Education Studies BA (Hons)

What makes Education Studies at Worcester special?

Our Education Studies degree will prepare you for a rewarding career in the education sector, working with children, young people or adults. The course will enable you to pursue a diverse range of roles, including primary education, learning support and supporting learners with special educational needs.

Across the world from the UK to Africa, education is the bedrock upon which our societies are founded. The course will teach you about the development of modern education and how education differs across the world. You'll also learn about education from diverse settings, from Forest Schools to the inner city, and from young minds to lifelong learning.

Our modules will teach you theories from a range of approaches, including political, historical, cultural, psychological and sociological aspects of education. You'll apply these approaches to real-world issues, such as how best to tackle bullying? Each of the three years consist of a wide range of optional modules so you can tailor your subjects to your interests.

Overview

Key features

There is a wide range of module choices to suit a variety of interests.
There is an array of diverse career opportunities that are enhanced from doing the Education Studies degree at Worcester. These include prison education, forest schools, work with diverse groups, further education, higher education and youth work.
You can go on to complete a Master's degree upon successful completion of the course, which can lead to many opportunities in Higher Education.
Excellent teacher training progression opportunities: a 2.2 degree classification or above will enable you to be considered for an interview for one of our PGCE Primary courses, provided you meet the course prerequisites.
Strong course links with teacher training providers and a huge variety of employers within the education sector provide excellent placement opportunities.

"The breadth of modules and courses available within Education Studies was amazing. I did drama as well as coaching and mentoring within my discipline, and these gave me a broad range of skills."

Persis Thomas, Education Studies graduate

What qualifications will you need?

88

UCAS tariff points

Entry requirements

88 UCAS tariff points

Other information

A Criminal Records Bureau disclosure is required for some modules on the course

What will you study?

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative.

Year 1	Mandatory Foundations of Education Education in Context Equality and Diversity: the educational experience	Optional Children and Young People's Wellbeing and Digital and Social Media Inner City Education Introduction to teaching English as a foreign language Optional modules offered by the Language Centre
Year 2	Mandatory Educational Enquiry	Optional The Psychology of Teaching and Learning From Exclusion to Inclusion? Radical Education Religion and Education Work Experience in an Educational Setting The Global Dimension in Education Post Compulsory Education Equality and Diversity for Adults in the lifelong Learning Sector Mentoring and Coaching within Education Optional modules offered by the Language Centre
Year 3	Mandatory Independent Study	Optional Policy Making: The Search for Solutions in Education Managing Educational Change Disaffection in Education Citizenship and Education Values in Education Relationships in Education Work Experience in an educational setting Organising Learning and Teaching Critical Perspectives on Special Educational Needs; Process and Practice Extension Module Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties Special Educational Needs and Disability in an Inclusive Setting Post Compulsory Education Equality and Diversity in Adult Education Mentoring and Coaching within Education 'Race' Ethnicity and Education Education and the Sociological Imagination Theatre and Education

Year 1

Mandatory

Foundations of Education
Education in Context
Equality and Diversity: the educational experience

Optional

Children and Young People's Wellbeing and Digital and Social Media
Inner City Education
Introduction to teaching English as a foreign language
Optional modules offered by the Language Centre

Year 2

Mandatory

Educational Enquiry

Optional

The Psychology of Teaching and Learning
From Exclusion to Inclusion?
Radical Education
Religion and Education
Work Experience in an Educational Setting
The Global Dimension in Education
Post Compulsory Education
Equality and Diversity for Adults in the lifelong Learning Sector
Mentoring and Coaching within Education
Optional modules offered by the Language Centre

Year 3

Mandatory

Independent Study

Optional

Policy Making: The Search for Solutions in Education
Managing Educational Change
Disaffection in Education
Citizenship and Education
Values in Education
Relationships in Education
Work Experience in an educational setting
Organising Learning and Teaching
Critical Perspectives on Special Educational Needs; Process and Practice
Extension Module
Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties
Special Educational Needs and Disability in an Inclusive Setting
Post Compulsory Education
Equality and Diversity in Adult Education
Mentoring and Coaching within Education
'Race' Ethnicity and Education
Education and the Sociological Imagination
Theatre and Education

Student view - Alexandra

Lauren Reid

Lauren took the opportunity to take a semester abroad and loved every minute of it.

As part of her Education Studies degree she went to study in the US at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Read all about Lauren's experiences in her blog post.

Jenny Taylor

In the second year of her Education Studies degree Jenny took the opportunity to study abroad in Australia.

Read all about Jenny's experiences in her blog post.

How will you be taught?

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of interactive seminars, lectures, presentations and external visits.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on 4 occasions in the first year, three occasions in the second year and twice in the final year of a course.

You have an opportunity to undertake a semester long placement abroad in the second year of the course.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have around 14-16 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected and in the final year you will normally have slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study.

Typically class contact time will be structured around:

10 hours of interactive seminars in groups of 15-50 (dependent on modules chosen)
5 hours of full group lectures

In year two and/or three, a half-day per week can be spent in placement for one semester.

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 22 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online and preparing coursework assignments and presentations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment and extensive electronic learning resources.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Each module has one or more formal or 'summative' assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade. These assignments might indicatively be essays, critical reflections, presentations and reports. There are no exams on the course.

Assessment methods include a range of coursework assessments such as essays, critical reflections, reports, portfolios, projects, case study, presentations and a final year independent studies project.
The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is: