Education (Online) MA

The content will involve you in active critical consideration of participating in and leadership of practitioner inquiry in relation to professional context mapping and workplace learning.

These processes will be achieved through:

• conceptualising different kinds of practitioner inquiry relevant to work-based understanding and development (purposes, processes, contexts, dilemmas, outcomes)
• examining a range of approaches to educational inquiry, with an emphasis on action research
• developing an inquiry into your professional context

This involves the researching and writing of a substantive piece of scholarship within the field of the course.

You will choose a topic in consultation with your course leader and an appropriate supervisor. The topic will normally be based on interests and skills you have developed in the course of the modules already studied.

The module will address the essential features of effective learning, as relevant to your sector by examining:

• the process of learning
• supporting learning (for example, through adults, peers and technology) both within and beyond the educational organisation
• an overview of approaches to improvement and raising achievement in educational organisations
• monitoring and evaluation of learning: the use of data, target-setting, monitoring

This module will address the nature and practice of leadership in education. It will look at six themes:

• Concepts of leadership
• Change
• Leadership qualities, behaviours and competencies
• Power and authority
• Organisational cultures and distributed leadership
• Professional development

This module considers:

• experiential learning and its relationship to reflective practice and reflexivity: exploration via a learning journal genre
• world views and models of human behaviour
• theoretical perspectives on behaviour: behaviourist, humanistic and postmodern approaches
• social and emotional aspects of behaviour: mental well-being, shame, self-esteem
• punitive and restorative justice: responding to bullying and challenging behaviour, conflict resolution and peer mediation
• the intensity/functionality of behaviour: escalation/de-escalation, communication and crisis intervention
• controversial issues: for example, restraint, exclusion from school, sex and relationship education
• supporting students with ADHD
• the role of self-awareness and mindful practice as an essential classroom management
• workforce issues: self-care, partnership working

This module will explore key issues concerning the field of special and inclusive education:

• Definitions of special needs and inclusion
• Global perspectives on diversity and access to equality of educational opportunities
• Understanding theoretical approaches to special needs/inclusion and models of disability
• Understanding prevalence of need and issues concerning classification and assessment
• Exploring the impact of policy on practice and equality of opportunity
• Examining the evidence on effectiveness of different types of educational settings eg mainstream, resource base and special provision
• Pedagogy and creativity
• Balancing equity and choice through collaborative and ethical problem solving

This module will explore key issues related to the education of students on the autism spectrum. These include: 

• what you need to know to teach and support individuals on the autism spectrum and their families
• insider perspectives; the spectrum; neurodiversity; and gender
• identification and core difficulties of autism
• whole school approaches to planning for students on the autism spectrum
• environmental issues; working with families and community; outside agencies
• education theories associated with autism: theory of mind; central coherence; and executive function
• communication
• sensory sensitivities and accommodations
• links between sensory and motor functions and difficulties associated with autism
• social and emotional challenges and supports
• educational interventions for children on the autism spectrum
• value of interventions to support learning of all children in a mainstream class
• transitions; small and large scale
• focusing on strengths and interests

This module considers:

• typical and atypical development of communication by looking at means, opportunities and reasons for communicating, along with the influence of expectations
• typical and atypical development of cognition and literacy including specific learning difficulties/dyslexia
• communication and literacy/learning assessments and interventions
• understanding autism and Autistic Spectrum Disorder
• communication and literacy/learning for children with learning disabilities including autism, Down's syndrome and dyslexia
• effective teaching and learning environments

This module considers the theories underpinning effective practice in teaching content subjects and themes through an additional language (English or another language) and how these impact on practice.

Different teaching practices and instructional materials are considered, from early years, primary, secondary and tertiary, with a focus on language, content and culture. Case studies of different teaching contexts are examined. Research fields which feature in the module include input/output theories from second language acquisition, theories of scaffolding, cognitive learning theory and communicative theory.

The intention throughout is to identify effective practice and rationalise it from these theories.

This module focuses on how people learn together in pairs, teams, small groups, the classroom, or an informal community. It works through classical and modern theories of social learning, explaining the social aspects of almost any type of learning and mechanisms that boost the power of learning together.

Equipped with these theories, it explores the various technologies mediating and supporting social learning, such as social media, participation in the World Wide Web, online communities, online communication platforms and virtual reality.

This module looks at how people learn and how learning is supported in a digital age. It explores current and historical theories of learning and how they inform the design of learning technologies. It will help you understand the potential of digital technology for learning in a variety of contexts (such as schools, colleges, workplaces, museums, both face-to-face and online) and help you develop an ability to critically reflect on examples of learning technologies in current use.

This module critically examines contemporary debates surrounding orthodoxies in curriculum, learning and assessment in schools, and how these relate to policy and practice.

In particular it considers the way different orthodoxies frame what children and young people learn in schools, how they learn and how assessment practices inform learning processes. The module will explore these orthodoxies in terms of their origins and purposes and it will consider alternative models from an international perspective.

The module starts by considering the history, politics and ideology of the curriculum as it currently exists. It then develops understanding through application of psychological, social and cultural theories of learning and assessment. These theorised views of schooling and classroom practices enable us to analyse and critique the wide-ranging policy and research discussions about curriculum, learning and assessment that are currently under way.

You will be engaged in considering how developments of, and alternatives to, current practices will impact learning and teaching in the future.

This module looks at how digital technologies are changing how we teach and learn. It explores learning tools such as mobile phones, virtual learning environments, serious games, robotics, and immersive/augmented reality environments.

It will help you understand how to choose appropriate digital tools, how to support students to learn with them both face-to-face and online, and what the future of teaching and learning might look like.

This module brings together international scholars in education to introduce contemporary and global topics on early childhood education (ECE). Through attending lectures delivered by both University of Nottingham lecturers and guest speakers from across the world, you will then engage in interactive activities and critical discussions on how global perspectives on different topics embed in your own societal contexts. You are further encouraged to reflect on how to ‘localise’ global perspectives into your everyday practice working in ECE contexts, developing culturally-sensitive and -reflective approaches to ECE pedagogy and practice.

The module will cover broad topics relating to:

• Globalisation and ‘globalisation’ in ECE
• National ECE curriculum policy frameworks across countries
• Social justice issues and sustainable development goals in ECE
• International approaches to pedagogy and practice in ECE
• Children’s perspective on quality of ECE
• Teacher development and ECE workforce globally
• Parenting in intersectional contexts

This module critically examines leading examples of social theories and frameworks that both inform and help conceptualise key issues within the field of education. It will draw on theories that have originated within the field and also from different disciplines which have application to a study of education.

Throughout the module, you will engage in considering the origins of particular theories of knowledge and of how these help us to understand educational issues and debates across time and in contemporary society. The module will incorporate epistemological issues from a range of historical and global perspectives and will consider the implications of these for educational theorising, conceptualising and research.