Please view the disclaimer. /
AWARD and COURSE TITLE / MA Education
INTERMEDIATE AWARDS / Postgraduate Diploma in Education
Postgraduate Certificate in Education
Name of the Teaching Institution / Sheffield Hallam University
Faculty and Departments / Development and Society
Teacher Education & Education, Childhood and Inclusion
Mode(s) of Attendance
(eg. FT/PT/SW/DL) / FT/PT
Professional/Statutory/Regulatory Body Recognising this Programme / Not applicable
QAA Subject Benchmark Statement or other relevant external reference point / QAA Masters Degree Characteristics
CWDC Early Years Professional Status Standards
TDA Professional Standards for Teachers
Date of Validation / 6th May 2011
1 PROGRAMME AIMS
This programme aims to:
· Create professional and personal development opportunities for those concerned with both the practice and experience of education across all ages and settings, and their potential impact in diverse societies.
· Empower participants through informed critical reflection and practitioner enquiry to develop, influence and lead practice and policy in their current and/or future contexts.
· Support participants to establish an authoritative voice founded on a broad and deep knowledge base that draws on theoretical and research literatures, policy and policy critiques, practice guidance and practitioner networks.
· Enable participants to challenge their own and others' values and assumptions in order to promote socially just policy, and inclusive and ethical practice in education.
2 PROGRAMME LEARNING OUTCOMES
2.1 Knowledge and understanding covered within the Programme. By the end of the programme you will be able to:
· Demonstrate a conceptual understanding that enables you to critically evaluate theoretical, research, policy and practice literature and their underpinning values and beliefs relevant to education in a variety of contexts. Your evaluation should be informed by some aspects which are at the forefront of your field of study or area of professional practice.
· Place your own practice within a wider context by referencing a range of educational practices and current debates at local, national and international levels.
· Demonstrate originality in the application of knowledge and a practical understanding of how techniques of research and enquiry are used to create and interpret knowledge in your field of study.
· Explore the implications of relevant theory, research and policy, including aspects that are uncertain, ambiguous and/or contradictory in nature, in relation to your own context.
· Demonstrate a critical awareness of the role of educational policy and practice in promoting participation and inclusivity.
2.2 Intellectual/Subject/Professional/Key skills covered within the Programme: by the end of the programme you will be able to:
· Reflect critically on personal and/or professional learning and practice examining your underpinning values and beliefs and any ethical implications.
· Examine practice in complex, uncertain and ambiguous situations by undertaking systematic, ethical investigations that illuminate issues and inform judgments.
· Demonstrate a personal synthesis of ideas based on study, reflection and experience, and create responses to problems that expand or redefine existing knowledge.
· Demonstrate an ability to choose and justify appropriate tools and approaches which facilitate the process of changing practice.
· Critically evaluate the diverse ways in which knowledge about education in a variety of contexts is constructed and contested.
· Synthesize and communicate effectively the outcomes of your study in ways consistent with relevant academic conventions.
· Demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems and act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks.
· Identify dilemmas and ethical dimensions in complex situations and acknowledge your positionality in these contexts.
· Identify, access and evaluate a range of information sources to inform development of a comprehensive knowledge base that incorporates educational issues of complexity and uncertainty.
3 LEARNING, TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT
3.1 The approach to Learning and Teaching within the Programme
The style of the programme is practice-orientated and gives emphasis to participants' contexts and aspirations. At the outset of the programme participants are supported to create a development plan that demonstrates their intentions for their programme of study, how this relates to their context and where they assess themselves to be in relation to the key features of the programme.
By drawing on context-related knowledge and experience, be this from the work place, a placement or an individual's particular setting, and linking this to theory, research and policy, we foster a reflective and critical approach to issues and concerns arising from practice.
Within modules both individual and collaborative learning is encouraged. Participants enter this programme from very diverse backgrounds, all bringing unique contributions. Peer learning and support and an active engagement with others' experiences and perceptions are central to our participant-centred approach which:
· acknowledges participants' individual perceptions of themselves and their situation as the starting point in the learning pathway. In this way participants are encouraged to use their own professional situation as a source for reflection and analysis;
· enables theory to be effectively examined by relating it explicitly to participants' practice in order to facilitate the integration of module activities with work situations and the transfer of learning between theory and practice.
Opportunities for such learning are provided through:
· tutor-led seminars, workshops, participant-led activities, group and peer discussion, self-directed study, reading
· a range of placement/work-related assessment tasks
· digital resources including the Blackboard VLE which enables participants to interact with content covered in modules and to support peer learning
· the resources and support offered by Student Learning Services, including the Learning Centre.
· placement or work-based investigations and projects.
At the beginning of their programme of study all participants will be offered induction and ongoing support sessions, which provide an overview of the programme and award structure. Participants will be introduced to ways of accessing and making optimum use of ICT and Learning Centre support and resources, as well as other sources of student support.
Autonomous learning is supported through ongoing personal development planning, clear guidance on the programmes' expectations regarding progression at Masters level and assessment requirements and feedback. This process includes target setting and action planning, reviewing personal and professional learning and analysing the impact of learning on professional practice. This is led by Hubs staff in conjunction with the course leader.
Key features of the programme
We expect learning on the programme to be a challenging and transformative experience which will have a significant impact on participants. This is usually in the context of the work place but for some participants will be more focused on their personal experiences as advocates for themselves or for other people.
In either case we see the following features of the programme as central to engaging with, challenging and developing policy and practice in the field of education:
· Building a knowledge base to enable critique of policy and practice
· Professional and personal reflection
· The development of practice and innovation
· Agency, influence and leadership of change
· Practitioner enquiry and knowledge creation.
