Special Educational Needs, Disabilities and Inclusion BA (Hons)

Teaching and Learning

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 lectures, seminar, tutorials, guided study of current documentation including legal and policy frameworks, as well as input from visiting speakers. Each year some optional modules offer the opportunity for work-based learning in relevant settings. Multimedia presentations and use of virtual learning environment (VLE) will be utilised throughout.

Academic and personal support is available from Firstpoint. In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course. You also have an opportunity to discuss any issues that may be affecting your academic performance and discuss employability opportunities.

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:

• 2-4 hours of whole cohort lectures
• 12-14 hours of seminars and practical activities
• Visiting speakers and opportunities to visit other settings are regular features of the course, and most usually embedded into timetabled lectures or seminars; were this is not possible the timetable is adjusted accordingly

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 pre-session activities, wider reading and directed study tasks, all of which will be outlined in the module materials.

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.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes staff with expertise as teachers, senior leaders in education settings, early year’s practitioners, educational psychologists and school governors.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy, many course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

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.

Assessment methods include presentations, academic posters, essays and subject portfolios. Formative assessment is provided through the range of assessment across the year and is built into module tutorial and personal academic tutorial time.

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:

Year 1 (mandatory)

• Reflective journals
• Essays / reports
• Poster presentations
• Learning Logs
• Group Presentations

In addition there will be assessments from optional modules

Year 2 (mandatory)

• Essays / reports
• E-portfolio
• Research Proposal
• Group presentations
• Reflective journals
• Poster presentations
• Artefact (individual poster presentation or equivalent).

In addition there will be assessments from optional modules

Year 3 (mandatory)

• Oral presentation
• Essay
• Reflective journal
• Case study report
• Poster presentation and summary

In addition there will be an Independent Study and assessments from optional modules

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.