BA Education Studies: Year 1

Please note the School of Education and Lifelong Learning will not be recruiting any more undergraduate students from 2009. For more information please see the main Undergraduate home page

There are three core modules of 30 credits and two core modules of 15 credits at Stage 1:

EDU 1006 Core Perspectives

The purpose of the module is to introduce students to the 'toolbox of disciplines' which they will be applying to the study of childhood, youth and/or education throughout their degree programmes. There will be a focus on investigating core theoretical frameworks in relation to the three broad contexts of childhood/youth, family and society. In the course of the module, students will be required to reflect on their own disciplinary backgrounds and to discuss the pros and cons of the particular perspectives.

EDU 1007 Social and Educational Enquiry

This core module provides an introduction to social and educational enquiry in the Education and Childhood Studies programme, and is linked to the 15 credit core ICT module. Students will have opportunities to design their own small-scale studies, along with opportunities for using and applying the key skills in other Year 1 modules.

EDU 1008 ICT and Learning

This module will introduce students to ways in which information and communication technology (ICT) may be used for promoting and enhancing learning in formal and informal learning contexts.

EDU 1011 Educational Change and Continuity

This module presents you with an introduction to the study of education through the dimension of time. It is concerned with processes of change within educational theory and practice and with those features which have stayed the same for long periods of time. The latter include those perennial problems and enduring issues which all educationists have to face. During the course of the module, you will develop: (i) an understanding of change and continuity in relation to a range of themes (e.g. philosophy, politics and citizenship) in a variety of educational settings (e.g. schools, colleges and universities) and (ii) the skills necessary to undertake your own enquiry using a variety of sources ranging from documents to 'docu-soaps' and memoirs to movies.

EDU 1012 Education and Public Policy: Contemporary Educational Issues, Problems and Practices.

The purpose of this module is to place the practice of UK education in the context of public policy. In so doing the module requires students to develop an understanding of how, in political economies such as that of the UK, educational practice is framed by the ideas, institutions and behaviours of policy-making, and how the practices of schools, colleges and universities interact with these. The module seeks to provide students with: a knowledge and understanding of how contemporary educational practice and the exercise of public policy interact; a range of theoretical and analytical perspectives which they can apply to study of education policy in the context of broader public policy; a means by which they can assess the operation of education policy in England in comparison to that of other countries; an understanding of how the processes of education policy influence the ideas and practices in education which they will encounter in other modules on their degree programme; an understanding of how various social, political and economic factors influence educational policy and practice.

The module complements EDU1011 which addresses similar questions for the period from the start of the Second World War until the 1997 Labour Party election victory.

EDU 1013 Learners and Learning

The purpose of this module is to look at the relationship between learning systems, learning and learners. The module sees learning as something that happens within and beyond specific educational institutions. Learning is believed to be lifelong and occurs in many different contexts and takes many different forms with influences that may be positive or negative. The module aims to provide you with numerous opportunities to apply the ideas contained within the module to your own learning and to raise sensitivities and awareness to the ways other people learn. You will be required to reflect on your own learning and develop analytical tools for understanding yourself as a learner in order to a) become a more self-aware learner and b) understand the learning of others.

EDU 1014 Theories of Learning and Development

The purpose of the module is to explore key theories of learning and development and to ground such theories in the actual contexts of primary, secondary and post-compulsory educational settings. The module aims to introduce participants to a wide range of theoretical stances on the process of learning and will consider the applicability of these theories to participants’ own learning experiences and those of learners across the life course. In the course of the module, participants will be introduced to specific examples of these approaches in everyday teaching and learning situations. The module also considers other key factors which impact learning in both formal and informal educational contexts.