Masters Programme (master + programme)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


,Blended' education and the transformation of teachers: a long-term case study in postgraduate UK Higher Education

BRITISH JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, Issue 1 2006
Gary Motteram
This paper discusses the role of blended learning in teacher education on a Master's programme at Manchester University. Blended learning is the bringing together of traditional physical classes with elements of virtual education. The paper focuses on one particular module of the degree and attempts to capture students' experiences of using a number of online tools. As our students are primarily in-service teachers, this experience is particularly relevant and equips them to make use of educational technology in the language classroom. Some comparisons are also made with a cohort of teachers studying the programme at a distance. The paper explores a range of issues that currently feature in the adult education literature, namely, deep and surface learning, communities of practice, and the importance of educational dialogue. The paper illustrates how important the blended nature of this module is for the teachers to get a balanced programme that upgrades skills and knowledge, but which also enables them to reflect on past and future practice. A transformative education scale is used to show that teachers can be transformed. The paper is a case study that makes use of data that explore the student perspective on a series of research questions. [source]


Social planning: past, present, and future

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2003
Ray Bromley
This article discusses the history of the idea of social planning, and of the pioneering Masters Programme in Social Planning established at the University of Wales Swansea in 1973. Swansea's initiative in social planning led to the creation of the University's Centre for Development Studies (CDS), and it broadened development studies as an academic and policy field. Social planning is a controversial term because it has sometimes been associated with social engineering and totalitarianism. Nevertheless, it has a very important intellectual and policy agenda, and if the word ,planning' proves a liability it can be replaced by ,policy' or ,strategy'. The major questions reviewed at CDS-Swansea in the 1970s are still pertinent, and new dimensions have been added through growing concerns for nation-building, sustainability, democracy, gender equity and human rights. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Fit for purpose: the relevance of Masters preparation for the professional practice of nursing.

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 5 2000
A 10-year follow-up study of postgraduate nursing courses in the University of Edinburgh
Fit for purpose: the relevance of Masters preparation for the professional practice of nursing. A 10-year follow-up study of postgraduate nursing courses in the University of Edinburgh Continuing education is now recognized as essential if nursing is to develop as a profession. United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) consultations are currently seeking to establish appropriate preparation for a ,higher level of practice' in the United Kingdom. The relevance of Masters level education to developing professional roles merits examination. To this end the results of a 10-year follow-up study of graduates from the Masters programme at the University of Edinburgh are reported. The sample was the entire cohorts of nurses who graduated with a Masters degree in the academic sessions from 1986 to 1996. A postal questionnaire was designed consisting of mainly closed questions to facilitate coding and analysis but also including some open questions to allow for more qualitative data to be elicited. The findings indicated clearly that the possession of an MSc degree opened up job opportunities and where promotion was not identified, the process of study at a higher level was still perceived as relevant to the work environment. This applied as much to the context of clinical practice as to that of management, education or research. The perceived enhancement of clinical practice from a generic Masters programme was considered a significant finding. Also emerging from the data was an associated sense of personal satisfaction and achievement that related to the acquisition of academic skills and the ultimate reward of Masters status. The concept of personal growth, however, emerged as a distinct entity from that of satisfaction and achievement, relating specifically to the concept of intellectual sharing, the broadening of perspectives and the development of advanced powers of reasoning. [source]


Material and digital design synthesis

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, Issue 2 2006
Michael Hensel
Abstract The advanced material and morphogenetic digital design techniques and technologies presented in this journal call for a higher level methodological integration, which poses a major challenge for the next generation of multidisciplinary architectural research and projects. This collaborative task encompasses the striving for an integrated set of design methods, generative and analytical tools and enabling technologies that facilitate and instrumentalise evolutionary design, and evaluation of differentiated material systems towards a highly performative and sustainable built environment. Michael Hensel and Achim Menges describe recent progress towards a higher-level design synthesis of material self-organisation, digital morphogenesis, associative parametric modelling and computer-aided manufacturing (cam) on the basis of two works produced within the context of the Emergent Technologies and Design Masters programme at the Architectural Association in London, and a recent competition entry by Scheffler + Partner Architects and Achim Menges. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Chinese Students in a UK Business School: Hearing the Student Voice in Reflective Teaching and Learning Practice

HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2006
Yvonne TurnerArticle first published online: 7 FEB 200
This paper presents the outcomes of a study carried out in 2001,2002 with nine postgraduate students from China, enrolled on taught master's programmes in a UK university business school. The aims of the research were to explore the development of the students' orientations to learning during their year of study in the UK, and to explore how the researcher's interactions with the study group contributed to her professional reflections and influenced her academic practice. The main conclusions of the project were that participants' underlying approaches to learning did not change substantially over the year, owing to the culturally implicit nature of UK academic conventions and that they experienced high levels of emotional isolation and loneliness, which affected their academic confidence. [source]