This module allows you to identify and investigate an aspect of your professional practice as a qualified teacher with the aim of improving that practice.
The focus for this module will normally be your work in an educational setting and the development of curriculum and other opportunities for your learners to learn effectively.
This creates the opportunity for you to investigate and research curriculum development. For instance, (this is not intended to be an exhaustive list) teaching specific aspects of a subject such as key concepts or essential subject skills and understanding; evaluating a series of lessons/scheme of work; balancing teaching to the test with broader subject learning; creating subject learning through science or technology experiments/field visits/sports competitions; subject teaching in a primary school; curriculum development and innovation; wider curriculum; PSHE; citizenship; values education; thematic and cross curricular learning and teaching.
You will need to identify potential areas for investigation and must share these with your tutor. This will ensure that in order for an appropriate, realistic and realisable project is agreed with approved by your tutor.
As you work through this process of identification, discussion and approval with your tutor and then proceed to engage in the work, the following guidance is central to all modules on the programme.
Every time we define something as a problem in the context of our professional practice we have to make some assumptions: e.g. about relationships between the classroom and the school, relationships between the school and the community. Becoming more astute in our thinking about our own professional practice does not get round the difficulty in making assumptions, but it should help us to become more aware of the assumptions we are making.
Actions that are designed to address problems in our professional practice typically look plausible from one particular point of view or another. A critical approach to designing our actions means that plausibility is not enough. What is the underlying rationale for the action? What theory of learning or organizational behaviour tells us that this course of action should work in this context? Conversely, what theories would suggest that this course of action is unlikely to work – or might even make the problem worse?
Teaching a lesson or being part of a department or school team provides us with a stream of data in the natural course of events. Professional judgement about what these data tell us is a vital part of good teaching. However, we also need more in-depth data and more systematic data gained through research which are more likely to open up a new way of seeing a problem compared with everyday thinking about our practice.
So how do we judge whether and which data are going to be more useful in evaluating a course of action? There is a natural tendency to be eager to attribute improvements to the actions we have designed and carried out. But what do the data really tell us and how sure can we be about the story we are reading into these data?
The point of adopting a critical approach to the review of evidence is not to undermine professional improvement. Rather, by injecting a little more caution we are more likely to gradually work towards practices and ways of thinking which bring about real and lasting improvements to our practice and, therefore, to the quality of learning for our pupils.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Critically locate the chosen research focus on curriculum development within current published work and/or policy frameworks, school and individual professional priorities.
Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the chosen approach, methods, design and use of appropriate instruments.
Evaluate critically the strengths and weaknesses of the methods used.
Reflect systematically and self-critically on the impact on own professional practice and understanding.
Assessment
37394-01 : 4000 Word Assignment : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions
Assessment: 3500 word written assignment (100%) Reassessment: As above
