Education — Psychology

The Education (Psychology) MA will introduce students to key theoretical issues in the psychology of education, critical analysis of psychological theory and research and its contribution to educational issues and practice. It will develop students' understanding of research processes and give them the opportunity to undertake research in psychology of education.

Students develop understanding of the current issues in the psychology of education and have opportunity to engage in research. On successful completion of the programme students should be able to produce and communicate reasoned and informed argument, both in writing and orally. Students will also be able to critically evaluate theory and evidence in psychology.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of two core modules (60 credits), two optional modules (60 credits) and a dissertation (60 credits), or three optional modules (90 credits) and a report (30 credits).

Core modules

• Core Topics in the Psychology of Education
• Methodology and Statistics

Optional modules

Students choose two optional modules either from the list below and/or from the wide range of Master's-level modules across the IOE offering:

• Atypical Development
• Cognitive Development and Learning
• Development Psychology and Psychobiology
• Issues in Educational Neuroscience
• Language Development
• Literacy Development
• Personality and Social Psychology in Education
• Psychological Aspects of Counselling
• Reading and Spelling Difficulties
• Social Development

Dissertation/report

All students undertake an independent research project which culminates either in a dissertation of 10,000-12,000 words or a report of 6,000-7,000 words.

Teaching and learning

The programme is delivered through a combination of lectures given by both IOE academic staff and guest speakers, student preparation of tasks and longer presentations, group work, discussion, computer workshops giving hands-on practice. Assessment is through coursework and one two-hour unseen examination. Coursework can involve small exercises, critiques of set research articles and extended pieces of writing on set topics, and the dissertation.

A minimum of a second-class Bachelor's degree from a UK university, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard, in psychology or a related discipline (for example, education, social science, cognitive science, speech/communication science or neuroscience). If the degree does not contain any psychology components, there is a Skype interview to determine suitability for the programme.