Postgraduate

This course focuses on educational enquiry, exploring the roles it can play for professional practice and policymaking. You’ll examine the nature of educational research, and some of the practical strategies and skills involved in both qualitative and quantitative approaches. There will be an opportunity to explore aspects of data processing and analysis. You’ll also consider ethical issues, and investigate what’s involved in reading and assessing research reports and reviewing research literatures. The course provides an introduction to masters-level study in education, and will help you to adopt the degree of criticality that is needed for work at this level.

Register for the course

This course is available for study in the countries shown. Fees and financial support may vary by country.

What you will study

This course, a module of the Masters in Education, is concerned with educational research and its relationship to educational practice and policymaking.

The aims of the course are:

• to facilitate developing a capacity to reflect on and critically assess information from various sources, particularly research
• to increase awareness of key methodological issues
• to provide a sense of the range of approaches currently to be found within educational research, and the arguments surrounding these
• to facilitate the ability to understand and assess a variety of types of research report
• to enable clear and productive thinking about the use of research evidence in making educational decisions
• to introduce some basic research skills, particularly in relation to data analysis, and to generate methodological awareness about threats to validity
• to help develop the ability to review relevant literature.

The Study Guide begins by examining what we mean by ‘educational enquiry’ and distinguishing between ‘academic’ and ‘practitioner-based’ research, discussing the different purposes and possibilities of each. It looks at the centrality of the research question and the purpose of the research centred around this. The second part develops an understanding of the way that any piece of research is shaped by the researcher’s world view and the way that knowledge and learning is understood. The importance of understanding methodology before any engagement with research methods is stressed. The course goes on to discuss ways of producing data and some research methods are presented as exemplar: the coverage is not comprehensive on the assumption that you will gradually acquire a repertoire of research approaches techniques relevant to particular areas of study as you progress through your postgraduate studies. The course then considers the way that data is interpreted and the relative status that can be given to various findings. The final part considers the way in which ‘critical reading’ of research reports assumes understanding of all the issues presented in the course.

Throughout the course you are required to relate the material to your own context and to engage with research reports covering a range of substantive areas.

This course will provide an introduction to masters-level work, building on prior experience, reflection, and study.

If you are doing E891 as part of the Masters degree in Education (F01) or Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Studies in Education (D52), you should be aware that for other modules in the qualification it is highly desirable or essential that you work with learners or have access to groups of learners although this need not be in a formal setting.

Entry

This course can be studied on its own or as a module of the Masters degree in Education. 

You must hold a bachelors degree from a UK university or other recognised degree-awarding body, or a qualification at equivalent level.

If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.

The course is taught in English, and your spoken and written English must be of an adequate standard for postgraduate study. A minimum score of 7 in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is recommended for students for whom English is not a first language. Please see their website for details.

Qualifications

E891 is a compulsory module in our:

• Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Studies in Education (D52)
• Masters degree in Education (F01)

E891 is an optional module in our:

• Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Studies in Education (C27)

If you leave the programme before gaining the 180 credits required for a masters degree, this module will qualify you for a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Studies in Education, or with another 60 credits of specified modules from the programme for a Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Studies in Education.

Some postgraduate qualifications allow study to be chosen from other subject areas. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this module can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the Module Regulations and the Student Regulations which are available on our Essential documents website.

If you have a disability or additional requirement

In this course you are expected to use a wide range of resources. The materials will be delivered as web pages, pdf files and web-based tools. Tutorial and student-led discussions and activities will be carried out in text-based discussion forums online. To complement this asynchronous interaction, some discussions and collaborative activities will take place as live events in our audio-conferencing environment, which combines voice, text and images. Recordings of these events can be accessed after the event by all students.

We have tried to avoid using inaccessible resources, but some material, that is core for the course may not be easily accessible if you use assistive technology. Some students may find the amount of reading from technically different sources challenging. In many cases there will be sufficient alternative activities and materials to enable you to complete assignments successfully. Where this is not the case, you will be given individual support by your tutor in collaboration with other University staff. Support for access to Library resources is available from the Library Helpdesk.

Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader. Alternative formats of the study materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.

You will need to spend considerable amount of time using a personal computer and the internet. If you are a new student, or new to study using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our publication Meeting Your Needs.

You can also find information about accessible study materials, the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.

Study materials

What's included

Study material and activities are provided online only by means of a dedicated website which also provides access to a range of electronic tools, including real-time conferencing and asynchronous tools such as forums. In addition to the online-delivered teaching text, there is a printed Module Reader which is an integral part of the materials. You will be expected to search for other materials relevant to your assignments, and the course will provide you with help and guidance for your literature searching.

You will also be provided with access to Masters degree in Education qualification website, where additional guidance materials will be found.

Computing requirements

You will need a computer with internet access to study this course which includes online activities. You can only access these using a web browser with Flash and Java.

You will also need a headset, with a microphone and earphones, to talk to your tutor and other students online during some of the course activities.

• If you have purchased a new desktop or laptop computer running Windows since 2006 you should have no problems completing the online activities.
• If you’ve got a netbook, tablet or other mobile computing device check our Technical requirements section.
• If you have an Apple Mac or Linux computer – please note that you can only use it for this course by running Windows on it using Boot Camp or a similar dual-boot system.

You can also visit the Technical requirements section for further computing information including the details of the support we provide.

Teaching and assessment

Support from your tutor

You will have a tutor who will help you with the study material and who will mark and comment on your written work. You can also ask your tutor for advice and guidance. You may have contact with your tutor and fellow students through computer forums. Tutorials will be provided online through a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous forums.

Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.

Assessment

The assessment details can be found in the facts box above.

You will be required to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system. 

The end-of-module assessment (EMA) focuses on the design and preparation for a small scale piece of practitioner research and requires not more than 5000 words; it will also be submitted online.

Future availability

The details given here are for the course that starts in October 2012. We expect it to be available once a year.

Students also studied

Students who studied this course also studied at some time:

• Difficulties in literacy development (E801)
• Investigating language in action (E854)
• Curriculum, learning and society: investigating practice (E846)
• Understanding children's development and learning (ED841)
• Educational leadership: context, strategy and collaboration (E856)

How to register

To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.

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