendation for action as a response to the challenges presented within the issue

Assumed Knowledge 

D8120 & D8121

Study hours

11 hours per week for 11 week session, comprised of:

• At least four hours per week of reading.
• At least seven hours per week of directed study, including optional and assessable online activities.

Teaching Methods

Key notes and workshops at the National RE Symposium; online activities; guided reading; scaffolded assessments; feedback on assessments.

Indicative Assessment

At the Institute we use a range of assessment tasks, including essays, research papers, online posts, critical reflections, projects and praxis exercises. Within a unit of study each set of assessment tasks is designed as an integral part of your learning experience. These tasks vary across units and programs. All assessment tasks are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework level appropriate for graduate awards.

Curriculum Objectives

In this unit, students will be exposed to updated pedagogical theory and associated practices emanating from a range of disciplinary research, including psychology, sociology, philosophy and neuroscience. The aim of the unit is to challenge students to make links between the pedagogical thinking that is driving educational innovation generally and the particular ramification for religious education.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit of study, students will be able to:

• utilise general pedagogical theory in analysing relevance to religious education as good practice pedagogy
• demonstrate an advanced understanding of, and capacity to critically evaluate pedagogical theory as an essential underpinning of effective religious education, and
• identify practical issues and problems associated with the pedagogical dimension of religious education, and synthesise their skills and knowledge in religious education and theology to propose creative responses to these.

Assumed Knowledge 

D8120 & D8121

Study hours

10 hours per week for 12 week session, comprised of:

• At least one hour per week for online lectures.
• At least three hours per week of reading.
• At least six hours per week of directed study, including optional and assessable online activities.

Teaching methods

Online lectures; online activities; guided reading; scaffolded assessments; feedback on assessments.

Indicative Assessment

At the Institute we use a range of assessment tasks, including essays, research papers, online posts, critical reflections, projects and praxis exercises. Within a unit of study each set of assessment tasks is designed as an integral part of your learning experience. These tasks vary across units and programs. All assessment tasks are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework level appropriate for graduate awards.

Curriculum Objectives

Advanced studies in the areas of Religious Education and Theology require students to have knowledge of, and to be able to apply, a diverse range of research principles and methodologies in order to propose, justify and interpret theoretical propositions, conclusions and professional decisions in their leadership roles. Furthermore, graduates of the Master of Religious Education course need to demonstrate their ability to communicate and implement these disciplines, so the unit will provide an overview of research methodologies used within the disciplines of Religious Education and Theology and provide the opportunity to apply them to selected issues.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit of study, students will be able to:

• demonstrate advanced understanding and critical evaluation of at least two methodological approaches to research in religious education
• demonstrate a capacity to use at least one methodological approach to plan, propose, and defend a minor research project which will apply advanced skills in religious education and theology to identify a problem or issue in the area of religious education and respond to this creatively, and
• demonstrate skills in research and time management.

Assumed Knowledge 

D8120 & D8121

Study Hours

10 hours per week for 12 week session, comprised of:

• At least one hour per week for online lectures.
• At least three hours per week of reading.
• At least six hours per week of directed study, including optional and assessable online activities.

Teaching methods

Online lectures; online activities; guided reading; scaffolded assessments; feedback on assessments.

Indicative Assessment

At the Institute we use a range of assessment tasks, including essays, research papers, online posts, critical reflections, projects and praxis exercises. Within a unit of study each set of assessment tasks is designed as an integral part of your learning experience. These tasks vary across units and programs. All assessment tasks are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework level appropriate for graduate awards.

Curriculum Objectives

This advanced graduate course unit provides an opportunity for students to integrate what they have previously learned in the major area of study, in other course units that formed part of the degree, and in their life experiences beyond the formal course of study. Its integrative nature incorporates reflection (on what they have learned), introspection (on where their understanding is currently) and projection (where the study may lead). It enables students to demonstrate a broad mastery of learning across the curriculum, to consider its application in future life situations, and to plan further learning experiences designed to complement and extend their current levels of understanding. It normally introduces little new content, although it may introduce new methodologies and techniques.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit of study, students will be able to:

• identify and analyse the core disciplinary assumptions and principles of the range of units in their course Major
• assess the degree of alignment of these assumptions and principles with those of course units beyond their course Major
• formulate a statement of wholistic integration of their core learning across the curriculum
• establish a personal plan for the integration of their studies beyond the period of study, and
• design an approach for leading a specific group of people into the implementation of the major learnings from their studies.

Assumed Knowledge 

D8120, D8121, D9121, D9231 & D9233

Study hours

10 hours per week for 12 week session, comprised of:

• At least one hour per week for online lectures.
• At least three hours per week of reading.
• At least six hours per week of directed study, including optional and assessable online activities.

Teaching methods

Online lectures; one-to-one supervision.

Indicative Assessment

At the Institute we use a range of assessment tasks, including essays, research papers, online posts, critical reflections, projects and praxis exercises. Within a unit of study each set of assessment tasks is designed as an integral part of your learning experience. These tasks vary across units and programs. All assessment tasks are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework level appropriate for graduate awards.