The level 6 top-up course is a part time study programme, delivered on one evening per week over two years. There is an expectation that students will engage in self-directed independent learning to support achievement. Students will need to be employed or working as a volunteer over two days within a relevant educational setting. You will learn through a variety of teaching methods which will aim to meet the needs of each individual and accommodate different learning styles for example, case studies, assessments, group work, practical work, projects, extended writing and interactive activities.

Throughout the course you will study 5 modules in total. These include:

Political Ideologies in Education

This engaging module will allow students to debate and discuss political ideologies and their importance in the development of education policy. It will explore how these policies were created with particular analysis of Callaghan’s 1976 Ruskin speech through to the Conservative administrations of the 1980s and 1990s, and the Labour administration of the 1997-2010, to the present administration. It will allow students to carry out a comparative analysis of the education policy and practice from the local, national, and global perspective.

International Perspectives of Children and Young People’s Education

International perspectives of children and young people’s education is an interesting and exciting module that provides opportunities to students to gain an insight into children’s educational provision in different countries in the United Kingdom and other developed countries around the world. The influence of diverse philosophies and principles of children and young people’s education and its relevance to an individual practitioner will be debated. Research and reports from key global organisations such as UNESCO, OECD as well as the data and research available for countries will be used to compare the educational provision. Teaching will include a wide range of interesting ways to scrutinise relevant literature relating to national/international contexts of children and young people’s educational provision.

Principles, Pedagogy and Discourse in Children and Young People's Education

This module will focus upon how a principled approach can be taken to children and young people’s educational practice and how this relates to the development of a pedagogical stance. This includes thinking philosophically and analysing the discourse used in exploring the principles that underpin current Curricular Frameworks and policy.

Effective provision for children and young people’s learning and development in England will be examined in relation to the work of pioneers in educational theory and their principles that underpinned their approach to working with children and young people. The context of the pedagogue and pedagogy in educational Key Stages will also be considered as well as thinking about contemporary approaches to learning and development.

Planning, Delivering and Assessing Learning

This exciting module will support students how to write and deliver learning aims and objectives for taught classroom sessions. It will explore working with learners as individuals, planning, and delivering a micro-teaching session. Reflection and evaluation of classroom delivery are an important part of teaching practice and this module will develop students understanding of these key principles through peer observations and self-reflection.

Action Research in Educational Practice

Completion of this module supports students to develop an understanding of the nature and purpose of action research and students will carry out action research in an area of their own professional practice. Developing these skills will enable students to lead future practitioner research projects in their own subject specialism and demonstrate to employers the commitment to continual improvement of their practice.