Technology Enhanced Teaching and Learning (Digital Education) harnesses the latest innovations in the field of Educational Technologies aiming at engaging students with instructional design practices using digital technologies.

Students will study three modules:

Technology Enhanced Learning: Theory & Practice

20 credits.

The class explores existing and emerging educational technologies. The aim is to engage students with digital technologies in teaching and learning, exploring contemporary academic literature and experiencing different technologies. Students are expected to: critically review technology-enhanced learning related literature, explore different learning technologies, create digital artefacts as part of their own learning and reflect on how digital technologies can be used for teaching, learning and assessment. Indicative topics are: linking learning educational theories and technologies, on-line learning, mobile and ubiquitous learning, virtual worlds, digital games, learning analytics.

Instructional Design and Technology

20 credits.

The class provides students with the main theoretical principles and educational practices underpinning instructional design with technology. The goals are to provide a foundation of knowledge and practical skills in the field of instructional design and to introduce different instructional design models with the support of digital technologies in a variety of learning contexts. Indicative subjects are: overview of instructional theories and instructional design models, learning design, taxonomies of learning outcomes, technology integration frameworks. The class involves hands-on practical sessions.

Digital Media for Learning

20 credits.

The class explores different forms of digital media for teaching and learning. Basic design and development aspects of digital resources will be discussed. The class provides a series of recommendations for identifying, using and re-using digital resources in educational activities. Indicative topics are: taxonomy of digital resources for learning (e.g. information display resources, practice resources, concept representation resources), educational technologies to support different teaching and learning strategies (e.g. drill and practice, inquiry-based learning, collaborative learning, virtual labs and simulations, educational games), technology integration frameworks, open educational resources.

Contact Stavros Nikou (stavros.nikou@strath.ac.uk) for more details.

This is the only course of its kind in the UK. It is for anyone who wants to facilitate practical philosophy with children and adults. No prior knowledge or experience of education or philosophy is required.

To be trained to facilitate Community of Philosophical Inquiry, you’ll study three modules. Each should be undertaken in the sequence shown below. Classes are on campus on Tuesdays from 6pm-8.30pm.

Introduction to Philosophy and Philosophical Practice

20 credits. Starts mid-September and runs for 12 weeks.

This module offers an introduction to the philosophy and logic that you’ll need to facilitate practical philosophy. You will also participate in philosophical dialogue with your peers in class.

Philosophy with Children: Theory

20 credits. Starts early January and runs for 8 weeks.

This module introduces different approaches to practical philosophy. You will also learn how to choose stimulus materials, select appropriate questions to generate philosophical dialogue, reflect on the role of the facilitator and analyse dialogue.

Philosophy with Children: Facilitation

20 credits. Starts mid-April and runs for 8 weeks.

Bringing together your learning from the previous modules, you will participate in Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CoPI) and you will facilitate CoPI with your peers.

Following the three modules you can progress in your study of PwC to the dissertation stage or you may opt for the EdD (PwC).

Contact Claire Cassidy for more details.

The course is aimed at those involved in the support of teaching professional learning at all stages of a teacher’s career including:

• student and probation mentors
• continuing professional development (CPD) coordinators
• professional review and development (PRD) reviewers
• school leaders
• local authority officers with responsibility for CPD and/or probationer and leadership development

It recognises a widening conception that the role of the teacher includes not only a central role in supporting pupil learning, but also recognises the important role that teachers can play in supporting each other’s learning. Previously, it was assumed that by virtue of knowing how to teach children teachers had also been equipped to support their colleagues’ learning. However, there is growing recognition (Donaldson, 2011; Kennedy et al., 2008) that this important role requires additional specific knowledge, understanding and skills, which form the basis of this Postgraduate Certificate.

You'll take three modules:

How Teachers Learn

20 credits

Sets the scene, encouraging participants to think about how they learn, to reflect critically on different types of learning they have experienced across their personal and professional careers. It encourages the link between classroom pedagogies and pedagogies used for working with professionals, as such focusing in on the feedback loop between practitioners and students to support a metacognitive approach – closely related to the professional learning model. The assignment asks students to read around an area of interest, focusing on 3 representative articles, and to personally reflect on how these ideas influence their understanding of the theory and practice of teacher learning.

Contemporary Contexts for Teacher Learning and Teachers' Work

20 credits

Builds on module 1 by facilitating a lens for looking at these pedagogies and experiences of teacher learning that reflects current policy and wider international education agendas. We also focus on the local influencers around community and student voice and what it means to engage in and with research when inhabiting a professional learning space. Throughout the module, students are supported to engage critically with education policy and the processes by which it is created; they are encouraged to question new education reform agendas. The students complete an assignment in two parts, firstly a poster presentation in which they critically analyse one key policy that they find particularly relevant to their own learning and/or professional learning in their setting, followed by a written reflection on the core ideas within the poster, supported by reference to academic literature and policy documents. Students are encouraged to engage with each other’s posters and provide collaborative peer feedback, which can be used to inform the critical reflection.

