Teaching and Learning in Higher Education - Third Level Education

Course details

The MA in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (for third level education teachers) is designed to build on the Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and to encourage you to research your teaching and your students’ learning in more depth. Teachers will identify a research topic to pursue and will write a publishable paper for a specific teaching and learning journal in their own disciplinary field or in the broader educational field of the scholarship of teaching and learning. The focus of the Master’s is on encouraging you to identify with your teaching as research, to peer review your teaching, to network with peers interested in the scholarship of teaching and learning and to publish in this field.  

Course Details

The MA in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education is normally taken over one academic year. It comprises two modules:

TL6001: Research Methodologies Relating to Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (15 credits) focuses on introducing you to a variety of research methodologies designed to harness student learning. You will be encouraged to investigate and target teaching journals in your own disciplinary fields and to identify and critique methodologies used in the articles in them. You will write a 5,000 word essay discussing and critiquing your chosen methodology.

TL6002: Teaching and Learning Research Project (45 credits) focuses on the key elements necessary to build a publishable research article/paper, including the identification and profiling of the research journal chosen; the rationale for such a journal in the context of the research question; the writing of a literature review to interrogate the research question; the selection and exploration of research methods designed to investigate student learning; the collection and analysis of data and the identification of implications and interventions for future practice and research. The research project will culminate in the writing of a publishable article/paper.

On completion of the course, you will be able to:

• identify and apply principles of a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in the college classroom
• critically evaluate your teaching in the light of your students’ learning
• design a research project around a teaching and learning issue
• apply appropriate research methodologies to harness data about student learning
• research a teaching and learning issue to a professional standard, equivalent to that of a publishable paper/article
• communicate effectively with other scholars in the field of teaching and learning
• peer review your teaching within a SoTL community

Assessment

TL6001 is assessed by means of a 5,000 word essay on the research method/s that will be central to the writing of the research paper. TL6002 culminates in a publishable research paper of 7,000-8,000 words. However, the whole project comprises 20,000 words to allow for the discussion of the research question and its context and rationale, the profiling of a targeted journal, the exploration of the literature review, the analysis of research methodologies necessary to interrogate the question, the collection and analysis of data and the discussion of the research findings and implications.