Module EDUC1511: Contemporary Issues and Evidence in Education

Department: Education

EDUC1511: Contemporary Issues and Evidence in Education

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To introduce students to a range of contemporary issues in education and the nature, scope and strength of different forms of evidence that can influence public perception, policy, and pedagogic practice in relation to these issues.

Content

• Students will be introduced to contemporary debates in education through guest lectures led by an expert in the field.
• Lecture content will focus on different issues that impact upon or can be addressed via education. Indicative topics may include analysis of curriculum design, pupils' experience of education, and social structures and systems that influence educational outcomes.
• Lectures will support student learning of subject-specific knowledge but also seek to provide students with a broader understanding of how these issues could be subject to research. Throughout the lecture series, there will be reference to key ways researchers use evidence, theories and arguments to support their understanding of educational issues.
• Students will be exposed to a range of evidence sources such as academic articles, blogs, podcasts, news media, and AI-generated material, and will consider their strengths and limitations from different stakeholder perspectives. Students will be encouraged to compare perspectives, evaluate credibility, and justify how they interpret and use evidence. Students will be asked to state how they used Generative AI throughout the module and critically comment on how useful it was for specific learning tasks.
• Not only does this module introduce students to the variety of academics working within the department in the School of Education at Durham University, it also positions education as an academic field of inquiry, helping students understand how debates are interpreted differently by teachers, policymakers, families, and other stakeholders, and how these interpretations influence policy and practice.

Learning Outcomes

• Knowledge and understanding of a range of contemporary issues in education.
• Critical understanding of what counts as evidence in education and how to compare evidence from different sources.
• Knowledge of the various stakeholders that can influence education and understand how they may value and utilise different types of evidence to inform policy and practice.

• Understand how evidence can be used to support theory and practice in education.
• Learn how to use appropriate frameworks to evaluate evidence in education.
• Develop their oral communication skills in contributing to class debate on contemporary issues and evidence in education.
• Develop their written communication skills by producing academic writing on contemporary issues and evidence in education.

• Ability to reference, analyse and compare a range of evidence sources that they may encounter in contemporary debates, including academic and non-academic sources, to arbitrate between differing perspectives.
• Ability to evaluate the arguments of others, including, theory or empirical research.
• Ability to construct and present written and oral arguments.
• Understand, justify and transparently communicate an appropriate and critical use of Generative AI in learning tasks.

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

• Lectures will introduce students to a contemporary issue in education and will be facilitated by experts in the field from the School of Education.
• Lectures will be supported by readings and a learning task that students will complete in preparation for seminars.
• Seminars will take two forms: 1) Learning in lectures will be complemented with seminars to draw out and build upon students' understanding, analysis and evaluation of lecture content. 2) Module content will be developed through skills-building seminars where students expand study skills, develop critical thinking, and prepare for assignments.
• Students will submit a Review in the format of an electronic coversheet where they reflect on their learning process and how they incorporated feedback from the formative tasks to develop their essay (500 words of the overall assignment). Students will also be asked to state how they used Generative AI throughout the module and critically comment on how useful it was.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative assessment on this module will be conducted in three ways: 1. Students will submit a 250-word blog post in term one on one lecture topic and receive peer feedback; 2. Students will submit two annotated research articles in term two on one lecture topic and an outline of ideas/arguments intended to be used as the basis for the summative essay to receive staff feedback; 3. Students will deliver a 3-minute oral presentation in term two on one lecture topic and receive peer feedback.

■ Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.