Supporting Professional Learning in the Workplace

20 credits

Takes the issues and skills developed in modules 1 and 2 and asks the participants to generate their own practitioner enquiry question, sensitive to their own setting, to support colleagues’ professional learning. The type of professional learning is open to the participant, but they are assessed on their rationale and through a practitioner enquiry approach supported in evaluating its success. Reflection is based on perceived successes of colleagues’ learning as well as their own learning when engaging in supporting others’ learning.

Successful completion of all three modules gives GTCS Professional Recognition.

Contact Kate Wall for more details.

Understanding Inclusive Education

This class is designed for those who teach, or who might in the future teach children or young people with additional support needs. It focuses on:

• return to study as an adult learner
• historical development of provision for additional support needs and inclusion and on the ideas underlying patterns of provision
• concepts of inclusion, additional support for learning and of educational support
• effective provision for additional support needs and inclusion within the new legislative framework

Providing Effective Educational Support

This is a practice-based class which requires current access to classroom practice. The class provides a framework that allows analysis and evaluation of the experience of the learner, of professional practice, provision and policy. Areas to be addressed may include:

• theories of learning, teaching and the curriculum
• consideration of the implications of the above for classroom experiences
• strategies for observation and assessment of aspects of the learning environment
• a consideration of barriers to learning and participation in relation to the inclusion of all learners

Working Together in Educational Settings

The advent of Getting Right for Every Child and the Children and Young People Act (2014) creates a context in which those working in educational settings are required to work with a wide range of agencies, parents and carers, and children and young people themselves.  

This class will explore the opportunities, tensions, dilemmas and practical problems in implementing current policy and legislation. It aims to support collaborative practice by:

• examining the concepts and issues involved in collaborative teamwork
• identifying aspects of successful practice
• recognising barriers to successful working, their source, and range
• developing strategies to avoid or overcome barriers and build successful practice, thereby promoting and sustaining a positive learning environment

Philosophy of Technology & Education

This module aims to enable students to develop a deep understanding of the philosophical issues raised by the understanding, affordances, and uses technology within education. The module will encourage substantive philosophical debate on a range of technologies and their application in education.

The technologies that arise within educational practice today raise a set of important questions around the nature of the learning society and how learning and technology have become mutually defined, questions that are increasingly urgent in the context of the development of 'Scotland's Digital Future', a strategy to prepare Scottish society for technological change.

Students in education need to understand how technological thinking shapes their practices if they are to become critical about the future direction of our technological and learning society. As technology is embedded ever more upon educational environments, the wider debates are increasingly urgent. As the world becomes increasingly globalised, and technologies employed more widely, the demand for courses of this nature is bound to increase.

Education & Self-Formation in Cultural Contexts

The module aims to enable students to identify, understand, and critically reflect on the ways the cultural sphere shapes and influences the (trans)formation of the self. With regard to the influence the cultural sphere has on personal development, there are two different perspectives that need to be reflected by those interested in the self-formation of the individual. On one hand, they need to reflect on the models of (trans)formative processes presented or maybe even prevalent in their own culture: How are educational processes depicted, understood, represented in modern culture, what characterises those processes in the eyes of the culture?

On the other hand, it needs to be understood what models of personality are represented, and how those cultural representations actually influence those who live and grow within this specific cultural sphere. In providing the opportunity to engage with this kind of hermeneutic analysis, the module establishes the foundation of a conscious and reflected practice of educating and teaching as well as a basis for serious, far-reaching and interdisciplinary academic research within the field of Education Studies.

The module attempts to add a more critical perspective with regard to the formative aspects of the cultural sphere and the structures of power inscribed in it. The need for this has been increasingly discussed within the international research community (Cultural Studies, Post-Colonial Studies, Gender & Queer Studies, Critical Whiteness, etc).

The course will be delivered by a high-quality team of staff, including experts in their fields of study with experience of leadership in educational settings.

Leadership for Equity, Inclusion & Social Justice – Level 5, 20 credits

This module will focus upon education for all, inclusive pedagogy, children’s rights and issues of equity and social justice as they pertain to education and the role of leadership in furthering these important ends.

Research Methods & Reasoning

This module will introduce you to research methods and help you develop the criticality required to be able to critique the literature.

Leadership for School Improvement – Level 5, 20 credits

This module will enable you to critique the concept of school improvement as it’s portrayed within the policy context and to understand the role of leadership in furthering school improvement.

Contexts for Leadership – Level 5, 20 credits

This module should enable you to develop an understanding of the international and national policy contexts, how this impacts upon educational establishments and the implications of such for leadership.

Conceptions of Leadership – Level 5, 20 credits

Through study of this module, you'll gain insight into the different ways in which leadership is understood and why this is the case.

Leadership for Learning – Level 5, 20 credits

This module will enable you to focus upon the relationship between leadership and learning and the role of leadership in furthering learning.

