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EDUC3341: The Social Life of Education

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Type Open
Level 3
Credits 20
Availability Available in 2023/24
Module Cap None.
Location Durham
Department Education

Prerequisites

  • None

Corequisites

  • None

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None

Aims

  • To introduce students to educational research derived from ethnography and anthropology.
  • To introduce students to a discourse of educational research that contrasts with research derived from psychological and positivist traditions.
  • To introduce students to educational research that explores education and training in a variety of informal and international contexts.

Content

  • Social constructivism, socio-cultural and social models of learning.
  • Apprenticeship models of learning; informal models of learning.
  • Learning across contexts: Everyday mathematics - the Adult Math Project in the USA in the 1980s; Everyday reading and writing - literacy learning in Iran in the 1970s and in North-West England in the 1990s; Everyday work - tailors in Liberia in the 1970s, and call centre workers in the USA in the 1990s; Everyday play - learning from and with video games, online spaces and social networks in the 2000s.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • Students will develop knowledge and understanding of learning across context in education.
  • Students will develop knowledge and understanding of social practice in education.
  • Students will develop knowledge and understanding of contextual research in education.

Subject-specific Skills:

  • Discuss and critique social practice models of learning.
  • Synthesise elements of different social practice models of learning and account for the relationships between these.
  • Critique the empirical and methodological foundations of social practice accounts of learning.

Key Skills:

  • Acquire and evaluate complex information of diverse kinds in a systematic manner.
  • Construct a sustained argument.
  • Use a range of printed and online resources.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Students will be introduced to the theoretical foundations of the module and the empirical studies outlined through a combination of lectures and guided reading.
  • Students will extend their knowledge and understanding through seminars, all focussed on specific reading tasks, introduced through student-led formative presentations.
  • Formative assessment throughout the module will allow for developmental as well as diagnostic feedback/feedforward.
  • Students will be summatively assessed at the end of the module.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures20Weekly1 hour20Yes
Seminars10Fortnightly1 hour10Yes
Preparation170 
Total200 

Summative Assessment

Component: EssayComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Essay3000 words100No

Formative Assessment

Ongoing seminar activities. Formative essay (1500-2000 words) marked to module outcomes and given an indicative grade but formative not summative so as to maximise feedforward potential.

More information

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