Master’s in Education

Understanding Curriculum Development in Primary and Early Primary Education

This module will encourage you to critically reflect on how curricula are developed for children in primary and early primary education, exploring the influence of social, political and cultural drivers in this development. You will consider how children's learning needs are identified and prioritised as curricula are established, and how appropriate pedagogies are promoted to support effective teaching and the assessment of learning.  

Exploring Teaching and Learning

This module will develop your understanding of the ideas of curriculum: what is taught, how it is taught and why it is taught. You'll explore elements of the hidden curriculum, including hierarchy, power, values, confidence, stereotypes and labelling. The module will also help you to understand how a teachers’ role is constructed. What are teacher identities and how do these shape the role of teachers? Is teaching a professional activity? What are the ideas around this aspect? What is a reflexive/reflective teacher and how does this enhance professional development? You'll also consider some learning theories and their practical application within your setting.

Children, Childhood and Society

This module explores the meaning of childhood in different social, cultural and historical contexts, from a range of theoretical perspectives, and how social, economic and political factors impact on children’s lives and their later development. We consider the positioning of children within society and identify current debates about children’s well-being and holistic development and how these are reflected in policy and practice. We discuss children’s understanding of social and/or cultural issues for example, gender roles and expectations, mental health, prejudice, developing sexuality and sexual identity. We explore how the voice and autonomy of the child is taken into account in responding to social and/or cultural issues. This module will be of interest to those wanting to work with children and young people in a range of educational and support roles, encouraging you to take a critical perspective in discussing how our understanding of childhood shapes policy and provision and supports the rights of the individual.

Mentoring and Coaching

This module will help you to explore the role of mentoring and coaching.

You'll have the opportunity to examine issues linked to implementing and managing mentoring/coaching schemes, the role of mentors and/or coaches, the strategies that could be used within a mentoring and/or coaching relationship and the ethical issues governing them.

Managing Learning and Development in Organisations

This module will help you to develop an understanding of the links between learning and development, organisation goals and broader human resource policies and practice in a variety of organisational contexts.

You'll explore how the learning and development agenda can be promoted by examining learning & development policies, roles, functions, as well as strategies, methods and techniques for establishing learning and development needs.

Developing effective leadership

This module provides a structured opportunity for students taking a leadership stance either formally or informally, or who aspire to a leadership role, to systematically consider and critically reflect upon leadership as a concept, and “effective leadership” in particular.

Students will actively engage with such concepts as the role of the leader, how that role links to and differs from management, and how leaders can be developed.

Special Educational Needs and Disability: Evaluating Policy and Practice

In this module you'll study changing cultural and historical attitudes to disability including, medical intervention from the early part of the 20th century and more recent social changes that encompasses the disability rights, human rights and equality, and models of health and disability.

You'll explore how our understanding of SEND has developed, and the impact of this on our understanding of inclusion, as well as investigate how the needs arising from specific SEND conditions are culturally, socially and historically defined, and what this means for educational practice.

Understanding E-Learning

You will be introduced to a range of ICT tools and techniques for innovation in teaching and learning. Emphasis is placed on the selection of approaches appropriate to the learners’ needs.

Alongside the practical aspects of using these tools you will consider how they can transform learning and develop a deeper, theoretical and analytical understanding. You'll also explore current debates in the field of e-learning.

E-Tutoring

This module will help you to develop understanding and skills in the area of online tutoring, facilitation, and in the design, planning and implementation of e-learning and blended learning courses.

International Approaches to Early Childhood Education

The module will help you to reflect on a range of international perspectives on early childhood education. It will emphasise the relationship between theoretical perspectives and aspects of practice in early childhood education. You'll critically engage with debates about early childhood education and will focus on the education of children in a range of settings.

Dissertation module

This module seeks to deepen your knowledge and understanding of educational research. You'll learn about traditions of educational research; positivism, interpretism and action research and the strengths and challenges of carrying out research in these traditions. This module provides you the opportunity to carry out a piece of research based on a contemporary or work-related issue or problem.

Understanding Autism

You will explore how autistic people experience the world and consider these experiences through the lens of disability studies. You will study evolving theories of autism, starting with Kanner and Asperger in the 1940s through to current theories such as double empathy theory and monotropism. You will examine key features of autism, as well as societal barriers experienced by autistic people. The module will cover a range of contemporary issues in autism, including autism and mental health, autism in girls and neurodiversity. You will analyse educational policy and practice that supports the inclusion of autistic pupils in a range of educational settings.

 

Critical perspectives in higher education teaching and learning 

In this module you will discuss, from a critical point of view, a range of approaches to teaching and learning that are appropriate for use in higher Education settings. You will also engage with the theories and practices within HE settings that are used to design curricula, to encourage student engagement, and to quality assure and administer higher education courses. You will consider methods and approaches for evaluating student learning within HE as well as methods for evaluating student satisfaction and academic practice. Key policies and educational ideas that relate to higher education will also be discussed.

Methods of Inquiry

This module will develop and deepen your knowledge and understanding of research methods, in both academic and professional contexts. It considers some of the theories, methods and implication of research and the complex role of researchers and of practitioner-researchers. You'll explore a range of methods of enquiry in order to enable you to understand the significance and ethics of research.

Action Research

Action Research is a practice-based research methodology for practitioners wanting to change practice(s) within their professional setting. You will learn about the tradition that informs action research as research methodology, how to write a research aim and research question(s) for a piece of research, the different ways of collecting data to answer research questions and how to build rigour and quality into your study. You will use what you have learned in the module to write a proposal for a piece of research that could be undertaken as a dissertation later in your course.