BA Education Studies

Title:

Creative Learning through the Arts

Code:

ED1BCL

Convenor:

MR Simon Floodgate

Summary:

This module is open to teachers, practitioners and those interested in the place of the Arts and creativity in education and society. The module will consider the importance of creative learning through practice and enable students to engage in creative projects in art, drama and creative writing. Integral to this focus will be the contemporary role of the practitioner as artist, dramatist and writer in Arts education.

Assessment Method:

Oral 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Education for Inclusion

Code:

ED1BEC

Convenor:

DR Anna Tsakalaki

Summary:

This module will enhance students’ understanding of education for diverse groups of individuals and specifically those with disabilities. Students will gain an increased awareness of international and national contexts and perspectives for addressing the needs of learners with additional needs. At the end of this module students will have key skills to demonstrate in depth knowledge of inclusive practice and its application within educational contexts.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Discovering Education: An exploration of Key Educational Issues

Code:

ED1BED

Convenor:

DR David Dobraszczyk

Summary:

This module aims to provide students with an introduction and overview of key philosophical, social, cultural, and political debates within education. Students of educational studies should be familiar with different issues, controversies and debates concerning education and learning and to be articulate in contributing to these debates. Through discussion, guest speakers and visits to settings, this module aims to develop students' engagement as debaters with the aim to create awareness of current topics, legislation, and theory as well as to develop students’ ability to evaluate and take part in discussions of educational issues. Further, the module also aims to increase students’ confidence in researching and identifying appropriate sources and material when discussing educational issues.

Assessment Method:

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Psychology and Theories of Learning

Code:

ED1BPT

Convenor:

MR Ilan Dwek

Summary:

This module will explore our current understanding of the learning process, drawing upon theories arising from the fields of educational psychology such behaviourism, constructivism and psychoanalysis. Particular pedagogical and andragogical concepts will also be explored, including but not limited to the theory of cognitive development (Piaget), multiple intelligences (Gardner), growth mindset (Dweck), experiential learning (Kolb), learning through play (Vygotsky, Montessori), learning power (Claxton), transformational learning (Mezirow), communities of practice (Lave and Wenger) and contemplative pedagogy (Barbezat and Bush).

Assessment Method:

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Sociology, Education and Social Justice

Code:

ED1BSE

Convenor:

MISS Cecilia Muldoon

Summary:

This module aims to explore the sociological, cultural, and economic issues that shape an individual’s educational opportunities and pathways. We consider the ways that social organisations and social structures can promote and reinforce social inequalities amongst different groups of people, especially by socio-economic status (class), gender and ethnicity. Each session presents a different theme relevant to educators concerned about social justice. Students are introduced to key concepts and issues in the sociology of education. Our primary aim is to question the notion of meritocracy and you are encouraged to draw upon your own experiences in exploring how social justice issues are constituted and contested.

Assessment Method:

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Academic Skills and Language for Education

Code:

IL1ASLEN

Convenor:

MS Sarah Mattin

Summary:

This module focuses on the academic language and literacy skills needed to perform more effectively at undergraduate level in Education. It is primarily designed for undergraduate Education students whose first language is not English. The module utilises Education-specific texts to develop a range of reading, writing and speaking skills needed for successful completion of assessed coursework tasks.

The module is non-credit-bearing and designed to support students’ disciplinary study, the expectation being that students will apply the skills they have learnt IL1ASLEN in their credit-bearing work. Therefore, for the module itself, there is no assessment or expectation of independent study hours.

Assessment Method:

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Critiquing Education: where theory meets the professional space

Code:

ED2BDE

Convenor:

DR David Dobraszczyk

Summary:

The module comprises a series of lectures looking at the theory and research underpinning professional development in a range of educational institutions. Students will examine a number of key themes, introducing them to teamwork and professionalism, communication and networking, developing the skills of a reflective practitioner, staff support and engagement with learners. Each student will then arrange and carry out a placement in an educational institution of their choosing. 

Assessment Method:

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Contemporary Education and Policy

Code:

ED2BEP

Convenor:

PROF Richard Harris

Summary:

This module will cultivate students’ understanding of the UK’s post-war public policy context within which education is a part. It will promote the use of critical thinking in order to explore political, historical, societal and philosophical debates about education in society.  

