GUIDANCE FOR FINAL ASSIGNMENT, WHAT IS EDUCATION? 2024

ASSIGNMENT BRIEF

You have the freedom to choose which topic from the module you would like to write about in your final essay.

We strongly recommend that you base your topic in a particular context, for example you may want to ‘explore climate change and sustainability education in rural villages in the UK’. To do this you should use at least one of the essential readings for that week.

Requirements: 4000 words. Grade penalty if more than 10% above this. Word count includes subheadings and quotations but not list of references or cover sheet. Make sure your essay is anonymised and includes cover sheet. Submission through Moodle by deadline, or grade penalties.

Please use a sans-serif font, such as Calibri, Arial or Helvetica in size 12pt font with 1.5 line spacing to make your essay accessible to readers and markers.

ESSAY PROPOSAL

You have the opportunity to submit an essay proposal form. on 25 th November 2024. Your tutor will then give you feedback on your title and topic.

GUIDANCE TO STUDENTS

Our overarching aim is to support you to begin to articulate, explain and justify your own position within the complex and diverse field of educational research. We recognise education studies as a rich field. It encompasses a wide range of contrasting disciplinary specialisms as well as inter-disciplinary perspectives.

You must ensure that your essay discusses (i.e., critically engages with) at least one of the essential module readings (as well as a variety of other readings). Our very strong advice is that this should be more than a brief section in your essay: our best advice to you is to focus your essay title on an issue/topic discussed on the course.

The final assignment is an academic essay. So, you should bring in other readings, both from the course, and from the literature in the area you have chosen. There should be critical engagement with the literature, proper referencing (no problem which choice of style. of referencing but it needs to be consistent), and so on.

It might well be helpful to have in mind the grade criteria sheet: put yourself in the position of an examiner reading your work. They will examine according to this sheet.

We (strongly) advise you to base the essay in a chosen context which you have experience of or an interest in. For example, for someone who has experience of the Chilean primary school: What might be the value of primary school history classes in the Chile becoming aims-based? We also advise to narrow down (‘funnel’) your topic e.g., by localising the context. This is likely to make for a more manageable essay than ‘what should be the aim of primary schools’ or even ‘the aim of primary school science classes in Chile’.

However, a small number of students may want to engage with ideas more generally, for example by discussing philosophical issues, with only ‘education’ as your context and that is acceptable – but please note that we advise you even then, in most cases, to think through a chosen context which you have experience of or an interest in. If you want to take a more general approach, please do discuss with your tutor. The essay must be about education (which can be broadly conceived and not confined to schooling or university). You must also include a discussion of one of the essential readings of the module. Students do not have to make this reading the central focus of their topic; but it must at least be discussed (not merely indexed) at some point.

The essay should not be an empirical study, e.g., ‘does the use of whiteboards enhance student learning’, for which you would need to collect data as evidence. Nor should it be a review of empirical studies (although of course some empirical references may be appropriate as evidence for a position or for setting the scene for the description of a context).

Rather, it should be a discussion of education in terms of you positioning yourself with respect to ideas/justifications/legitimations/critiques in the light of the literature.

EXAMPLES OF PREVIOUS STUDENTS’ TITLES

Here are some example titles, with module topics underlined:

• What is the effect of ability grouping on students’ performance and the equity of educational resource allocation? An analysis based on Chinese context at secondary school level

• A critical engagement with learning theories: how my students learn science in the secondary school classroom

• To what extent does the National Curriculum for history encourage an aims-based or knowledge-based curriculum in secondary schools?

• Bourdieu's Sociological Analysis of Higher Education System: the influencing factors contributing to social reproduction in the Chinese context

• The two sides of Beijing state schools: Hope for better opportunities, or evidence for the reproduction of social inequalities?

OUTLINE OF SUGGESTED STRUCTURE

Your final assignment might have the following structure:

1. Introduction (about 250 words) - briefly explain the topic you have chosen that is important to you. For example, you could explain why the topic is important to explore in that particular context you have chosen. You may also want to define key terms and introduce the key readings that you will focus on in your assignment.

2. Description of the context/background (about 250 words) – although you will have mentioned the context in the introduction, in this section you should describe the context in more detail – remember that you should describe the context assuming the reader knows nothing about this context. Even if you are writing about the English education system you should describe how it works, the age of students you are discussing (not just Year 7 – what age are Year 7s?), etc.

- For example, if my paper was exploring the importance of co-constructivism in Montessori preschools in California (USA), I would need to introduce the concept of Montessori preschools, the age range of the students who might attend this school, the country (and in this case, the state, since states have different educational policies) in which I am exploring Montessori preschools and why that is important.

3. Discussion in the context of the literature with which you are critically engaging (3000 words) – to help you organise this section, you might want to think about some of the wider reading you have done around your topic. You should demonstrate both a breadth and depth of understanding of this area, which means that you need to understand the wider context as well as the reading(s) you are engaging with in more depth. You should use subheadings in this larger section to organise your writing and help it flow better.

- Continuing with the above example, I might start with a section on learning in the early years, followed by a section exploring Maria Montessori’s method in more detail. This would flow nicely to a discussion of the difference between constructivism and co-constructivism (which could draw on the Moore text from Week 1, as well as other articles about these learning theories).

4. Conclusion (about 400 words) – the conclusion should include a summary of your key points, as well as a conclusion of your argument. Perhaps there are some further questions that have been raised by your exploration of your topic – you don’t have to have all the answers! Demonstrate criticality by pointing out areas for further exploration. We should have a good idea of your position by the end of the paper – that doesn’t mean telling us what you think is the answer ‘in your opinion’ it means that your argument should be clearly stated and supported by academic literature.

- Concluding my paper on Montessori preschools in California, I might state that after reviewing the literature around constructivism and co-constructivism we can see while the Montessori method draws on both approaches to learning, the focus on the growth and well-being of the individual suggests that this is an example of constructivism. Further, the focus on individuals constructing their understanding by interacting with a carefully curated environment aligns more with a Piagetian approach. However, in practice, Montessori preschools might lean more toward a co-constructivist approach. Perhaps more research could be done on Montessori schools’ approaches and ethos to make a better-informed judgment.

5. Reference list (not included in word count)