Doctorate in Education/Professional Studies
|EdD, DrPS
|Part Time
| Admissions status: OpenCore modules are studied in the following order. More details on each can be found in the modules section below.
- Theory & Research in Educational & Professional Settings
- Methods of Inquiry
- Foundations of Professionalism
- Advanced Research Methods.
A variety of teaching methods are employed to suit the participants' needs. The programme consists of a taught component (with two modules per year in the first two years), followed by an Institution/Profession Focussed Study, and then a Research Based Thesis. The taught modules are assessed by assignments of 7,500 words each. The Institution/Profession Focused Study is assessed by means of a 15,000 words report and a viva voce examination on the work. The Research Based Thesis should be between 25,000 and 55,000 words long.
Taught formal sessions take place in two Friday/Saturday blocks per module, with approximately 6 hours of teaching for each day of the block. The teaching dates for 2013/14 will be:
- Autumn Term (TREPS & FOP)
29th & 30th Nov 2013
- Spring Term (MOI & ARM)
14th & 15th Mar 2014
- Summer Term
For all students there will be a series of seminars in the Summer Term.
The taught modules are assessed by assignments of 7,500 words each. The Institution/Profession Focused Study is assessed by means of a 15,000 words report and a viva voce examination on the work. The Research Based Thesis should be between 25,000 and 55,000 words long.
NB it cannot be guaranteed that all modules are offered in any particular academic year.
Credit level: 7
This course builds on the foundations laid in the course on Methods of Inquiry where the aim had been to critically evaluate published research. In this course the focus is on developing the practical and analytic skills needed to carry out quantitative and qualitative research in professional settings. The course will provide participants with the opportunity to design a study, practice the skills of qualitative interviewing and quantitative and qualitative data analysis and write up the work in an appropriate manner.
Credit level: 7
Based on insights and approaches drawn from the sociology/history of the professions, epistemology of professional knowledge and applied ethics, the course aims to provide participants with an understanding of the complex nature of the professions, professionalization and professionalism and their interconnections both in theory and in relation to present-day practice. It is particularly concerned with the adequate conceptualisation of the relationship between research-based theory and professional practice and, as such, builds on and develops some of the themes begun in TREPS and MOI. It aims to stimulate and inform critical reflection on these issues and on their implications for policy and practice vis-à-vis participants’ own professional practices and institutional contexts.
Credit level: 7
This course provides participants with an understanding of the nature of educational inquiry, its philosophical and empirical foundations, its different approaches, the framing of research questions and the methods used within these approaches. The course is designed to enable the participant to interrogate and critically evaluate the claims made in the research literature and to understand the assumptions upon which research is based. Three distinct outcomes are expected from the course: an ability to understand why critical decisions were made in the design of an empirical research project; an ability to understand the relationship and limitation of empirical outcomes to methods chosen for a study; and an appreciation of the role and structure of a research methods chapter for future IFS and RBT work.
Credit level: 7
This course is designed to provide students with a good knowledge of the theoretical background to educational research, centred on the disciplines of Sociology, Philosophy and Psychology. It considers current theoretical debates and the relationship between theory and practice in entering the field of research. This is designed to introduce you to the critical vocabulary, tensions and discourses embedded in current debates and to apply these to your particular specialism.
