• To enable students to authoritatively inform and direct their work-based learning
• To guide students in developing their own reflective socio-professional practice
• focus student attention on the ethos and conditions of social learning by others

Objectives

By the end of the module, the student should have

• acquired an understanding of a range of concepts, approaches and
  methodologies in theoretical and practice-based educational research
  engaged in critical debate about the merits of these positions in relation to their
  own socio-professional practice
• used authoritative perspectives, positions and experience to plan, guide or
  evaluate their own socio-professional practice
• reflected critically on their own practice in relation to the learning conditions,
  requirements and perceptions of others
• attained a supportable position on how their own socio-professional practice
  connects with established and current approaches and methodologies in
  theoretical and practice-based initiatives in education for adults

Indicative Content

The module would cover the following interrelated themes in proportion to the extent that they relate to the overall student learning experience during the course:

• The scientific tradition in research and the myth of the disinterested researcher
• Consistency, accountability and transparency in educational research
• Quantitative and qualitative methodologies and problems of validity
• Researcher inclusive processes, reflexivity and holistic approaches
• Optionality of theories and the criterion of fitness for purpose
• Action research and the concept of constructive intervention
• Transferable skills in socio-professional practice in the visual arts
• Locating visual arts practice in the emergent discipline of education for adults
• Learning through participation in the visual arts and the problem of the amateur
• Practice in facilitating and mediating the participation of others.

Indicative Reading List

Boud, D. and Solomon, N. (2001) Workbased Learning: A New Higher Education ? Buckingham: SRHE and OUP
Brookfield, S.D. (1993) Developing Critical Thinkers, Milton Keynes: OUP
Cohen, L. and Manion, L (1989) Research Methods in Education, London: Routledge
Edwards, R., Hanson, A. and Raggatt, P. eds (1996) Boundaries of Adult Learning, London: Routledge
Eraut, M. (1994) Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence, London: The Falmer Press
Hetherington, K. and Munro, R. eds (1997) Ideas of Difference, Oxford: Blackwell.
Layder, D. (1994) Understanding Social Theory, London: Sage Publications
Longworth, N. (1999) Making Lifelong Learning Work: Learning cities for the Learning Century, London: Kogan Page
McNiff, J. (1993) Teaching and Learning: An action Research Approach, London: Routledge
Richardson, L.D. and Woolfe, M. eds (2001) Principles and Practice of Informal Education, London: Routledge Falmer
Rogers, C.R.(1983) Freedom to Learn, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.
Scott, D. and Usher, R. (1996) Understanding Educational Research, London: Routledge
Stuart, M. and Thomson, A. eds (1995) Engaging with Difference: the Other in Adult Education, Leicester: NIACE
Sutherland, P. (1998) Adult Learning: A Reader, London: Kogan Page
Tait, J. and Knight, P. eds (1996) The Management of Independent Learning, London: Kogan Page
West, L. (1996) Beyond Fragments: Adult Motivation and Higher Education, London: Taylor & Francis