SEDM1003 - Research Applications I

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, participants will be able to:

1) Have a systematic understanding of the knowledge of educational theory and research findings pertinent to current problems and issues and particular to aspects of professional practice.
2) Critically evaluate the relative merits of current educational theory, advanced scholarship and research findings in order to adjudicate amongst options for possible action in teaching and learning.
3) Critically examine and reflect on their own professional practice
4)Use observational and assessment data to monitor the impact of theory and research-driven practice on learning.

Content:

Students will learn about the nature, integrity and generalisability of Educational Theory and Research. They will evaluate the applicability of research findings to real classrooms with reference to underlying assumptions and questions, and to the differences between research and real contexts and pupil populations. By doing this they will understand the problems of meaning and value, interpretation and inference, context and generalization.

Students will put commonsense to the test by learning what counts as a valid test of theory and of how it is possible for intuitively attractive educational theories to lead to nonsensical conclusions and of how specious inferences can be drawn from everyday classroom data.

Students will analyse the ways in which educational theory and research may be used to inform understanding of teaching and learning and be able to suggest productive alternatives to established classroom strategies and transactions with reference to recent developments in constructivist theory and research. They will evaluate the implications of constructivist theory and research for:

a) models of progression relating to units and schemes of work;
and
b) the diagnostic and formative uses of assessment data for identifying and rectifying pupil misconceptions .

Learning and Teaching Information:

Teaching will take place in groups in the form of subject specific seminars and generic lectures. Small group tasks will enable directed study in ways that extend and consolidate learning. Learning will be supported by use of the VLE.br>
Lectures
Contact hours: 12
Intended Group size: c. 180

Seminars
Contact hours: 12
Intended Group size:c. 20

Assessment: