Education BA

The aim of this module is to subject the fundamental ideas of curriculum and knowledge to close scrutiny, and in doing so explore important questions such as: 

• What should be taught/learnt and why?
• Why emphasise learning of some knowledges and not others, and who decides?  
• What is the difference between curriculum and a national curriculum?
• What factors influence curriculum change? 
• How do learners experience the curriculum and how does assessment influence this? 

Exploring these questions will show how the curriculum is subject to a range of social, cultural and political influences and that the relationship between the curriculum and knowledge is complex.

Although the focus for the model is on school curricula in England, understanding of the issues will be enhanced by comparative analysis of curricula in other educational phases, national contexts and historical times.

This module explores education theory and policy debates beyond the UK. It has three main strands. Firstly, it critically examines major accounts regarding the purpose of education as they are found in international policy, activist and academic debates.

Secondly, it goes on to look at the increasingly transnational nature of education policymaking, examining prominent examples and major theories about how policies spread.

Thirdly, it draws attention to critiques of these globalising trends by looking at case studies of resistance; examining arguments that education can be a public and private "bad" as well as "good"; and considering debates about whose knowledge counts in national and international education policy debates.

This module explores how digital technologies are changing the way people learn – as well as how they play, make friends, qualify in a field, gain employment and participate in the world around them.

It does this by:

• exploring both well-researched and cutting edge technologies, from multimedia through educational games and massive open online courses (MOOCs)
• focusing on how people learn with technology by considering the ways that it supports different learning activities
• addressing a variety of contexts for digital based learning including schools, universities, galleries and museums and the workplace
• providing opportunities for hands-on design experiences to prototype and develop digital learning environments
• considering complex social aspects of technological change to explore how technology is affecting equity in educational outcomes and whether technological change in the workplace and home is fundamentally changing what education should achieve

The researching education module will provide you with an introduction to the principles and concepts which underpin research in education. We ask what research is (and what it isn't), where it is located, how it is used, by whom and to what ends.

We will build on the research components of other modules in which the key studies and theories in those areas were introduced. As well as learning how to access, read and interpret research, in this module, you will also examine the practices and skills associated with the conduct of research. 

You will be taught the core research skills of critique, argumentation and analysis. You will also be introduced to research methods covering the collection, manipulation, analysis and presentation of data about education in research. Using these skills, you will examine and reflect upon key studies of education and explore how knowledge of education - including its effects and its relationships to learning, culture, technology and society - is believed to arise from research.

In this module, you will develop the academic skills you will need to successfully undertake independent study and research in education. These include methods of information management, critical evaluation and effective academic writing. You will also explore possibilities for postgraduate study and/or employment and gain experience in employment-related forms of writing and communication. This will include work on career planning.

Ethics and values in professional life are a key focus of the module. The module explores how educationalists may find fulfilment and satisfaction through developing an ethical, values-based stance on their work.

This module introduces you to educational practices that occur outside of traditional, mainstream institutional settings such as schools or universities in order to question the role of education in society.

Lectures and seminar activities will focus on a range of alternative and non-traditional educational practices in different international contexts, including home schooling, Saturday schools, unregistered schools, segregated schools and re-education camps.

You will explore the philosophical and ideologicalperspectives underpinning alternative approaches to education. We will consider the extent to which decisions about educational choice are made by children, individuals, families, the state or society and discuss whether alternative educations challenge or reproduce the outcomes of more traditional educational pathways.

This module covers the following:

• The importance and relevance of difference and diversity in counselling
• Exploring the lived experience and emotional impact of difference and diversity in relationships
• Specific aspects of difference and diversity to include but not limited to race, culture, age, gender, poverty, disability, sexuality, class and education and religion and spirituality

This module offers students from the University of Nottingham Malaysia and the University of Nottingham UK, the opportunity to work together to theoretically and practically explore education collaborations at local, national and international levels.

By participating in a variety of online synchronous and asynchronous activities such as seminars, workshops, independent collaborative activities and independent visits to local education projects, students will develop a theoretical understanding of what a mutually respectful education collaboration might entail, and how they might practically go about developing an education collaboration themselves.

Participation in this module means students also have the opportunity to develop an ongoing bi-campus education collaboration.

This module will encourage you to consider the notion of inclusion in mainstream education as a philosophically, ideologically, politically and socially constructed ideal. Using debates and dilemma analysis you will lead discussions that focus on some of the key issues and questions raised about inclusive education.

The module will look at inclusion from the perspectives of students, parents, teachers and others involved in the school community and evaluate what the policy and practice means for them.

The concept of Universal Design for Learning will be introduced as an approach that assumes the needs of all students can be met through a well-planned and developed system. It acknowledges the idea that it is the curriculum and the environment that can be disabling or exclusionary for some students and provides a framework for curricula that seeks to change the approach to learning rather than the individuals.

This module considers the different ways in which literacy is conceptualised, how we learn to read and write and the significance of this to people's lives. It will include:

• case studies from education policy in order to examine the ways in which these have shaped practice in the teaching and learning of literacy across international contexts
• key academic studies of literacy which have contributed to our understanding of its role in wider contexts, such as in homes and communities

In this module, you will take a critical stance in exploring the organisation of mathematics and science as subject disciplines and consequently how they are perceived as school subjects and in society more widely.

You will have opportunities to draw on a range of international studies and research to consider the role of mathematics and science as fundamental areas of knowledge and human endeavour and high-status subjects in the school curriculum, given their economic and social importance in the modern world.

This module explores how relationships to places, built spaces, and geographical movements between places structure educational experience. Fundamental questions about how education systems are geographically organised, what is meant by terms such as 'local', and how educational buildings are and have been designed, form the basis of the module content.

The module will draw on your prior study of issues of social justice, power and marginalisation, and will explore how educational inequalities can be understood in spatial terms. You will engage critically with contemporary theory from social and human geography, as well as with current educational research, to develop awareness of how your own and others' experiences of education are located within particular geographies.

The module will include analysis of education policy as well as case studies and research findings from a variety of international contexts.

This module will provide you with the opportunity to develop your personal and professional skills through a practice-based placement in a local education setting. Those interested in a career in primary and/or Early Years teaching may undertake a placement at a local school. Other settings will include museums and galleries as well as third sector organisations and local government.

During the course of the placement, you will gain experience of the ways in which theories, policy and debates related to education are enacted in practical contexts. The module will also develop your employability through experience of a workplace and the opportunity to apply the hard and soft skills developed through your degree in a professional context. Skills developed in placement contexts, and through reflection upon this experience, will also support study across future modules on the degree.

This module will provide you with the opportunity to develop your personal and professional skills through a practice-based placement in a local education setting. Those interested in a career in primary and/or Early Years teaching may undertake a placement at a local school. Other settings will include museums and galleries as well as third sector organisations and local government.

During the course of the placement, you will gain experience of the ways in which theories, policy and debates related to education are enacted in practical contexts. The module will also develop your employability through experience of a workplace and the opportunity to apply the hard and soft skills developed through your degree in a professional context. Skills developed in placement contexts, and through reflection upon this experience, will also support study across future modules on the degree.

The focus of the module is understanding and supporting young people’s emotional development in an educational setting. You will look at your own experience in education; consider various theories of child theory including attachment theory and attachment styles and focus on using creative methods to help children explore their emotions.

There is particular emphasis on supporting children/young people that have experienced bereavement.