The Leicester diploma course
7201
The Leicester diploma course
David Parsons
This paper is presented simply to give colleagues a little information about one of the most recently introduced diploma courses and the opportunity to discuss if they wish any points of interest which may arise. It is essentially an interim report, since the course is in its first year, and is developing and being modified all the time.
General description
In 1971 the University of Leicester School of Education rationalised the various part-time advanced diploma courses previously offered (e.g. the Diploma in Primary Education, Diploma in Science Teaching, Diploma in Art Education). From September 1971 these were amalgamated to form a single course, leading to the Diploma in Educational Studies. The course consists of two units, each extending over two years, which students may follow concurrently or consecutively; the duration of the course is therefore either two years attending two nights a week, or four years attending one night a week. Classroom hours total, in theory, 360 - 180 in each unit. (In certain options, a one-year full-time course is also available).
The two units are
(a) the compulsory common course, which includes general educational theory (history, sociology, psychology of education, etc.) and more specific elements (school organisation and management, educational statistics, research design); this unit is taken by all students;
(b) one of a number of optional courses, many of which cover the specialist ground of the previous separate diploma courses; to these has now been added a new option on Adult and Community Education, contributed by the Department of Adult Education.
It is stated in the regulations that the course as a whole is intended for
qualified teachers who have had not lass than three years’ recognised educational experiences but others, with qualifications approved by the Academic Committee of the Education Board as equivalent, may be accepted.
The special leaflet for the Adult and Community Education option indicates that
the inclusion of this option is a recognition of the part which adult and community studies are likely to play in the whole field of education in the future. It is intended for those members of school staffs who foresee their careers taking them into posts of special responsibility where qualifications and experience in adult and community education would be valuable. It is also addressed to those already serving in those fields, whether full- or part-time, as teachers, organisers or administrators.
The composition of the first intake will be mentioned below, when it will be seen what the initial response was to these statements of intent, the second of which was partly prompted by the recent appointment of Heads of Community Studies to some institutions, including some Leicestershire community colleges.
Content of the adult and community education option
The first year of the course, which we arc currently teaching, is in two parts, each under the control of one tutor. One deals with adult education as understood at present, including a description of provision and same study of adult learning; the other with community work organisation and methods, and community processes. A constant effort is made to relate the two parts to each other, for example in the selection of essay titles, and to explore the relevance of social work problems and methods to the adult education situation. The emphasis in both parts is on:
(i) the restriction of purely historical study (in the spirit of the 1971 SCUTREA conference!) in favour of describing as fully ass possible current practice: the motives here are to provide a common factual grounding in these fields for a very heterogeneous group of students, and to provide a springboard for analytical approach; group visits to adult education and community work agencies are a feature of this aspect of the course;
(ii) the study of institutional structures and their effect on practice;
(iii) methodology, especially social science method - at the mundane and practical level, the preparation of questionnaires, checklists and observation schedules, as well a overall strategy of observation and evaluation; reports and evaluation of visits mentioned under (i).
All this is preparation for the essentially practical second year, plans for which are now taking shape. Students will be placed, probably in pairs, in adult education institutions; it is hoped to get as many types of institution represented as possible, so that the total group experience will be broadly based. Their brief will be to study in same depth as many aspects of the institution as possible and to write a special study (required as part of the assessed course work for the diploma is a whole) on some specific aspect. One term will to spent as a student at one of the institution’s adult classes, to gain maximum familiarity with buildings, amenities, personnel and range of activities. Three return visits during the second term will give an opportunity for further enquiries, including interviews with staff, students and representatives of societies. It is also hoped to arrange for students to attend meetings of student association committees and programme planning conferences throughout the year. Much of the classroom contact with myself and my colleagues will be concerned with exchange of information, discussion, and tutorial advice on the writing of reports and of the special study. However, short taught courses on the sociology and the classic literature of adult education will be interspersed.
Some features of the course
There are clearly points of similarity and points of contrast between the Leicester course and the diploma courses established elsewhere. It may appear to embody features of both AE and CD courses run by other universities, and it may prove ultimately that we fall heavily between the two stools.
