The Purposes and Meanings of Education (X6600)

15 credits, Level 4

Spring teaching

On this introductory module, you’ll have the opportunity to explore key ideas about education as a subject of study.

You’ll begin by reflecting on your own experiences of schooling and informal learning, while addressing significant questions such as:

• what is education?
• what are its purposes?
• what values should be developed?
• what should be learnt?
• who should be taught, and who are the teachers?
• where does learning take place?

You’ll develop your own understanding of these questions by exploring various perspectives, including:

• political
• cultural
• sociological
• psychological
• historical
• philosophical.

A key focus will be on building essential study skills such as researching, presenting ideas and essay writing, helping you prepare for success throughout your degree.

The module will end with you sharing your vision of an educational utopia for primary and early years children.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 20 hours of contact time and about 130 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.