MA Education (Online)

EFPM003Z: Understanding Education: Global Perspectives

This module introduces a range of contemporary issues and debates in education through philosophical, sociological, and historical perspectives. You will explore different ways of understanding what education is, what and who it is for, and how its aims are justified. The module examines key ideas such as the hidden curriculum, creativity, social mobility, gender and decoloniality, and draws on research, theory, policy, and practice to support critical engagement with these debates. Through a range of online asynchronous activities, and independent learning, you will analyse contrasting viewpoints, develop an informed position, and consider how these ideas relate to contemporary educational contexts.

View an example full module specification

EFPM004Z: Understanding Learning: Global Perspectives

The purpose of the module is to explore theory and practice related to learning in both formal and informal educational contexts. The module will introduce you to a wide range of issues relating to learning and will consider the theoretical basis, research and global perspectives and how these inform educational policy and practice. You will also critically consider the applicability of theory and research to your own learning experiences and those of learners across the life course.

This is a core and therefore compulsory module for all students undertaking the MA Ed (online) programme and will be completed entirely via distance learning.

The principal aim of this module is to facilitate critical examination of a range of issues related to learning in a global context. In relation to these issues, you will consider theories of learning, international research, relevant policy, individual and cultural differences and how this informs learning in practice.

This module will examine key questions such as:

View an example full module specification

EFPM653Z: Digital Education: Critical AI Literacies

As AI increasingly shapes educational processes, pedagogies, and learners’ everyday lives, educators need robust critical AI literacy—both to be able to make informed decisions about using AI in their own practices, as well as to support students in developing informed, ethical, and empowered understandings of AI. The need for critical AI literacy is therefore increasingly recognised globally. This module responds directly to that need, preparing educators to teach and model critically informed, equitable, and ethically sound engagement with AI technologies. The module will enable you to develop a deep and nuanced understanding of some of the key sociocultural, ethical, political and practical aspects of AI in education.

View an example full module specification

EFPM654Z: Creativity in Education: Critical Approaches

Module description

In this module, you will explore the importance of creativity in education today, how it can be encouraged across different disciplines and settings (not just the arts), and how it can be effectively identified and assessed. Drawing on cutting-edge research, the module links theory and practice to help you develop innovative learning experiences for students. It is delivered by a team of specialists in creativity, arts education, and interdisciplinary practice, providing opportunities to engage with key theoretical concepts of creativity and to examine pedagogical and assessment methods that support and nurture students' creative thinking skills. A key element of the module is a structured cycle of action research, through which you will design, implement, and critically evaluate creative approaches in a chosen context.

Module aims – intentions of the module:

• Build confidence in developing the creativity of others through engagement with facilitation and assessment across diverse educational and cultural contexts.
• Develop your understanding of what creativity is, why it matters, and how it can respond to complex global challenges such as AI, decolonisation and the climate emergency
• Explore philosophical and social science perspectives on creativity across disciplines, including transdisciplinary education and STEAM, and consider how these might shape your practice.
• Engage with internationally recognised frameworks such as Possibility Thinking, Wise Humanising Creativity, and Posthumanising Creativity, and how these can inform your own work.
  

View an example full module specification

EFPM007Z: Education Leadership

The purpose of this module is to explore theory and practice related to leadership in educational contexts. The module will introduce you to major schools of thought on education leadership and to the ideas, theories and concepts underpinning these varying perspectives. It will examine the research basis of education leadership theory and practice and the relationship between education policy environments and the development of leadership in education contexts. You will be asked to critically examine leadership theory and practice in a range of local, national and international contexts and to undertake a study of leadership in an educational setting with which you are familiar.

The principal aim of this module is to facilitate critical examination of education leadership in global, national and local contexts. You will consider theories of leadership and their relationship to policy, international research and the educational settings in which leadership is practiced.

This module will examine key questions such as:

View an example full module specification

EFPM008Z: Leading and Managing Education Change

The purpose of the module is to enable you to develop your understanding of change in educational institutions and to develop your own potential to manage and lead such change within and between such institutions. This will involve an examination of those qualities, competencies and behaviours associated with performing leadership and management roles as well as a consideration of the moral, social, economic and political dimensions of such activities. You will be exposed to and study practices designed to develop your leadership and management skills including coaching and mentoring. There will be a particular focus upon the leadership of learning and the assorted technologies and techniques that seek to change and enhance learning outcomes and processes. These will include a critical evaluation of approaches to raise learner achievements and the associated use of data, target setting and learner/institutional monitoring. You will be asked to focus upon a particular means of supporting and facilitating change in an educational context and to critically examine its efficacy.

The principal aim of this module is to facilitate your critical examination of educational change theories and practices so you might develop your own leadership and management practices accordingly.

In this module you will examine key questions such as:

How is educational change understood and theorised?

