Pen Green Centre for children and their families

The aims of this module are to enable students to…

• Understand practitioner research and its potential for improving practice.
• Be able to carry out practitioner research.
• Confidently use a range of methods for collecting and analysing data.

This module is about making a difference to practice. It involves carrying out a small-scale practitioner research project based in your workplace with a view to improving practice. You will be asked to identify an area for development within your practice.

You will be encouraged to work alongside your colleagues and families in your workplace. It is therefore imperative that you consider deeply the ethical implications of your research project. Ethical considerations are also discussed throughout the module particularly with regard to the issues of power and relationships. 

You will be supported to explore research techniques that will enable you to capture data. Through the information gathering process you will be encouraged to explore current theory and connect this to your data, enabling you to evaluate and analyse effectively. The module will support you to be able to demonstrate your understanding around what constitutes good practice and a quality environment and to consider how practitioner research can be used to improve practice.

This module is assessed on coursework (pass/fail).

The expectation is that students attend all scheduled learning and teaching sessions.

If there are exceptional circumstances which result in a student being unable to fulfill this, the student should discuss these with the Course Lead.

Programme/module requirements, including those attendance, must be met and students are responsible for making good work missed through absence.

Knowledge and Understanding:

Successful students will typically:

• Know and understand the underpinning philosophy of practitioner research, the reasons for undertaking practitioner research, and the methods available to practitioner researchers.
• Have a detailed knowledge of the theory and concepts relating to the area of practice chosen as the focus of enquiry.
• Know and understand how to illustrate how practitioner research can be used to improve practice
• Know and understand the ethical issues involved in undertaking practitioner research

Skills and Attributes:

Successful students will typically:

• Know and understand how to undertake research to provide and examine new and existing information about an aspect of current practice.
• Know and understand how to analyse information to inform a choice of possible improvements to practice.

Through the module you will be required to reflect on your interpersonal skills and how you relate to others and how you manage people and resources. It is vitally important to work as part of a team in order to explore your chosen area for development and to show an understanding of this process. Therefore effective communication and questioning techniques will be considered alongside evaluating information, critical reasoning and thinking in order to plan action for change.

Scheduled Teaching, campus−based activities in general teaching spaces (e.g.lectures, 20 seminars, tutorials) 22 hours

Scheduled campus−based activities in specialist teaching spaces (e.g practical classes, 25 workshops, demonstrations) 10 hours

Directed independent study 68 hours

Self-directed independent study 200 hours

Total hours 300