You’ll choose from the following options, dissertation or strategic leadership and work-based project:

Dissertation

The dissertation will enable you to carry out a detailed study focused upon an area of specific interest. It can either take the form of a literature-based study or an empirical study. If an empirical study, you might be able to gain access to an educational establishment to carry out your study subject to gaining ethical approval from the University of Strathclyde and undertaking disclosure procedures which are required by the Scottish Government if requiring access to a school.

Or

Strategic Leadership

This module focuses upon vision, values, school culture, managing people and managing change effectively. The outcome will be a proposal to instigate a strategic change initiative within the work setting.

Work-based project

You'll instigate a strategic change initiative within your workplace setting and evaluate its impact upon student learning.

The course provides a critical understanding of the conceptual frameworks relevant to understanding Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This Masters-level course will enable you to understand complex cognitive and affective theories essential to supporting the autism profile.

Conceptual Frameworks in Autism

This class will introduce key conceptual frameworks in relation to understanding the impact of the spectrum of autism. Focus will be given to the uniquely differing social, emotional, sensory and cognitive profiles for those with an ASD. Understanding these conceptual frameworks will enable participants to reflect on how and why these influence and inform practice.

The Spectrum of Autism

You’ll consider the issues that impact on practice when supporting individuals with an ASD with and without an additional intellectual or learning disability.

Responding to the Impact of Autism: Approaches and Interventions

You’ll consider the broad range of approaches to intervention, their application and theoretical basis and practical stance. A range of approaches will be systematically reviewed in relation to key features of their application, functional focus of the approach, the personal or interpersonal focus of the approach and the social context of the approach.

Research Methods & Reasoning

This class provides support in developing a critical and informed understanding of research methods in relation to your own planned dissertation project. It also provides support in understanding research ethics and how they relate to your own research. It provides support in meeting the requirements of the ethical approval process.

Dissertation

This class represents the application of the skills and knowledge you’ve gained throughout your study. You’ll carry out and report on a research project in an area relevant to your MEd study up to this point. This class will provide support for the planning, implementation and writing up of a research project in a professionally and academically relevant area.

Optional classes

Becoming an Autism Trainer

This class is concerned with both theoretical and practical issues of understanding the importance of raising standards in ASD training and the impact this can have for the individual with ASD, their carers and the service provider.

Independent Study Module

You’ll have the opportunity to investigate a topic of your own choosing in any area related to autism and associated conditions.

Taking Action: Child, Family & Community Efficacy – Level 5, 20 credits

Currently, the shaping of childhood is strongly influenced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It has potential tensions between child protection and empowerment or efficacy as exemplified in ‘a risk-averse society’. This class asks you to critically analyse the perceptions around childhood including the changing historical perceptions.

Creating Stimulating Learning Environments: Indoors & Out – Level 5, 20 credits

Children’s learning environments need to stimulate and engage them and provide the challenges and opportunities to explore their own learning possibilities. You’ll be asked to analyse and reflect on your current practice, the importance of play and the role of adults in supporting a child’s use of play.

Listening to Children & Hearing their Voices – Level 5, 20 credits

This class will provide opportunities for you to explore and discuss current international examples of practice. This includes Reggio Emilia and Te Whariki and will consider the ways in which children communicate their interests and thinking through gestures, expressions, actions, interactions and play activities. It will promote your understanding of the importance of listening to children and the concept of children as active agents in their own learning and development.

The Connected Child: Early Child Development

You’ll consider ways to promote children’s social and emotional well-being and the strategies they must develop to implement evidence based interventions which provide universal and targeted support. In addition, you’ll be required to relate theory to practice and critically evaluate and assess current approaches which address the social context of children’s development.

Leading in a Time of Change

The quality of leadership in childhood and care services determines the quality of care children experience and can significantly affect their development and learning. This class takes into account your needs and different levels of experience. It encourages you to explore the links between the key theories of management and leadership and your own professional development.

Child-Centred & Child-Focused Approaches to Practitioner Research

This class offers you the opportunity to pursue relevant and specific interests through a detailed proposal for a small-scale independent research project, and to work with child-centred and child focused methodologies. The Early Years practitioner must be able to apply these skills and consider, evaluate and weigh various pieces of data and information to make informed judgement about changes in their practice. It aims to develop your inquiring mind in order to support effective child-centred and child-focused practitioner research.

Dissertation

This class represents the application of the skills and knowledge you’ve gained throughout your study. You’ll carry out and report on a research project in an area relevant to your MEd study up to this point. This class will provide support for the planning, implementation and writing up of a research project in a professionally and academically relevant area.

Modules in this specialism can be drawn from:

• Theories and Policies in 2^nd Language: Acquisition and Bilingualism
• Practice and Policies in Supporting Bilingual Learners
• Action Research to Effect Change for Bilingual Learners

Or

• GIfT Pedagogy 1: Language Learning and Teaching
• GIfT Pedagogy 2: Gaelic-medium Education
• GIfT Pedagogy 3: Bilingualism  

And/or

• Language Learning in a Multilingual World
• Contemporary Issues in Language Teaching

Not every module listed is offered every year.