Course Catalogue

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Despite the growing body of literature highlighting the importance of practitioner-led enquiry and reflection there tends to be little opportunity for education-related professionals to explore the nature of reflection, the various perspectives and theories surrounding the topic or to examine the concept in any depth. This course begins to address this shortcoming by inviting participants to consider and experiment with various approaches to reflective practice as used in small-scale action research design and implementation within the field of education in general and their own professional development in particular (e.g. GIRFEC; challenges and opportunities of rural schools).

12 contact hours delivered over two Fridays, comprising of composite lecture-interactive seminar.

Online learning activities (using Moodle) will comprise at least a further thirty eight hours, and may include a number of online discussion topics, brief individual assignments (reflective diary), and readings in preparation for the Friday intensive lecture-seminars. This model is well tested by other university schools in meeting the professional learning needs of education-related professionals while not disrupting the continuity of learning and teaching for pupils.

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Assessment

COURSE WORK:

Completing seminar tasks and online exercises (20%)

Production of one c 4000 word essay (80%). Participants will be required to think about areas of their professional practice/workplace they would like to learn more about and develop, e.g. GIRFEC. The remit of the 4,000-word essay will require participants to identify a professional (or personal) concern or challenge that they would like to explore, and using a number of the methods introduced during the course, to outline and to start implementing a small-scale practitioner-led enquiry project aimed at increasing their understanding and improving an area of their professional practice/workplace.

■ To introduce the concept of reflection in one's own professional practice and in education-related professions (and other professions as appropriate)

■ To critically analyse various approaches to reflection and practitioner-led enquiry and their applicability within the context of education

■ To interrogate the processes of reflection in one's own professional development and in informing practice

■ To investigate various strategies for reflective practice with a particular emphasis on the methods used in action research

■ To enable students to identify factors which facilitate and hinder reflection and development through practitioner-led enquiry.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Describe different perspectives and types of reflection, including reflection supported by communities of practice

■ Account for factors which may facilitate and hinder reflection and change

■ Evaluate the processes of reflection in their own professional development and in informing their own practice

■ Critically reflect upon various strategies that might lead to reflection and different methods used in small-scale practitioner-led research projects

■ Consider critically how challenges to development through practitioner-led enquiry might be addressed within their own professional context through a range of oral and written responses.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components of the course's summative assessment.

Students must attend at least 75% of all classes.