View an example full module specification

EFPM377Z: Teaching Literacy: Understanding Readers and Reading

Both socially and educationally, reading is a core and transferable skill across the curriculum, as well as a domain-specific activity in the first language curriculum. In our lives beyond formal education, reading helps us to understand ourselves and our world: as William Nicholson famously said, ‘We read to know we are not alone’. In this module you will address the learning and teaching of reading, with a particular emphasis on reading comprehension and the strategies needed to be a successful reader. You will also have space for reading children’s literature from picture books for pre-readers through to teen fiction and crossover fiction.

The principal aim of this module is to enable you to develop a stronger theoretical understanding of reading and the teaching of reading which will have a direct impact on your own professional practices and on your familiarity and understanding of a wide range of literature for children.

Specifically, the module aims to address the following questions:

What is the difference between decoding and comprehension?

What do we know about reading comprehension and different levels of understanding?

What are comprehension strategies?

What is the relationship between text and image in picture books?

What is the range of books available to junior and adolescent readers?

View an example full module specification

EFPM378Z: Teaching Literacy: Understanding Writers and Writing

Writing matters! On a personal level, students who can write confidently can express their deepest feelings, communicate their own ideas and emotions with passion and feeling, and argue for the things that matter deeply to them. At the same time, being a successful writer is educationally critical: writing remains the dominant form of educational assessment, and is a key tool for learning and thinking. Yet in many international educational jurisdictions, students' progress in writing lags behind their achievement in reading. This module draws on inter-disciplinary understandings of writing as a cognitive process, as a social practice, and as linguistic mastery to develop your understanding of writing, being a writer, and teaching writing.

The principal aim of this module is to enable you to develop a stronger theoretical understanding of writing and the teaching of writing which will have a direct impact on your own professional practices and on your own understanding of being a writer.

Specifically, the module aims to address the following questions:

What do we know about the writing process and how we write?

Can you make connections between theoretical models of the writing process and your own experiences?

Can you articulate an effective pedagogy for writing?

What is your own sense of 'being a writer' or being a 'teacher as writer'

Is there a role for grammar in the teaching of writing?

View an example full module specification

EFPM010Z: Critical International Perspectives on Special and Inclusive Education

This module looks in depth and with a critical perspective at the key concepts, theories, aims, values, and practices involved in special and inclusive education within a variety of international socio-political and historical contexts. The concepts of inclusion, disability, difference and diversity will be examined and a range of sometimes contradictory perspectives will be introduced, questioning to what extent these perspectives can be reconciled or not. Understandings and provision in relation to special and inclusive education in different countries will be considered. You will be encouraged to reflect upon the development of special and inclusive education systems in their own countries as well as considering a range of international and global perspectives.

The aims of the module are to enable you to:

• critically examine the concepts of inclusion and special educational needs, their relationship to related concepts (e.g. disability, diversity, rights) and implications for the practices of inclusive and special education within a variety of international and historical contexts;
• become aware of different and sometimes contradictory perspectives on inclusion and special educational needs, and related concepts, and to question to what extent these perspectives can be reconciled or not, problematising socio-political, economic and cultural barriers to the development of inclusive systems;
• explore different models of inclusion and specialised provision, including legislative frameworks and provision in different countries, and examine the relationships between the general education and specialised/separate systems for children and young people with disabilities and learning difficulties;
• critically examine historical processes in the international emergence of inclusion as a product of socio-political, economic, cultural and educational changes.

View an example full module specification

EFPM011Z: Special Educational Needs: Learning, Teaching and Assessment

The purpose of the module is to explore theory and practice related to the teaching, learning and assessment of students with special educational needs and disabilities around the world. There are two interrelating elements to the module: firstly, you will study different theories, concepts and practices such as learning theories, pedagogies, assessment, interventions; secondly, you will consider different types of special educational need/disability (e.g. autism; dyslexia; learning difficulties/disabilities; social, emotional, mental health and wellbeing needs). The activities during the module help bring these two aspects together.

The principal aim of this module is to facilitate critical examination of a range of theory and practice related to teaching and learning of students with special educational needs and disabilities in a global context. In relation to these issues, you will consider research, concepts, approaches, policy and issues relevant to the teaching and learning of students with special educational needs and disabilities around the world. You will critically examine conceptions of, and approaches to, categorisation, diagnosis, assessment and intervention, and teaching approaches for a range of specific types of special educational needs/disabilities. You will develop knowledge and understanding of approaches to teaching for diversity (e.g. adaptive teaching, inclusive pedagogies) .

View an example full module specification

EFPM013Z: Introduction to Educational Enquiry

This 60 credit module will introduce you to educational research and will support you in designing and carrying out a small-scale research study in the field of education. This module is often referred to as the dissertation module because the main output is a dissertation reporting on your research study.

The aim of the module is to develop your understanding of educational research and a range of methods of educational enquiry.

Specifically the module will enable you to:

engage with a variety of perspectives concerning the nature of educational research

develop a critical understanding of a range of educational methodologies and paradigms

design an appropriate enquiry, select suitable methods for the enquiry and justify these in theoretical terms;

conduct a rigorous enquiry into a relevant and approved area of study within a particular field of education;

use research methods appropriately as relevant to your area of study and research design

discuss implications of your study for educational theory/policy/practice/research

View an example full module specification