Module SOCI3131: THEORY AND PRACTICE OF INFORMAL & COMMUNITY EDUCATION

Department: APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES (SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL POLICY)

SOCI3131: THEORY AND PRACTICE OF INFORMAL & COMMUNITY EDUCATION

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To evaluate critically the main themes in the theory and practice of informal and community education within a range of contexts - historical, structural, psychological and philosophical.

Content

• The module will cover the following areas:
• analysis of definitions, terms and concepts - the process of learning, informal learning, experiential learning;
• personal, individual/collective, group learning;
• education and development: the relationship between formal and informal education;
• brief history of the development of informal and community education and of historical shifts in terminology, policies and provision.
• mapping informal education - contexts and settings: statutory and voluntary, home, work, community.
• the experience of informal education - case studies, published and participants' examples.

Learning Outcomes

• a critical understandng of the core ideas of informal education and community education;
• a critical understanding of the relationship between key concepts such as community and youth in relation to informal education.

• the ability to critically examine the role of information education in an informal setting.

• a range of communication skills including the ability to: evaluate and synthesise information obtained from a variety of sources; communicate relevant information in different ways and select the most appropriate method of communication for different tasks; monitor, and reflect on, the use of communication skills;
• competence in the use of IT resources including the ability to: word-process; monitor and reflect on the use of IT skills;
• a capacity to improve own learning and performance including the ability to: manage time effectively; work to prescribed deadlines; engage in different ways of learning including both independent and directed forms of learning; gather necessary information from a range of bibliographic and electronic sources; monitor and critically reflect on the learning process.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Students will be required to build upon their professional and fieldwork experience of working with and alongside informal education practitioners to discuss programme content. The structured programme will comprise a combination of lectures, group discussions and tutorials.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

-

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University