SED7106 - Contemporary Perspectives on Education

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Critically examine and reflect on contemporary perspectives on and issues in education, and critically reflect on these to inform practice;
Display knowledge and a critical understanding of a key contemporary perspective, relevant to their professional practice in education;
Analyse, critically reflect on and synthesise research findings and other evidence to inform their practice in teaching and learning;
Critically evaluate the impact of their learning on their professional practice;
Articulate and communicate effectively the findings and conclusions of their research in ways that take account of the limitations and nuances of such enquiry.

Content:

The module will allow stuents engage with a broad range of new and emerging issues across different sectors in education.The content will allow students to explore a range of philosophical, theoretical and practical issues facing those working in comtemporaty educational contexts, and will allow students to contextualise their learning appropriately. Students will develop knowledge, critical understanding and skills through an engagement with the new perspectives from areas including:
• Psychology;
• Gender studies;
• Behaviour management;
• Philosophy;
• Curriculum studies;
• Leadership, management and accountability;
• Pedagogy;
• Technology.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Students will learn through a mix of approaches. There will be a number of lead lectures with supporting seminars or workshops. A dialogic approach in the seminars will allow for significant group discussion and feedback sessions. This will enable students to share ideas with colleagues from other sectors/backgrounds or specialisms. Some guest speakers will be used to deliver lead lectures in specific areas. The module will make use of the VLE for fostering peer learning.

Lead lectures will address the subject content areas identified above. These will then be linked with seminars / workshops to facilitate discussion and activities to share ideas, engage in activities and thereby promote learning.

Lectures, seminars and workshops
Hours: 36
Intended Group size: 10 - 30

Tutorial
Hours: 4

Guided independent study
Hours: 560

Further details relating to assessment
Formative assessment comprises:
• Poster presentation (10 minutes)
• Critical reflection (500 words)

The formative assessment for this module must be attempted prior to preparation of the summative assessment. The focus of the formative assessment may be related to the topic chosen by the student for the summative assessment, but this need not be the case.

Other relevant matters
The lead lectures and seminars for this module will be open to other members of the University, and may be advertised externally in a small number of cases, especially where external speakers are being used. This will be of benefit to students in enriching the discussion and in sharing significant expertise across the academic community.

Assessment: