Inter-Professional Science Education & Communication
Programme structure
The Master of Science in Inter-professional Science Education and Communication comprises of four core-courses, two option courses and a dissertation, which will total 180 credits at masters level 11 (SCQF).
Core courses
Science, Education & Society
20 credits at masters level 11 (SCQF)
This course covers material concerning the different contexts in which science is communicated within society and the interactions between these. It includes issues relevant to formal and informal education, and supports the idea of interprofessional collaboration through, and examination of, the relative roles of these sources of information about science in society. It also involves a group project where those working in different contexts collaborate in planning a science communication activity in an interprofessional way.
Making Science Accessible
20 credits at masters level 11 (SCQF)
This course focuses on the practical skills associated with communicating science and conceptual subject matter in a way that aligns with our understandings of human learning from a sociological and psychological perspective. The assessment is centred around a practical science education or communication activity appropriate to the learner’s own context (e.g. a school lesson, a museum display, a popular science article, or a conference presentation/job talk about science), and a write-up describing the development of this activity, including critical reflection related to how this was informed by the theory covered in the course.
Modern Educational Thought
20 credits at masters level 11 (SCQF)
This course explores significant concepts, debates and discourses on theoretical issues that are important for students engaged in the study and practice of education. This course is focussed on central questions around the aims and purposes of education and ways in which modern educational thought plays out in professional practice and/or policy contexts. In addressing these questions, we will take as a starting point the claim that the development of rational autonomy, that is the Enlightenment project, is the central aim of education. Thus the course will begin with key readings in the history of ‘liberal’ thinking on education. It will encourage a critical reading of texts in the history of modern educational ideas, taking into account critiques of the liberal tradition from positions that include Marxism, postmodernism, communitarianism and feminism.
Introduction to Educational & Social Research
20 credits at masters level 11 (SCQF)
This course is an introduction to educational and social research. The overall aim of the course is to provide students with a fundamental level of research literacy. The aims of the course are:
- introduce students to current concerns in the philosophy and political economy of research
- provide students with experience in reading and critically reviewing research
- prepare students to conduct a research project of appropriate scope
- inform students about the intersections between method, methodology and approaches to enquiry
- ensure that students have the preparation they need for further study of research methods and methodology
- develop understanding of applying enquiry methods to a specific problem.
Dissertation
60 credits at masters level 11 (SCQF)
The dissertation gives students the opportunity to investigate an area of inter-professional science education and communication in further depth. Students are encouraged to follow their own interests in the design of the dissertation and will be fully supported by their allocated supervisor throughout their research.
Option courses
Students have a choice of two options from the following programmes:
MSc Adult and Continuing Education
MSc Educational Studies
MEd Inclusive Education: Research, Policy and Practice
MSc Organisational Leadership
MSc Young People, Social Inclusion and Change
Students can also choose their options from masters level courses from within the College of Science and Engineering or the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences