Education (Early Years) - MA

You will work towards the Early Years Teacher Status award in the first instance, by successfully completing the following modules:

• Critical Perspectives in the Early Years Foundation Stage: you will explore the foundations of the Early Years Foundation stage curriculum and how these can be appropriately developed in practice, with particular focus on the prime areas.
• Qualifying for Early Years Teacher Status: you will be supported in becoming change agents within your practice, learning to become effective leaders and managers.
• Becoming an Early Years Teacher: This a 120 day practice module provides you with the opportunity to work in settings and support in linking theory and practice. You learn to plan and deliver an effective curriculum and develop an enabling environment that meets the needs of all children within the relevant age phase.

At this stage you will be awarded Early Years Teacher status. To gain the award MA Education (Early Years) you will then continue to complete the following modules:

• Researching Education: In this module you will examine approaches to educational research and how this supports professional enquiry and development. You will look at practitioner and action research as well as case study approaches to understanding educational and professional action. There will also be a focus on research methods, the processes of analysis and presentation of argument as well as an examination of ethics and theoretical frameworks.
• Dissertation: you will focus on the execution of empirical research and writing up your theories. Sections likely to be included are: Introduction; Contextualisation; Methodology; Data Collection and Analysis; Implications; Recommendations and Conclusions.

The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved we will inform you.

The course will be delivered through seminars, group-work, online engagement, directed learning and project supervision.

For more details, see our glossary of teaching and learning terms.

Assessment is by a variety of methods including written assignments, directed tasks, posters and short oral presentations.

For more details, see our full glossary of assessment terms.