In this module students will be expected to develop their personal and professional practice and provide an opportunity to reflect upon a change in their work practice linked to organisational need.

Students will reflect on their personal attitudes, commitments and practice within the workplace and will examine the benefits of reflective practice to their professional development.

Students will evaluate a range of research methods and discuss the ethical and moral responsibilities of the reflective practitioner, including confidentiality, validity, reliability and deception.

Assessment 1: Research proposal

Draw up a plan for small-scale independent research, including recognition of any potential ethical and or moral issues.

(LO 1,2,3 )



Assessment 2: Reflective journal

Reflect on and review personal, professional and academic learning and development in relation to significant learning experiences over time, including modules studied during the current course, reflecting on personal changes and changes in professional practice as a result of your experiences ad learning.

(LOs 3,4,5,6)

A distanced learning approach will provide virtual learning with some face to face opportunities. University workshops will draw upon your experience and provide you with a broad theoretical overview and the conceptual framework which underpins the development of your personal practice.
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 students have a supportive teaching and learning environment, providing a range of learning opportunities

Work Related Learning – You will have the opportunity to engage in professional discussions with educators outside your normal area of professional practice. This could be with educators working abroad, at another institution or within a different area of your own institution. This will provide you with the opportunity to link theoretical perspectives to your practice. It will also enable you to reflect on values and principles, in addition to provision, policy and practices within the workplace.

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

Tutorials – There will be opportunities to discuss work-related and academic concerns in small group tutorials and 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:-

reflect on your own skills, attributes, values, principles, influences, interests and experience in relation to your chosen field of work in education

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 both informally and formally, as an part of your module assessment

develop skills that enable you to transfer knowledge and understanding from one context to another



Independent study will require you to read and think about a range of contemporary issues in education and how they relate to your own employment context. This will form the basis of the assignment. In addition you will engage in:-



Online collaborative learning activities to discuss and share reflections on significant learning experiences using a variety of media including written contributions to discussion forums, live discussions in focused groups/channels in MS Teams, audio recordings of commentaries to written presentations of notes of reflections, short video clips of a reflections on professional learning.

VLE - Blackboard and Teams will be used to facilitate exchange of ideas and knowledge sharing through various media as above and access to specific resources and activities

Formative assessment/feedback on groupwork and drafts of module assessments is a vital part of this module and provides you with opportunities to reflect on how well you are engaging with your studies and with sharing your thinking and reasoning with fellow students. Tutorials provide further opportunities for ongoing formative assessment and feedback on your progress and development.

1. Critically evaluate a range of research methods and methodologies and their uses for small scale research, demonstrating an understanding of possible limitations.
Knowledge and understanding Analysis Learning

2. Reflect upon the ethics and attendant moral issues implicit in the work of social researchers, and the need to meet obligations with respect to those involved, or affected by, investigations and reorganisations.
Reflection Application Enquiry

3. Identify changes to practice where benefits and improvements are recognised using established techniques of analysis and enquiry.
Reflection Enquiry Problem solving Communication

4. Reflect on and critically evaluate the impact of approaches used in the work setting, identifying constructive improvements to practice, skills, knowledge and understanding that have impacted on yourself and other stakeholders, including collaborative working with other professionals.
Knowledge and understanding Analysis Reflection

5. Reflect critically upon personal, professional and academic development over the course of your degree study.
Analysis Application Reflection Communication

6. Critically appraise the concept of professionalism, respecting confidentiality, showing commitment, taking responsibility and meeting the needs of stakeholders in relation to your own practice.
Reflection Knowledge and understanding Application

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.

ssential texts

BERA (2018) Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research available from: http://www.bera.ac.uk/publications/ethical-guidelines





Task 1: Research methodology texts

BELL, J. AND WATERS, S. (2018) Doing Your Research Project (5th Edition). Maidenhead: Open University Press.

BURTON, N; BRUNDRETT, M & JONES, M. (2014) Doing your Education Research Project (2nd Edition). London: Sage

COHEN, L. (2018) Research Methods in Education (8th edition), London: Routledge.

DENSCOMBE, M. (2017) The Good Research Guide (6th Edn.) Buckinghamshire: OUP.



Task 2: Professional Reflection and Development



Early Years and Primary Education



HAYES, C., DALY, J., DUNCAN, M., GILL, R. and WHITEHOUSE, A. (2017) Developing as a Reflective Early Years Professional (2nd Edn.). Northwich: Critical Publishing.

LINDON, J. &TRODD, L. (2016). Reflective Practice and Early Years Professionalism (3rd Edition). London: Hodder Education.

PAIGE-SMITH, A. (2011) Developing Reflective Practice in the Early Years. Maidenhead: OUP.



Secondary and Further Education:


HALL, F., HINDMARCH, D., HOY, D. and MACHIN, L. (2015) Supporting Primary Teaching and Learning. Northwich: Critical Publishing.

HINDMARCH, D., HALL, F., MACHIN, L. and MURRAY, L. (2017) A Concise Guide to Education Studies. Northwich: Critical Publishing. (Chapters 1 and 9).

N/A

This module enables you to reflect upon your work-based development throughout your course. The course VLE will be used extensively which will guide your reflections upon work-based learning.

This module will cover the following topics:

A proposal for your individual research project

Reflections on your professional learning and development and effectiveness of workplace practice.