The process of learning and teaching will encourage the use and development of the participants' knowledge, understanding and skills, for example information literacy skills. The modules studied will encourage participants to critically consider the literature and to reflect on and evaluate aspects of education in its broadest sense. Through these activities participants also will learn how to devise and sustain evidence-based arguments.
Learning, teaching and assessment activities encourage a reflective and thoughtful approach to the development of knowledge and understanding, independent judgement, critical awareness and evaluative skills. This includes a close examination of the ways in which knowledge about education in its broadest sense is constructed and contested. Participants will examine their own values and beliefs and those that underpin theory and practice, policy and research. There will be opportunities for peer learning and support.
Tutors are expected to model reflective practices in managing and supporting learning, by applying criticality to their own approaches. Activities will attempt to capitalise on enabling participants to learn from the curriculum process as well as from the curriculum content and apply the learning to their own practice. This further encourages participants to take increased responsibility for their own personal and professional development.
Participants will be expected to engage with critique of policy and practice and with the development of innovative practices that are relevant to their professional context. In the course of developing their own innovative practice or critical understanding of practice, participants will be required to locate their own experience in wider educational contexts. This will involve critical appraisal of a range of models of practice from the UK and internationally and the adaptation of some of these practices to their own work.
Building on this critique of practice, participants will be encouraged to consider the processes of change and their role as agents of change within their own context. This will include a careful consideration of the risks and benefits of change for different groups within their context and the potential for collaborative and inclusive processes of change.
Participation in placement/community/work-based investigations and projects provides the opportunity for individuals or groups to extend their knowledge and, where relevant, professional skills. Through the taught elements, together with engagement in such activities participants will be supported in extending their ability to design and undertake practice-based research and evaluation and develop project planning and management skills. This includes examining how others have undertaken practice-based enquiry, developing knowledge about research and evaluation methods, accessing on-line resources and reading lists, and working individually and collaboratively to refine participants' own approaches to enquiry.
The final Enquiry Phase is a powerful mechanism for enabling participants to synthesise the knowledge, understanding and skills gained from other modules. In this phase participants learn how to use their own and others' research in a systematic way to develop professional or personal practice. Participants undertake their own enquiry into an area of interest or concern in their professional and personal context through which they extend or redefine their professional and personal knowledge. The focus of the enquiry must relate to their chosen award in education in its broadest context. A key aim is that the enquiry phase enables participants to develop a sense of agency in relation to using enquiry to develop practice in the future.
3.2 The approach to Assessment and Feedback within the Programme
Assessment tasks are normally directly related to professional or personal practice. They are situated in the policies, issues and/or practices of a participant's own setting or placement. The focus of the assessment is determined by the participants' own interests and concerns in discussion with the module tutor. Participants are encouraged to self-assess their own progress through a process of goal setting and review undertaken as part of their personal development plan. Assessment tasks require participants to self-assess the impact of their learning on their own professional practices and their organisation.
All assessments require participants to develop and critically engage with a knowledge base. This can draw upon theoretical and research literatures, policy and practice guidance and professional networks and local data. Assessments emphasise the importance of the relationship between theory and practice in developing critical reflective accounts of practice and the role of enquiry in providing evidence for both initiating and evaluating the impact of changes. Where assessments require implementation or proposals for changes in practice, participants are expected to adopt a reflexive approach that acknowledges their own positionality in initiating and taking any changes forward and considers alternative perspectives.
Participants on the full time Masters course will be responsible for negotiating the focus of their assessment tasks with placement supervisors and/or other key placement staff. They will choose foci for modules and for the enquiry stage that relate both to their own developing specialist interests and to issues that are pertinent for the setting. This is particularly important at the enquiry stage and it is anticipated that some placement organisations will have a sponsoring role in terms of proposing a starting point for enquiry. This will provide an opportunity for participants to make a real and valued contribution to their placement organisation.
Assessment tasks based within participants' contexts require careful ethical consideration. The programme links into the university and faculty ethics committees via its own ethics committee which meets regularly. Where the focus of an assignment requires ethical consideration, participants are expected to complete a planning form which clearly describes the ethical issues and the measures that will be taken to address these. This must be agreed by the module tutor before tasks are commenced and submitted with the final assignment. For more complex extended projects and enquiries, such as those associated with the Enquiry Based Project and Developing Practice through Research modules, or where there are issues of particular sensitivity, supervisors will advise on ethics for the exploratory work and the process of following ethical principles throughout their study. For the Enquiry Based Project an extended project proposal must be completed and submitted to the programme ethics committee. This also must be agreed before tasks are commenced and submitted with the final assignment. For the Developing Practice through Research module participants will produce a structured narrative against a checklist of ethical principles which is submitted for approval. These processes provide students with additional feedback on the ethical dimensions of their project.
The complexity and scope of assessment activities which are based in participants' contexts lend themselves to extended pieces of work in which the participant can present their knowledge base, problematise issues, develop arguments and conceptual frameworks and apply these to the issue that they are seeking to address. This frequently involves undertaking some form of evaluative or implementation activity such as: a case study of leading a new innovation in an educational setting; or a critical analysis of approaches to assessment for learning at the appropriate age-phase; or creating resources and/or systems or new ways of working. These are of direct benefit to the participants' contexts/placements, enabling participants to enhance their employability skills as well as providing a vehicle through which they can demonstrate how they have addressed the module's learning outcomes.