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Global perspectives in Education

Code:

ED2BGP

Convenor:

MR David Kerr

Summary:

This module will enable students to understand the complex nature of education globally.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Leadership in Education

Code:

ED2BLE

Convenor:

DR Karen Jones

Summary:

This module will explore and critically appraise recent trends in theoretical constructs of educational leadership that trace developments in school/instructional leadership, to transformational leadership, toward distributed leadership. Linking theory with the practice of doing educational leadership, a concurrent focus will be placed on individual development to provide opportunities for learners to engage in and practice key behaviours associated with leading in an educational context.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Head and Heart: Education for Wisdom and Community

Code:

ED2BHH

Convenor:

DR Geoff Taggart

Summary:

Without the fantasy of endless economic growth, in an era of ‘deep adaptation’ to climate crisis, what is education now for?  Which aspects of education and human development help us to become better people? Can technology help us to become wise? What exactly should teachers be role models of? What might transformative learning look like and how might we model it in our personal and professional lives? 

This module presents an alternative vision of education for social sustainability from a global and anthropological perspective. It characterises education as a fundamentally human endeavour to make life meaningful for oneself within a community of shared values. It is seen as transformative, enlarging and changing perspectives, and is also holistic, involving mind, body and the human spirit. It is mythopoetic, recognising that knowledge is conveyed and retained most meaningfully through story and imagery. In this paradigm, although educational means may be technological, involving robots and computers, the ends are primarily ethical.  Moral behaviour occurs as a natural outcome of care and nurture by family and community and each generation of learners is welcomed into their cultural inheritance as an act of inclusive hospitality, a recurrent metaphor throughout the module. 

This vision of education informs the teaching style, the content and the expectations of you, the learner. Sessions take the form of interactive presentations and appropriate disclosure about your own beliefs and values is encouraged.  A key part of the module involves visits to local places of worship as examples of community values in practice. These visits represent opportunities for us to cultivate an openness to learning and to reflect upon our own perspectives.  As it is hoped that these perspectives will be enlarged and shaped by your experience on the module, your reflections will be central to the written assignment.

Assessment Method:

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Leadership in Education

Code:

ED2BLE

Convenor:

DR Karen Jones

Summary:

This module will explore and critically appraise recent trends in theoretical constructs of educational leadership that trace developments in school/instructional leadership, to transformational leadership, toward distributed leadership. Linking theory with the practice of doing educational leadership, a concurrent focus will be placed on individual development to provide opportunities for learners to engage in and practice key behaviours associated with leading in an educational context.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Learning Gender: Exploring the Links Between Gender, Education and Society

Code:

ED2BLG

Convenor:

MS Suzy Tutchell

Summary:

In this module, we will consider the gender dimensions of research, analysis, policy and practice in relation to education and society. We will explore gender differences, relationships and power dynamics particularly linked to inequalities in education, social theory and sociology of education. We will evaluate the position of women and patriarchy historically and in contemporary society by considering a range of sociological and feminist explanations of gender inequality. We will explore the notion that gender exists beyond a binary and that a range of gender identities should be recognised within education and society. Each session presents a different theme relevant to gender difference/[in]equalities offering national and international perspectives. Students will be asked to engage with debates on and representations of gender through a range of media and the arts. The primary aim is to question the notion of gender inequalities and students are encouraged to draw upon their own generational experiences to practice formulating their own questions contesting and analysing gender in education and society today.

Assessment Method:

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Theatre for Social Change

Code:

ED2TSC

Convenor:

MR Simon Floodgate

Summary:

This module will enable students to explore the concepts of ‘change’ and ‘social change’ in the context of applied theatre. Students will develop an understanding of the applications of theatre for change via engagement with a range of key practitioners and forms. The module will explore who changes, how change is brought about and whether change is necessarily a good thing within these practices. At the end of the module students will have skills to evaluate the impact and efficacy of theatre for social change and to appraise the notion of transformation in the broader context of education.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Museum Learning and Engagement

Code:

MC2LE

Convenor:

DR Rhi Smith

Summary:

This module critically examines the learning role of museums in society. Students are introduced to learning theory, programme and event management, while also learning about resource design, evaluation, and visitor research. During the course students will hear from museum-based learning and engagement professionals and observe and evaluate learning resources and events. Interactive lectures, seminars and museum visits encourage students to contextualise and apply learning. Work is assessed through design and planned evaluation of a learning resource, evaluation of an educational event, and an analysis of a museum's learning programme.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 90%, Oral 10%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Dissertation

Code:

ED3BFD

Convenor:

DR Maria Kambouri

Summary:

This module represents the student's major piece of independent work, the culmination of their critical writing on the course. As such it provides an opportunity for students to design and conduct research through an extended research project.  This is a largely independent study supported by a number of taught sessions, one to one or group supervision and some further group Q&A session.  Students are expected to engage in primary research (conducting their own experiments, surveys etc. to gain new knowledge) and collect their own data.  Students will submit a presentation on their research-in-progress at a mid-point during the module.

