Courses / Module

This module equips students with the knowledge, creativity, competencies, attitudes, and values needed to develop student teachers’ commitment to education as ethical, rational, compassionate, defensible, sustaining, and valuable.

This module fosters student teachers’ reflexivity on their own professional learning and that of their pupils by highlighting the relationship between schools and the wider society. Acknowledging that this association is critical and complex, the module explores structural forces at play and contextualises them against a theoretical framework of social justice and equality.

The overarching aim of this module is to¿foster student teachers’ agency and mind-set to be open to professional growth and learning over the course of their careers.¿¿The module is designed to encourage student teachers to develop an integrated view of education,¿preparing student teachers for entry to their professional role.¿¿Student teachers will be encouraged to apply the skills of reflective practice encountered in the module on Professional Skills, which¿fosters student teachers’ reflexivity on their own professional learning and that of their pupils.¿¿¿

Curriculum studies highlights the role of policy formation pertaining to curriculum choice, which forms a significant link to learning outcomes in the programme and is problematised as a central aspect to looking at curriculum and assessment for intended/unintended purposes. The field of curriculum instruction, sociology of curriculum and curriculum development within the teacher education sector is explored in the context of national priorities. Leadership for curriculum in schools aims to encourage fostering of teacher agency for curriculum development in schools and within professional learning communities.

Philosophy of education acknowledges education as a human right and awareness of how pervasively this right is not vindicated, or is vindicated only partially and inadequately, both nationally and globally encourages participants to articulate their own appropriation of these issues and enables them to adopt concepts such as restorative justice to meet these contemporary challenges.


In Psychology of Education students are introduced to psychological science and its relevance to teaching and learning. Particular emphasis is placed on the effect of memory, attention and motivation in the classroom. As well as fostering of teacher’s agency to implement practical strategies to help improve pupil’s learning.


Sociology of Education provides an opportunity to engage with topics such as race, ethnicity, identity, types of schooling, which will¿support¿newly qualified teachers to facilitate quality teaching and learning for all pupils.¿The sociology of education is the study of how social institutions and individual experiences affects education and its outcome. The topics covered in this module seek to explain how people relate with one another, how hidden structures play an important role in everyday life, how individuals behave and how all these combined impacts on education and its outcome.¿In total, the topics addressed in sociology of education¿foster student teachers’ abilities to support their pupils in achieving their full potential.