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Education (Teaching and Learning) MA

2024-25 (also available for 2023-24, 2025-26)

This course is eligible for Master's loan funding. Find out more.

Start date

16 September 2024

6 January 2025

Duration

1 year full-time
2 years part-time (Sept. only)

About the course

Reasons to study

  1. Achieve your career goals: this course could help you progress into middle and senior management roles.
  2. Tailor your studies to match your current employment and experience with a broad range of module options.
  3. 98.4% of our postgraduates go on to work and/or further study within six months of graduating.

On this course you’ll focus on developing your professional knowledge and understanding of practice related to your own context in formal education. It will help you to understand how a teachers’ role is constructed. What teacher identities are and how these shape the role of teachers. You’ll have the opportunity to gain research skills and reflective awareness. The course can help you progress into middle and senior management roles within a wide range of educational settings.

Why Education (Teaching and Learning)?

  • You’ll have the opportunity to develop an understanding of critical reflection and how to employ independent learning strategies to enable you to evaluate and inform your professional practice.
  • You’ll also develop and deepen your knowledge and understanding of educational research and be able be able to use these skills in researching an aspect of teaching and learning for your dissertation.
  • A further key component is the ability to exchange and share learning with and from others; you’ll have ample opportunities to work with students from a wide range of disciplines and organisations.
  • The course is tailored around you.You can expand on your teaching and learning focus by choosing from a range of options to match your role, experience or organisation to help you progress as an informed, reflective and inspirational practitioner.
  • You’ll be taught by an outstanding team of teachers, and will have access to our extensive professional and academic network which feeds directly into course design and delivery and to excellent facilities and specialist equipment.

Course detail

Core modules:

Exploring Teaching and Learning

This module will develop your understanding of the ideas of curriculum: what is taught, how it is taught and why it is taught. You'll explore elements of the hidden curriculum, including hierarchy, power, values, confidence, stereotypes and labelling. The module will also help you to understand how a teachers’ role is constructed. What are teacher identities and how do these shape the role of teachers? Is teaching a professional activity? What are the ideas around this aspect? What is a reflexive/reflective teacher and how does this enhance professional development? You'll also consider some learning theories and their practical application within your setting.

Methods of Enquiry

This module will develop and deepen your knowledge and understanding of research methods, in both academic and professional contexts. It considers some of the theories, methods and implication of research and the complex role of researchers and of practitioner-researchers. You'll explore a range of methods of enquiry in order to enable you to understand the significance and ethics of research.

Introduction to Action Research

Action Research is a practice-based research methodology for practitioners wanting to change practice(s) within their professional setting. You will learn about the tradition that informs action research as research methodology, how to write a research aim and research question(s) for a piece of research, the different ways of collecting data to answer research questions and how to build rigour and quality into your study. You will use what you have learned in the module to write a proposal for a piece of research that could be undertaken as a dissertation later in your course.

Dissertation

This module seeks to deepen your knowledge and understanding of educational research. You'll learn about traditions of educational research; positivism, interpretism and action research and the strengths and challenges of carrying out research in these traditions. This module provides you the opportunity to carry out a piece of research based on a contemporary or work-related issue or problem.

You will study either ‘Introduction to Action Research or ‘Methods of Enquiry’.

Option modules:

In addition, you choose two modules from the ‘Option modules’ tab below.

Please note: If you start your course in September, you will complete four modules and then your dissertation. If you start your course in January, you will complete two modules, then your dissertation, then the remaining two modules.

Entry requirements

You should have an honours degree in a relevant subject at 2:2 or above, or a professional equivalent.

The University will determine whether a degree can be recognised as UK equivalent.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our Where are you from information pages.

Your career


This MA course provides you with a broad range of module options allowing you the opportunity to tailor the programme to suit your current role and/or future career ambitions. Successful study at this level supports you in your current role, helps give you the confidence to tackle a wide range of workplace challenges and supports you in taking advantage of wider promotional and developmental opportunities.

The course offers a recognised qualification, a broadening of horizons and a chance to pursue particular areas of interest.

*Percentage of our postgraduate students who go on to work and/or further study within six months of graduating (Destination of Leavers from Higher Education Survey 2016/17).

98.4% Graduates employed*

Student support

​At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

Important information

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules:

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes:

We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff leaving the University or being unable to teach, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to damage or interruption to buildings, facilities or equipment, or pandemics.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will carry out suitable consultation. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you contact us in writing before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for future tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.

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