Assessment Method:

Oral 10%, Dissertation 90%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Health and Well - being: Consequences and Responsibilities

Code:

ED3BHW

Convenor:

PROF Carol Fuller

Summary:

This module is designed to extend students’ knowledge, skills and understanding of health and well-being within the context of self and society but via an education lens. The health of the individual is inextricably linked to the health of the nation, not least because a healthy workforce is a productive one. The flip side is that poor health and connected lifestyles place a huge strain on national and local health services, raising interesting questions about whose responsibility health and well-being is.  In this module we will look at theories of health that focus on sociological, psycho-social and philosophical explanations and that connect to how behaviours related to these areas are learned. We will also consider the different ways that well-being can be supported both within schools and communities as well as consider notions of lifelong learning.  This module will be  assessed on the aims of the module, through a piece of writing on a topic of interest.  

Assessment Method:

Assignment 80%, Oral 20%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Professional Development 3

Code:

ED3BPD

Convenor:

PROF Catherine Tissot

Summary:

In this module, students consolidate the learning from part 1 and 2 modules, and further develop their understanding of how theory and practice, in abstract and tangible reality, interact in an education domain they consider interesting and relevant to their own professional development. The numerous industries and vocations associated with this degree require students to be enterprising and skilled, not only in terms of their subject area, but also in their ability to manage themselves and their careers professionally, and this module will require students to think carefully about their passions, professionalism and employability. Students will consider learning that has taken place throughout the programme and apply contextually-sensitive approaches to education in their areas of focus. Students will get the opportunity to plan a detailed and wide-ranging proposal for an educational project that draws upon the full range of topics discussed and considered during the module, with a clear emphasis on their own professional development in their chosen context.

Assessment Method:

Oral 50%, Report 50%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Understanding the Theory and Practice of Mentoring

Code:

ED3BMU

Convenor:

DR Fiona Curtis

Summary:

Mentoring is a tool of communication used in a range of environments where a more experienced member of a community (educational or professional), might engage with a less advanced one in order to achieve some or all of the following: to introduce them to the culture of their environment, to promote confidence and productivity, to provide emotional support and to develop professional competences. There are benefits for the person being mentored, the mentor and the community in which they are positioned.  However the literature also reports challenges such as “judge-mentoring” or even “tor-mentoring” and the practice is not always associated with positive outcomes.  The purpose of this module is to understand what mentoring is and the different roles and identities that may be involved.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 100%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Providing Children’s Services

Code:

ED3PCS

Convenor:

MS Jo Elsey

Summary:

This module provides students with a broader understanding of the political and legislative context within which various forms of schooling and childcare have developed. It explores the shifting ideologies underpinning attempts to reform children’s services over recent times and interrogates the notion of an integrated ‘children’s workforce’ with common concerns, skills and knowledge.

Assessment Method:

Assignment 80%, Project 20%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Title:

Development of transferable skills through a school placement 4

Code:

ED3TS4

Convenor:

DR Caroline Foulkes

Summary:

This module enables undergraduate students to develop key transferable skills needed for employment, and also provides outreach experience. Following specialist training on key aspects of working in schools, ten day placements in June/July in secondary schools in the Reading area will provide work experience in a professional setting.

In the autumn, students will build on the knowledge and transferable skills acquired in order to plan and deliver, with colleagues, a teaching session that shares knowledge of their degree specialism with small groups of school pupils. Students will reflect on, and share, their experiences with their colleagues. Assessment will be by coursework, and placement supervisor report on professionalism and engagement.

Students will be selected by application and interview.

Please be aware that once the placement has been completed in June it is not possible to switch from this module in the Autumn Term as students have completed practical activities directly relating to 50% of the mark (Professionalism and portfolio) and that link to activities in the Autumn Term.

Assessment Method:

Practical 10%, Oral 50%, Portfolio 40%

Disclaimer:

The modules described on this page are what we currently offer. Modules may change for your year of study as we regularly review our offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.