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MA
Programme in Education

Location
School-based and university-based

Duration
Minimum 2.5 years (part-time)

Start date
For the school-based route, start times are negotiated with participating schools For the Professional Development route, September with a possible January start Number of places 85

Simple timetable info
Evenings and weekend residential sessions, with some distance learning options

How to apply
Applications to the Course Director

Course contact
Peter Winbourne
Course Director
winboupc@lsbu.ac.uk – 020 7815 7452

Typical background of applicant
Applicants are mostly practising teachers. Our experience tells us that children benefit most when participants reflect the whole of the school community and we welcome applications from suitably qualified education professionals, for example mentors or other support professionals.

Course units
All units carry 30 credits at Masters level. Participants study 1 unit in each of the first 4 semesters of the course.

Core

– Teaching and Learning (usually Year 1)

– Researching Education (usually the final taught unit, usually Year 2)

Options
2 optional units are agreed with participating institutions and teachers through a negotiation process based on needs assessment and evaluation of previous work. This process will normally start by building on existing units within the programme. Examples of units constructed in this way are:

– Computing in Learning

– Equality and Achievement

– School Effectiveness and School Improvement

– Enhancing Schools’ Provision for Pupils’ Personal and Social Development: Policy and Practice

– Mentoring and Coaching

– Language and Literacy Across the Curriculum

– Implementing Change in the School: Theories, Perspective, and Analysis

– Leadership and Management

Year 3
– Dissertation


Course description

The programme is designed to build on the high quality of Masters level education courses at LSBU. It allows us to maintain the high standards for which we have become known and to give credit to participants for the work they do in their institutions. For most participants, their schools and colleges have always been the context of their study. The school-based route is focused on groups of teachers working at one institution working together on Masters level study, with the teaching taking place mainly at the school. This allows the work that participants do, as they write about issues of central concern to themselves and their institutions, to be properly valued. It places much importance upon the value of a professional practice approach to study at Masters level, allowing all aspects of this practice to inform and to be informed by critical reading of the literature, by theory and by relevant research.

This route aims to be at the forefront of professional practice and the academic study of education. It aims to support the development of the critically reflexive practitioner. It is designed to coordinate with broader strategies for CPD, supporting and encouraging teachers and institutions as they work on CPD at all levels.

We are planning to introduce, from September 2009, a professional development route to complement to school-based route. This will allow teachers from any school to undertake a flexible programme of study, including evening, weekend and online learning, that allows them to fit Masters level study in to their professional and personal lives. As with the school-based route, the professional development route focuses on the work that participants do in their institutions, and allows them to develop their professional practice informed by a critical understanding of theory and research.

For both the school-based route and the professional development route, developments for 2009 will reflect the ongoing implementation of the DfES proposals to introduce a Masters in Teaching and Learning Qualification. Further information on this can be provided by the Course Director.

Career opportunities

The programme is designed to complement and support all current career and professional development initiatives and frameworks. These include Chartered London Teacher and Teacher Learning Academy programmes and will extend to the provision of evidence required for addressing the revised Professional Standards for teachers and hence progression throughout the teaching profession.

Professional contacts/industry links

The course has been designed and developed in partnership with schools and Southwark Local Authority. The MA would provide an excellent pathway to the LSBU’s Doctorate in Education (EdD), which has a special focus on equality, diversity and sustainability.