MA in Education - Units of Study
- Education, Globalisation and Change
- Education in an International Context
- Educational Enquiry
- Education and International Development
- Education and Society (semi-compulsory unit)
- Language Teaching Methodology & Curriculum
- Leading and Managing Educational Innovation
- Leading and Managing Schools and Colleges
- Research Methods in Education (compulsory unit for all students)
- Second Language Acquisition
- Technologies for Learning
- Understanding Learners and Learning (semi-compulsory unit)
- Dissertation
Please note: This is not the final list of units for next year. This will be posted soon.
The following outlines provide a description of the aims and learning objectives of each unit and give brief details of the unit content.
Acrobat Reader is required to view the pdf documents that provide more detailed accounts of the unit.
- The nature of educational assessment
- The dimensions (or modes) of assessment
- The purposes, roles and effects of assessment
- The substantive focus of assessment
- Quality issues in assessment
- Assessment techniques
- Norm and criterion-referencing and the assessment of competence
- Formative and summative assessment
- Internal and external assessment
- Self and peer assessment
- Marking, moderating and reporting outcomes
Detailed description of the Assessment unit
- The wide and rapidly expanding field of curriculum knowledge, practice and enquiry
- The study of different curriculum models; scientific through to cultural
- The selection of teaching material
- Possible teaching methods
- Teaching styles
- The evaluation of the curriculum
Education, Globalisation and Change:
- Theories on the origins of globalisation and its influence on national contexts
- Convergences and divergences in state policy responses to globalisation
- The relationship between education policy and economic competitiveness in different national contexts
- Local and global markets in education
- The influence of international agencies and organisations such as the World Bank, UN and EU
- The knowledge economy and the emergence of mass higher education
- Global trends in assessment and examinations
- Citizenship education in an international context
- Changing definitions of, and influences on, educational quality in the context of globalisation
- The expansion of and impact of, international systems of education
- Mediation of global policy through national and local implementation
Education, Globalisation and Change
Education in an International Context
- to stimulate debate relating to the concepts of international school and international education, and the relationshp between them
- to promote better understanding of the two concepts as a result of consideration of the characteristics which define them
- the highlight issues which are of particular relevance to the context of international schools and international education
- to encourage participants to reflect on, and draw on, their own experience, and to consider how their own professional practice might be improved through greater appreciation of these issues
- to demonstrate the understanding of issues relating to defining the concept of international schools
- to demonstrate understanding of the concept of international education, and its relationship to the concept of international schools
- to discuss the relationship between values and ideologies, and how the underlying value system of a school relates to the curriculum and management style adopted
- to demonstrate familiarity with issues which are of particular relevance to students and teachers in the context of international schools and international education
- to relate your understanding of issues arising from research in this context to their own experience and to the improvement of their own practice.
Education in an International Context
A small-scale research project, the topic of which is chosen by the student, and is designed to
- enhance students' contribution to teaching and learning in their own professional contexts
- enhance students' ability to identify, plan, undertake and evaluation educational developments regarding a good quailty educational question (of the students' own choosing) related to their own or their school's professional practice.
Education and International Development
- is education a requirement for development?
- should education always be seen as a 'human right'?
- what does it mean to be 'developed' and how does or can education contribute in the process?
- to provide further understandings of multi-disciplinary and critical perspectives on international development and education practices and policies
- to critically examine and discuss key theoretical debates within the fields of education and international development
- to critically examine different contexts of education and learning as related to different approaches to development
Education and International Development
Education and Society (semi-compulsory unit)
- to engage students in the critical examination of key contemporary social theory concepts (covering issues of power, functionality, values, etc.) as well as current issues (such as equality of opportunity, meritocracy)
- to prepare students to conduct theoretically informed research in the social sciences
- to link students' theoretical informed analysis with their practice, in order to improve it/ become a self-reflective professional
Language Teaching Methodology & Curriculum
The aims of the unit are to:
- investigate the theories which underpin different teaching methodologies
- critically assess the ideological basis and viability of different language teaching methodologies and syllabuses
- investigate key aspects of the teacher’s role which can vary according to different perspectives
- consider the influences of the social and cultural context upon language teaching
- consider issues relating to the globalisation of language teaching
Language Teaching Methodology & Curriculum
Leading and Managing Educational Innovation
- An overview of the nature of educational innovation and change in different contexts
- The variety of leadership and management strategies that may be adopted
- The unit will address key perspectives on leading and managing change, the significance of organisational context for leadership and management strategies, and research on leading innovation and on coping with multiple and highly complex changes
- Participants will draw on their experience of educational innovation and change together with research, change theory, policy statements and prescriptions for practice with the overall aim of deepening their critical understanding and informing their work as educators
Leading and Managing Educational Innovation
Leading and Managing Schools and Colleges
- Students will engage with relevant literature and to use it to reflect on their educational leadership and management practice
- Mapping the field of educational leadership and management
- Theoretical perspectives on leadership and management
- Approaches to leadership and management
- Evaluating educational leadership management practice and research.
Leading and Managing Schools and Colleges
Research Methods in Education (compulsory units for all students)
- Action research within the context of educational research
- Case study as an approach to educational research
- The scientific approach to educational research
- The use of questionnaires as a means of data-gathering in the context of educational research
- The use of interviews as a means of data-gathering in the context of educational research
- Observation as a means of data-gathering in the context of educational research
- The concepts of reliability, validity and triangulation
- Statistics and data analysis
The unit focuses on the following topics:
- The dynamic relationships between first, second and additional languages
- Pupils’ learning styles
- Stages in language acquisition
- Affective factors influencing language acquisition: motivation, anxiety, age of learner and gender
- Social and cultural factors affecting language learning
- The origins and development of technologies for learning
- Models for understanding communication
- Approaches to open and flexible learning
- Models of learning and technologies for learning
- Learning using information and communication technologies
- Visual literacy and multimedia learning
- Web-based learning and the evaluation of pedagogical websites
- e-learning and e-moderationli>
Understanding Learners and Learning (semi-compulsory unit)
- Major families of learning theories
- Implicit theories of learning
- Learning styles and preferences
- Learning about learning
- Brain-based learning
- Motivation and other factors affecting learning
- Learning in adults
Understanding Learners and Learning
The overall aim of the dissertation is to provide a structured and supervised opportunity for students to design, conduct and evaluate a small-scale educational research project. On completion of their dissertations, students should be able to demonstrate their ability to:
- select and justify the focus, scope and methodology of an educational research study
- review, employ, and engage critically with an appropriate literature through the design, conduct and evaluation of an educational research study
- to collect, analyse and interpret data appropriately
- draw appropriate conclusions from an educational research study, taking account of its strengths and limitations