Its modular structure allows you to personalise your choice of units and progress at a pace that best suits you, with a final phase focused on educational research via a dissertation.
The MA Education engages you with key issues in education and aims to encourage your evidence-based practice, as you make direct and meaningful connections between the course and your own experiences and aspirations.
The course helps you to broaden your knowledge of educational ideas and research findings, as you identify and justify recommendations for further action. This places you in a better position to develop your work as a classroom practitioner or school leader.
Why choose this course?
- Study on a modular course designed for existing and aspiring education professionals, that allows you to accumulate credit at a pace that suits you, with assessments based around needs specific to your role in your educational organisation
- Explore the process of teaching, learning support and/or educational leadership, focusing on personal, academic and vocational interests relevant to your educational context
- Develop your understanding of assessment formats with a negotiated focus in support of both individual and organisational needs
- Undertake primary research that informs your current practice, as well as acquire the necessary research skills to engage in future research and progress to a PhD or EdD programme
- Progress your study in education, e.g. following your Initial Teacher Education (ITE) course
- Develop your work in educational contexts
- Support developments within the organisation where you work
- Be prepared for further study at doctoral level (PhD and EdD).
Unit Information - What will I learn?
Units
- Citizenship And Welfare In The 21st Century (EDC116-6) Compulsory
- Dissertation In Education (EDC121-6) Compulsory
- Education And International Development (EDC123-6) Compulsory
- Research Methods In The Workplace (EDC129-6) Compulsory
How will I be assessed?
Each unit in this course has its own assessment. Wherever possible, the specific focus of assignments is negotiated individually between the unit co-ordinator and the student, within the parameters of the unit, in order to ensure that the assignment meets your personal and professional needs. The course provides students with a carefully planned and coherent sequence of learning opportunities that facilitate their development through formative and summative assessments. At this level the expectations, in terms of the quality of work produced, are high and students will need to take active control of their learning. At Master's level the expectation is that students are autonomous and confident learners, will undertake assessments that are challenging and require mature argument and sustained research, and fluent and cogent presentation. You are encouraged in their assessments to draw upon an extensive range of sources to demonstrate a deep theoretical understanding and the ability to apply that to current issues and contexts. The assessments test the ability to construct a reasoned, sustained and coherent argument, and to articulate it fluently. Students are required to demonstrate an appropriate level of research, of independent argument, and to reference in an appropriate way. Through the assessments designed for individual units, students practise and reinforce skills in researching, evaluating and synthesising materials with a critical eye; quantitative and qualitative data collection and handling, together with skills associated with conventional academic tasks. Unit assessment is based on specified learning outcomes and threshold criteria. The unit information forms state clearly the aims, objectives and learning outcomes of the unit, and delineate the criteria of assessment for each outcome. The unit assessment feedback offers detailed comment to the student on the assessment piece. The taught stage of the course (stage 1) requires you to pass 120 credits before progressing to stage 2, the 60 credit dissertation.
