Education – (M.A.)

Contents

Course length

Full-time: normally 1 year
Part-time: normally 3 years

The MA in Education is designed for experienced teachers, lecturers and educational managers in primary, secondary, further and higher education, and for other professionals working in education. The course is concerned with the development of critical enquiry and reflection in the field of education, and the development of professional knowledge and expertise.

The course follows a flexible modular programme. This structure enables you to design your course according to your particular areas of interest. The MA has a core of compulsory research-based modules to support your studies and to prepare you for the dissertation. In addition, you select modules from the optional module programme (overview of choices listed below).

Participants are either self-funded or supported by their employers, although international applicants are encouraged to seek funding from national or British Council sources.

Compulsory modules

* Reflective Professional Development
* Educational Research

Optional modules

We offer modules within three pathways:

* Curriculum
* Leadership and management
* TESOL (Teaching English as a Second or Other Language)

Here is a selection of our optional modules - the options you choose are dependent on which pathway you would prefer.

Curriculum
Innovation in Learning and Teaching examines some of the perspectives on and research issues in a number of the key areas in the study of curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment. It explores research into learning and teaching and encourages students to relate these to their own learning and their own concepts of an educational curriculum.
Challenging Principles and Practice in Curricula in Schools examines some of the national and international perspectives on and research issues in a number of the key areas in the study of curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment. In particular it explores the role of values in curriculum, teaching and learning. You are encouraged to relate these to your own learning and to your own concepts of an educational curriculum.

Leadership and Management
Leading and Managing People in Education brings together a range of themes and concerns in the management of staff in educational organisations. Drawing on national and international examples, it combines theoretical perspectives with practical concerns about staff management and development.
Leading Change in Education builds on the experience of course members as observers of, and participants in, the management of change in the education sector. Drawing on national and international examples, it combines theoretical perspectives with practical concerns about organisational transformation in education.

TESOL
* Language Acquisition – Principles and Practice aims to provide you with a thorough grounding in the theoretical models of both first and second/foreign language acquisition and with psycholinguistic theories of learning and skills acquisition. By the end of this module, you will have reflected on the relevance of different kinds of theoretical knowledge of language learning to your own perceptions of teaching and learning in the ELT/ESOL classroom, and how these theories might have practical impact on learner-focused classroom practice (core module).
* Language Teaching – Methods and Approaches focuses on the practice and reflective development of the teacher in the classroom. The module aims to develop teacher understanding of the process and principles behind professional skills such as researching their own classroom, planning for learning, designing and evaluating teaching materials, and formulating and evaluating the syllabus. It also focuses on how the teacher can develop principled pedagogic approaches to language and explore the validity and effectiveness of these approaches for specific classrooms, contexts and student needs (core module).
* Descriptions of English – Language in the Classroom explores the linguistic description of English with a focus on ‘language in use’. The module will go on to look at how our understanding of the English language relates to how we apply this knowledge in the classroom: what the teacher should ‘know’ about language, what the learner should ‘know’, and how classroom materials such as pedagogic grammars and course books approach this (core module).
* Sociolinguistics deals with the effect of society on the way language is used. The module focuses on four core research areas: language and society, language and variation, language and interaction, and language and culture. Key themes that recur throughout the sessions include language attitudes, the use of standard and non-standard linguistic varieties in education, language and identity, and World Englishes.

Freestanding modules - open to students on all pathways
* Action Research (double module) comprises a taught unit on action research methods, including managing change leading to an action research project. The project will require students to research aspects of their own work-based practice.
* Independent Study offers the opportunity to engage in independent study of a topic, issue or area that is not available elsewhere within the course. You will, in consultation and negotiation with a tutor, identify a topic, issue or area of personal or professional interest and relevance and then draw up a course of independent study, which may include library and practical research.

As our courses are reviewed regularly, course content and module choices may change from the details given here.

Credit towards an MA award can also be made up of appropriate work completed outside the course, for example the Oxford Brookes Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Educational Practice (CAEP). Other work such as a PGCE taken at master's level, or the DELTA, may be awarded credits by the university in accordance with the regulations of the university's credit accumulation and transfer scheme (CATS).