Course description
This course enables health professionals to upgrade their qualification and enhance their professional practice with particular emphasis on the education aspects of practice.
It is open to all health professionals and is accredited by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) as suitable preparation for teaching in the higher education sector. Graduates are invited to apply to the HEA for associate or fellowship status.
There are several compulsory modules for this award. Work-based learning is available at all levels, and many students gain exemption from parts of the course through accreditation of their previous formal or informal learning (known as APEL). This means that your programme of study can be directly linked to your own professional practice.
Work-based learning fulfils an important need. It gives a grounding in reality and is an opportunity for you to develop the knowledge vital for clinical practice. You can use projects, developments, management activities or part of your normal practice to design a package, which will form an accredited part of your programme.
Course content
There are several different routes through the course. Your choice of modules will depend on your previous experience, your current situation, and your aims for the future.
Some of the modules have prerequisites that you must satisfy before you can take them. This means that for some modules you must have taken a particular module at a lower level, or have appropriate experience, to ensure you have the background knowledge for study at that level.
Each module is normally worth 30 M level credit points.
Modules include • critical thinking and reflective practice (compulsory for the diploma) • health policy
Professional practice and development (PPD) modules
All students take
• developing education practice (30 credits) – this has a teaching and education component. You must be able to demonstrate 180 hours of teaching practice over two semesters, assessed by portfolio.
• critical thinking and reflection (15 credits) – encourages you to analyse your learning experiences
• managing change in education practice (45 credits) – we assess this by a piece of action research with a practice education and management of change focus. Also, you must have completed 240 hours teaching over two semesters.
We negotiate all content and attendance times with you for these modules. We also provide tutorial and academic support and strongly advise you to take advantage of the tutorial time in this respect.
Options
You can take modules from other courses relating to adult learning, such as
• research methodologies for education • monitoring and evaluation • mentoring • managing professional development
For the MSc award you must complete a dissertation or extended project (60 credits).