If any of the features have any merit, it would be pleasant to pretend that we had planned them all from the start. Certainly the intention to span the fields of school-leaver, youth and community work and adult education was a conscious one. But other features were a response to external pressures, such as the structure of the course as decided by the School of Education, the nature and interests of the students, the small number of staff available and their academic interests; for example, the placement of students one night a week at a host institution, an idea which we rather like in prospect, happens to be a convenient arrangement since I am on study leave during the autumn term of the second year of the first intakes and not available for teaching duties.
The format and content of the diploma course as a whole (i.e. including the common course) is rather different from other universities’ courses, although we would not claim uniqueness since I believe some of them (e.g. Nottingham’s) have developed from similar beginnings. Even so, it seems to me that there arc solid advantages to be expected from a course arranged along these lines, although time may prove some of them illusory.
Advantages of the course
I
There seems to be some value in running the diploma on a part-time rather than a full-time basis. Students must be highly motivated to attend the course and cope with out-of-class work in addition to their full-time job, and since it is a post-experience course they come with some degree of maturity and experience. Comparisons with other courses arc not yet possible, but the only comment so far from an outsider is encouraging. Dr. Brian Smith of the University of Western Australia, who recently visited many of the UK diploma courses, gained the impression that the part-time courses tended to encourage a higher level of student motivation and participation than the full-time ones.
The experience of the students, who by regulation must have bean in post at least three years, contributes to this, and the background of the current group is sufficiently varied to facilitate the community education approach. Of the twelve students taking the course for the first time there are:
six school teachers, one of whom is a former part-time assistant head of an adult education centre; two have responsibility for 4th and 5th year school leavers and RoSLA courses; one has became a careers master after experience as a teacher/youth tutor; and one has conducted adult classes as a part-time tutor;
two Further Education/Technical College teachers, one of whom has experience as part-time WEA tutor and Young Farmers organiser; the other is involved with school link courses of the kind described by Skinner;[1]
two senior youth service officers;
one former school teacher, now a university PE instructor;
one community college adult tutor.
Some disadvantage attaches to potential students of this kind. There are indications that some applicants hope to use the course to resolve personal and/or professional problems, especially if they have been in post a long time, and a number of such candidates was interviewed and rejected, while one or two got through the net. A noticeable category is that of the ageing (i.e. 30+ year-old!) physical education specialist looking for an alternative specialism against the day when he can no longer hold down a head of department past in PE; his subsidiary college qualification will not get him a departmental headship in another subject.
Another result of the part-time format is that the students all live and work within a reasonable distance of Leicester. Specific studies of local forms of adult education have, therefore, more than theoretical interest for them.
Finally, the spreading of the course over two years gives the opportunity to exploit visits to maximum advantage. There is plenty of time in the first year for visits to a large number of agencies for general orientation and to learn techniques of observation and evaluation. The second year allows further visits or revisits in depth, which would be less easily and beneficially arranged during the later stages of a one-year course; for example, students can observe the beginning-of-session cycle in consecutive years at the same or at different centres, and observe to more effect the second time round. In general, the two-year format gives more time for the assimilation of information and impressions and for more mature reflection on course content as a whole.
II
Two advantages should accrue from the fact that the Adult and Community Education option is only half of a full diploma course. First, students acquire a background of educational theory, so that adult and community education are not considered in isolation. Because of the particular structure of the common course it is rarely possible to make specific links between it and the option course content in any overt way, although it has been possible to timetable the Sociology of Adult Education course in the same term as the common course Sociology of Education element. Parts of the common course, especially statistics, research design and school organisation and management, are relevant directly or indirectly to the business of the option course; the course content here is transferable and need not be repeated at length by us.
Second, since the final award is an advanced genera1 education diploma, it will be acceptable as a qualification (although not for QT status) in the whole field of education; this should mean that students will not be saddled with an unusable qualification should they decide ultimately not to enter (or remain in) adult education as full-time professionals, but if they do, having followed our option course should be to their advantage.
Reproduced from
[1]S. C. Mason (ed): In our experience, Longmans 1970