The key purpose of this module is to facilitate academic, personal, and professional development. Key concepts covered in this module include (but aren’t limited to) principles and approaches to reflective practice, exploring systematic methods of assessing and developing own personal, professional and academic practices, identifying professional roles, competencies and responsibilities, applying digital and traditional academic skill acquisition and accreditation and an investigation of professional identity theory and personal career aspirations

1. The Action Plan comprises of recorded audio reflection and evaluation of development accompanying a 500 word tabular action plan of future goals. (LO 1 and 2)

Formative assessment opportunities include;

Professional discussions around career goals.
Self-assessment on personal, professional and academic skills and developmental areas.
Small group presentations for peer review.

The teaching, learning and assessment strategy has been carefully developed for this module. It recognises you may bring with you practical experience and knowledge of specific contexts to share with others. This pool of practical experience will be used to promote discussion and debate, which will build upon existing knowledge to encourage reflection and critical thought. You will be an active participant in your learning and engage with online learning, some face to face content, group activities and individual tasks set. You will be encouraged to be a critical thinker and apply your learning in an academic and professional context. Some sessions require prior reading and independent research to inform the sessions.

A digitally enabled approach will be used to support both virtual and face to face opportunities.

University workshops will draw upon your experience and help you to interpret that experience in the light of current thinking on teaching, learning, assessment and schooling in relation to literacy and numeracy. You will also be asked to use the ideas explored in the sessions in planning your future work. You will also be asked to collaborate with others in preparing and presenting your work.¿

The methods are designed to provide practical contexts for the analysis of contemporary issues and problems of a practical nature. The following strategies will be adopted to ensure that you have a supportive teaching and learning environment, providing a range of learning opportunities

Lectures - You will be given lectures which will provide theoretical underpinning on key educational concepts. These may take the form of face-to-face, digital or virtual sessions

Tutorials – You will be given the opportunity to discuss work-related and academic concerns in small group tutorials and/or individual tutorials. This will support the development of theoretical understanding.

Guided reading and supported self-study – You will be provided with booklists and reading tasks in order to enable you to engage with relevant and appropriate debates.

This module will also provide opportunities for you to:
- Work with others
- Develop interpersonal skills
- Demonstrate the capacity to plan, share goals, and work as a member of a team
- Communicate and present oral and written arguments

Demonstrate knowledge and application of appropriate digital and academic study skills.

Evaluate and reflect upon personal skill sets and knowledge domains to plan actionable study and career goals.¿

Unless otherwise stated, all books are available online through Staffordshire University library website when logged in using your university username and password. If you have difficulty accessing these, please contact the University library. There is also an online reading list for each module on this course. To access this, go to http://staffs.rebuslist.com/ and then type in the module code in the search box. Do not worry if this list seems excessively long. You may wish to focus on texts which are most relevant to your education sector. This module covers a wide range of texts and you may find that you only need to read short sections of the texts listed (or from other texts that you may find in libraries or journals). Your tutor will also advise you on the relevant texts and sections of texts to read. Remember that it is important to show you have considered views from a wide range of sources. When referring to texts in your assignment, always use https://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/refzone for guidance. There are many versions of Harvard referencing systems in use around the world, but for Staffordshire University, Refzone Harvard system is the only correct method to use.

Study skills:

For guidance on academic writing, remember that the Staffordshire University library holds a wealth of resources to support study skills at https://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/study-skills. The study skills team can also provide 1 to 1 support

Current UK curricula guidance

Latest professional standards for all phases of education professionals

Hopkins, D. & Reid, T. (2018), The academic skills handbook: your guide to success in writing, thinking and communicating at university, SAGE, London.

Bottomley, J. (2019), Critical thinking skills for your education degree, Critical Publishing, St. Albans.

Fitzgerald, D. & Maconochie, H. (2019), Early childhood studies: a student's guide, SAGE, London.

This module sets the thermostat for future study and career potential, it provides the foundation to build and achieve from and provides an opportunity to showcase yourself. It provides the catalyst for traditional and academic skills sets to flourish, this will help you study today, in preparation for jobs of tomorrow.