Undergraduate Course: Community Learning 3: Education and Action in Communities (EDUA09003)
Course Outline
| School | Moray House School of Education and Sport |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 9 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Participants on this course will consider how groups of learners may be helped to develop their capacity to think and act critically, and to support one another to develop strategies, tactics and practices in relation to desired change. Participants will also be required to develop appropriate teaching and learning techniques designed to foster dialogue.
The course will deepen the students understanding of the worker's educational role and will focus on developing dialogue through structured experiences in the various forms and settings of community education practice. Participants will consider how groups of learners may be helped to develop their capacity to think and act critically, and to support one another to develop strategies, tactics and practices in relation to desired change. Participants will also be required to develop appropriate teaching and learning techniques designed to foster dialogue.
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| Course description |
1) Academic Description
The practice of informal education attempts to build a creative tension between the need to be structured in our approach to educational work and the need for spontaneity in engaging with people. This course attempts to develop the student's familiarity with this tension and to consider a range of methodological approaches which can help to introduce educational aims into informal settings. There are four interrelated themes to this course that have to do with: Inquiry; Experience; Knowledge; Dialogue and Praxis. Each theme will be considered from a theoretical and a methodological standpoint. The first session of each thematic period will be concerned with conceptual principals while the second session will consider the more practical application of ideas.
2) Indicative Content
Experience
Knowledge and Knowing
Developing Dialogue
Praxis and the transition from reflection to action
Developing Action
Presentation workshops
3) Learning Experience.
The course design is cyclical, modulating between theory and practice modes in order to emphasise the relationship between the two. The students are engaged in this process by developing case study scenarios where they are encouraged to apply the core thematic ideas of the course in a practice setting of their own design. While the theory sessions are focused on reading, in-put and discussion, the practice sessions focus on methods and their application to the student's case studies. This curriculum design is developed to demonstrate some of the core themes of the course including praxis.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Task: Written Assignment equivalent to 4000 words (100% weighting)
Students should address one of the following assessment tasks:
Describe a group, real or imaginary and design a structured educational intervention which responds directly to their lived experience. The approach used must be justified both theoretically and practically.
Examine your practice with a group, outline the approach taken and using the taught programme develop a positive critique of the approach taken and propose an alternative or adjusted approach. |
| Feedback |
Formative Task
In each session students will work in groups on a case-study of their own design, imagining a group in a community who require support. Using the course material, the groups will design an educational intervention with this group and then share their intervention with the other groups in the last two sessions of the course. This formative task is designed to help students prepare for the summative task listed below. The interventions will be peer reviewed by the students on the course using a set of criteria based on those used in the summative task.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Distinguish between different approaches to informal educational work
- Explain the importance of making educational purposes transparent
- Demonstrate how to structure educational experiences
- Use people's experience as part of an educational intervention
- Develop a body of critical knowledge, design a structured dialogue and articulate the concept of praxis
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Reading List
Brookfield, S. D. (2013) Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.
Galloway, V. (2013) Teaching Popular Education to University Community Education Students. Rhizome freirean - n. 14 http://www.rizoma-freireano.org/teaching-popular-education-to-university
Illeris, K. (2018) (Ed.) Contemporary Theories of Learning: Learning Theorists¿In Their Own Words. Routledge: London.
Jeffs, T. & Smith, M. (2005) (3rd Edition) Informal Education: Conversation, democracy and learning Shrewsbury: Educational Heretics Press.
Wildemeersch, D. (2018) Limit Situations. Adult Education and Critical Awareness Raising in The Palgrave International Handbook on Adult and Lifelong Education and Learning, Milana et al (Eds.) Palgrave Macmillan: London, pp. 133-150.
https://link-springercom.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-55783-4_8
A further reading list is available in the course booklet
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1) Apply Knowledge Skills and Understanding
Understand and lead groups
Design a curriculum based on community priorities
Plan and implement programmes of individual and collective action
2) Generic Cognitive Skills
Understand the centrality of Dialogue and Praxis to the participatory educational process
3) Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others
Enable dialogue between people and groups
Leadership skills
Presentation skills
Critical reflexivity
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| Keywords | Informal education,Group work,Experience,Knowledge,Dialogue,Praxis. |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Gary Fraser
Tel:
Email: gfraser4@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Eleanor Terry
Tel: (0131 6)51 6812
Email: eterry@ed.ac.uk |
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