The general aim of the PGCEi is to improve practice by building new ideas and strategies which are tested out in teachers’ own classrooms. More specifically, the programme aims to improve teaching by:

• Helping teachers to understand their own education system from an international perspective

• Enabling teachers to become conversant with the basic assumptions, concepts, and principles of a range of learning theories and to evaluate their usefulness in specific educational situations

• Promoting a deeper understanding of a range of teaching strategies

• Developing expertise in practitioner research

• Making appropriate use of professional and research literature.