Working With Postgraduate Students (P02199)

? Credit Points : 10 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : EDU-P-P02199

This option will focus on teaching, learning and assessment within taught postgraduate programmes and on the supervision of Masters and Doctoral research.
The part of the unit about taught postgraduate modules and courses will consider the distinctive demands of working at Masters level, with groups of students from varied backgrounds and often different knowledge bases, learning strategies and future aspirations. It will explore ways in which overall course design and the interrelationships of teaching, learning and assessment activities can capitalise on the strengths of students to:
- further develop their potential and interest in the disciplinary area
- help them succeed in meeting the course requirements and aspirations
- assist them in becoming more autonomous and self-aware learners.
The other part of the unit will be concerned with clarifying the purposes, pleasures, tensions and key issues in postgraduate research supervision and also with identifying
a repertoire of strategies for the achievement of successful outcomes. It will pay particular attention to the processes entailed in supervision and to student perspectives on supervision and will be undergirded by critical review of the research literature. Consideration will be given to the implications of differences in expectations, scale
and time frames between Masters and PhD dissertations and theses.

Entry Requirements

? This course is not available to visting students.

? Pre-requisites : For new lecturers participation in the two day orientation to teaching at the University of Edinburgh offered by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment is a course requirement.

? Special Arrangements for Entry : Pre-course reading, in-course reading and investigative enquiry as well as assignment preparation complement face-to-face teaching/learning activities to a total of 100 notional effort hours.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Education, (The Moray House School of Education, Schedule C)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Full Year (Blocks 1-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 6 hour(s) per week for 2 weeks

? Other Required Attendance : 44 hour(s) per week for 2 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Successful completion of the course will enable participants to:
- gain a critical appreciation of key issues and challenges in working with postgraduate students, taking into account both disciplinary variations and local contexts;
- develop conceptual frameworks and a range of practical strategies, making use of the available literature and drawing on their own and others experiences;
- focus in on a matter of concern to do with either taught Masters courses or research supervision, identify and critically analyse the central issues, and make informed suggestions/decisions about appropriate professional responses and strategies.

Assessment Information

Participants will be required to undertake some preparatory reading, thinking and writing before attending the course. The main assessment task will be
- to identify a salient matter of concern related to some aspect of working with postgraduate students in the context of taught Masters courses or Masters or PhD research supervision;
- to engage in an appropriate form of investigative enquiry about the chosen topic or issue; involving critical consideration and evaluation of the literature (conceptual and practical, general and subject specific), and perhaps also involving empirical data gathering and analysis;
- to provide a written account (c. 2,500 words) of the light shed by the investigation on the matter of concern and the implications for future ways of thinking and acting.
Participants will be encouraged to focus, wherever possible, on a matter of concern that is directly pertinent to their current context in terms of roles, responsibilities and/or practice.