Those completing the MA (Mandatory Qualification) will need to complete all the modules (worth 20 credits each) and a dissertation (worth 60 credits). Those completing the MA Education of Children and Young People with Vision Impairments will study the same modules as in the MA mandatory qualification programme, but will not undertake the Effective Teaching of Learners with Sensory Impairment module which includes the teaching placement. Instead, in the summer term of the second year you will take the 'Inclusion: Universal and Specialist Approaches' module.
Unless indicated otherwise, these modules are for students starting in 2023.
Assessment of Children and Young People with Vision Impairment: Understanding and Meeting Individual Needs
This module is designed to develop your knowledge and understanding of vision and visual processing, as well as the possible effects of ocular and cerebral visual dysfunction for learning and development. It will examine issues involved in assessment, as well as in interpreting assessment information, within both clinical as well as functional settings. This includes knowledge and understanding of the use of a range of approaches for information gathering, including observation techniques and related forms of assessment. You will also be expected to develop knowledge and understanding of the application of different approaches to the assessment and enhancement of visual function, including the provision of Low Vision Aids (LVAs).
Policy and SEND Professional Identity
This module has been designed to enable you to relate your experience to the overall developments in provision for children and young people with sensory impairment at both regional and national levels. A key emphasis will be on roles and responsibilities within the context of inclusion and the changing role of the specialist teacher and other professionals.
Curriculum Access for Children and Young People with Vision Impairments
On this module you will explore the range of methods available for children and young people with vision impairments to access the curriculum. It will focus on the possible implications of vision impairments for access in a number of curriculum areas, including communication/literacy and numeracy. You will have opportunities to examine the role of specialist technology in widening access for individual learners with vision impairments, and analyse your own role in the design, implementation and evaluation of appropriate educational programmes.
Social and Emotional Development in Children and Young People with Vision Impairment
Children and young people with vision impairments often require additional opportunities to develop independence skills, including mobility, orientation and daily living skills. Professionals who support children and young people with vision impairments will need to understand therefore how such input can be provided in order to reduce potential barriers to learning and participation. This module offers you opportunities to learn about and evaluate forms of intervention most likely to support the social and emotional wellbeing of the children and young people you work with, as well as to consider the role of the different professionals when working within a multi-disciplinary team.
Special Studies in Special Education
This module is designed with an open structure to guide a problem-focused enquiry. The guidance provided will focus on the process of developing a critical, constructive, approach to the definition of problems in your field of study and the evaluation of actions taken to address these problems.
The module will allow individual study in special education planned according to your special interests and needs in order to permit specialisation under supervision in either a programme of study or a particular aspect of special teaching or form of provision. It is intended that the selected area of study will normally include some forms of practice, for example, in observation and assessment; in the implementation of a teaching programme; the evaluation of curriculum materials or teaching methods.
Effective Teaching of Learners with Sensory Impairment (Additional module for the PGDip/MA mandatory qualification only)
This module has a focus on meeting the practical professional skills required across all mandatory standards and includes teaching placement. The aim of this module is to enable you to meet outcomes that can only be acquired, developed, and demonstrated within the classroom and workplace. The teaching placement, will provides a valuable opportunity for you to develop as a reflective practitioner. You will be observed by a colleague who works with learners with sensory impairment.
The module will include:
a sustained period of teaching practice (15 days) to practise special skills teaching and receive feedback from an appointed teaching placement supervisor. The assessment is based on the national professional standards;
reflective comments on visits to a range of settings/organisations with relevant foci e.g. clinics, schools, technology companies, therapy sessions;
a ‘portfolio’ in which you present evidence of a range of relevant skills linked to the standards, including workplace evidence (e.g. specialist assessment, multi-agency working, working with families);
a summative assignment.
You will undertake the teaching practice in a setting other than your own place of work to gain a fuller picture of provision.
Inclusion: Universal and Specialist Approaches (Additional module for the PGDip/MA non mandatory only)
This module will consider the broad universal-specialist dimension and how this fits in inclusive of educational practice.
The key areas of curriculum, teaching strategy, educator knowledge, assessment and educational placement will be broadly mapped, and you will be presented with analyses and evidence in relation to different SEND groupings as example case studies (as conceptualised in many educational systems), e.g. Autism, dyslexia, hearing impairment / deafness, emotional and behavioural difficulties, MSI, PMLD, SLD, vision impairment. The analyses form introductions to key aspects of these different groups (in relation to curriculum, pedagogy and educator knowledge), which also provides examples of broader inclusion debates, dilemmas, positions and solutions.
Please note: The modules listed on the website for this programme are regularly reviewed to ensure they are up-to-date and informed by the latest research and teaching methods. On rare occasions, we may need to make unexpected changes to compulsory modules; in this event we will contact offer holders as soon as possible to inform or consult them as appropriate.
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