Jack Whitehead's notes for tutors and practitioner-researchers on masters degree programmes with units on: Educational Enquiries; Research Methods in Education; Understanding Learners and Learning; Gifts and Talents in Education.

Updated 6^th May 2008

Because of my belief that enhancing professionalism in education is related to the professional-knowledge base of education, I continue to emphasise the importance of developing a profession of master and doctor educators. In my tutoring of masters units and dissertations for educators I am seeking to bring the embodied knowledge of master educators into the Academy for recognition, academic legitimation and accreditation. In other words I believe that the majority of the educators I work with already have the embodied knowledge of master educators and that this knowledge will deepen and extend in the course of making it as explicit and communicable as possible through a masters degree.

I make a distinction between the given curriculum in the unit descriptors and assessment criteria below and the living curriculum. The given curriculum is pre-specified by the University. The living curriculum is generated through what educators do in their educational practices with their students.

I think of my tutoring as a form of creative compliance in which the writings of educators in the units and dissertations communicate their living educational theories as explanations for their educational influences in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the social formations in which we live and work.

In the process of supporting their educational enquiries of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?', through my tutoring, I seek to ensure a growth of their educational knowledge. I am thinking of a growth in educational knowledge that accompanies an engagement with the units on Educational Enquiry, Understanding Learners and Learning, Research Methods in Education and Gifts and Talents in Education. This growth in knowledge is documented in their assignments for the units.

I notice a big difference between my educational intent in my tutoring and the statements in the unit descriptors and assessment criteria below. The difference can be understood in terms of transmission and creativity. The unit descriptors for ULL, RME and G&TinEd carry the pre-specified knowledge for me to transmit. The unit descriptor for educational enquiries emphasises the creativity of the practitioners in bringing their embodied knowledge into the academy for recognition, academic legitimation and accreditation. In my tutoring I try to keep a continuous connection with the creativity of practitioners in their educational enquiries while making available resources for learning, usually web-based, that support their ULL, RME and G&TinEd writings. You can see some of the outcomes of this educational process in the narratives of the educators at:

http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/mastermod.shtml

If tutors in other institutions are interested in developing a living theory approach to masters degree programmes in education they might find useful the following procedural information.

To accredit the embodied knowledge of master educators in their accounts of their educational practice and explanations of educational influences in learning, every university I know has a curriculum statement and assessment criteria related to units of study and a dissertation. The criteria used in assessing masters units are often generic in the sense that the same criteria are used for different units. You can see the generic criteria I use to assess masters units at MACriteria . The curriculum of different units can be seen in unit descriptors in terms of the aims, learning outcomes, skills and content of a unit. You can see the unit descriptors for Educational Enquiries at EE for Understanding Learners and Learning at ULL for Research Methods in Education at RME and for Gifts and Talents in Education at G&TinEd.

Units can carry different credits towards a masters degree. For example you can have 12 credit units in which individuals would do 5 of these units plus a dissertation for the masters degree. The 5 units carry 60 credits and the dissertation carries 30 credits. Some universities might require 6, 9 credit units and a dissertation carrying 36 credits.

You can see the differences between a 9 and 12 credit unit in the two unit descriptors for the G&TinEd unit where for the 9 credit unit an assignment of between 3500-4000 words is required and for the 12 credit unit an assignment of some 5000 words is required.