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The University's Department of Education
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MSc in Teacher Education

About the course

This is a professional development course for new and experienced teacher educators involved in pre-service and in-service education who are interested in increasing their knowledge and skills base required for effective and inspirational teacher education whilst ‘on the job’. 

This two-year, part-time course is a world first, bringing together teacher educators in the UK, EU and internationally and provides an Oxford University master's-level qualification for anyone involved in pre-service and in-service teacher education:

  • school-based teacher educators, coaches and mentors
  • university tutors involved in teacher education, such as university tutors on taught education programmes or based in university subject departments with some teacher education responsibilities
  • advisory teachers and fieldworkers
  • professional development providers.

The course focuses on developing teacher educators’ day-to-day practice as well as developing areas such as the design and teaching of teacher education programmes, the ability to conduct research to develop practice, and the ability to participate in debates about teaching and teacher education in your own subject. It is designed to be integral to the your day-to-day practice as a teacher educator and blends online, distance learning with one-week residential components in Oxford in years one and two.

The three distance online units comprise investigations focused on your  own practice and tasks that involve individual and group work. For example, you will participate in an inquiry task where you will  observe and interview your learner teachers (beginning or experienced teachers) in order to learn more about the knowledge and beliefs they bring to teacher education. This is then brought together with key literature and you will share the findings from your inquiry task with your study group for further discussion and analysis. These tasks also contribute significantly to the work for each unit’s assignment.

You will be expected to participate in a course of instruction for six terms on a part-time basis. This will include two, one-week residential sessions in Oxford, and a series of online lectures and seminars. At the beginning of Hilary Term on the first Saturday there will be an optional day’s induction to Unit 2. Students can attend in-person or remotely via Teams. A similar day is held on a Saturday at the beginning of Trinity Term in April for induction into Unit 3 and again, students can attend in person or remotely via Teams.

The University’s Virtual Learning Environment is used to support the work on each task and sustain critical discussion.

Research in the department is organised around three major themes:

  • Language, Cognition and Development
  • Policy, Economy, and Society
  • Pedagogy, Learning and Knowledge.

Within each of these themes there are several research groups and centres. All staff and doctoral students belong to one or more of these research groups, each of which has its own seminar programme to which graduate students often contribute. In addition, the department as a whole sponsors regular seminars and public lectures which attract distinguished national and international speakers.

Attendance

This course is part-time. You will be required to attend two, one-week residentials in Oxford and you will also have the option to attend two induction days in Oxford.

Resources to support your study

As a graduate student, you will have access to the University's wide range of world-class resources including libraries, museums, galleries, digital resources and IT services.

The Bodleian Libraries is the largest library system in the UK. It includes the main Bodleian Library and libraries across Oxford, including major research libraries and faculty, department and institute libraries. Together, the Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items, provide access to e-journals, and contain outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art and printed ephemera.

The University's IT Services is available to all students to support with core university IT systems and tools, as well as many other services and facilities. IT Services also offers a range of IT learning courses for students, to support with learning and research.

As the MSc is a part-time course for professionals, the department takes pride in providing high quality IT support for your learning when you are away from Oxford. This includes a dedicated Canvas site, which you will use to liaise with your supervisor and to exchange ideas with other students. Should you wish to work in the department when you are visiting Oxford, there is a library with desks which also has points for personal laptop computers.

The Bodleian Education Library, located at the centre of the Department of Education, specialises in material on education and related fields. As well as a print collection of books, journals and statistics, the library provides access to a wide range of electronic resources. The library also houses a collection of teaching resources, primarily in support of subjects covered by the department's secondary PGCE course. The Social Sciences Library provides valuable additional resource to students pursuing programmes in the Department of Education.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Department of Education and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a supervisor may be found outside the Department of Education.

Supervision of students’ work will mainly be offered within small groups, and from a University supervisor. Small groups of four, called study groups, will meet every two to three weeks. In addition, to support assignment work, individual meetings will occur at least twice a term with the participants’ supervisor. 

Assessment

Assessment will be through an assignment for each of the three distance online units, plus a dissertation in the second year of the course.

Areas covered in the assessments include:

  • exploring teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning in your subject
  • developing teachers’ knowledge bases in your subject
  • analysing and developing teacher education sessions and programmes
  • analysis and critique of research articles
  • links between theory and practice
  • construction of arguments for particular processes
  • implications for teacher education.

Graduate destinations

This course is intended to provide the first systematic and sustained education for new and experienced teacher educators that are both school and university-based.  The course will enhance the participants’ skills as teacher educators and their ability to develop their practice through research, and to contribute to the education research community through their research activity including publications to professional and academic research journals.

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made if a pandemic, epidemic or local health emergency occurs. In addition, in certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.

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