Special and Inclusive Education

This introductory Module will unpack key concepts around inclusive and equitable learning. Through coverage of alternative development pathways from childhood to adulthood, you will examine and challenge current attitudes on removing barriers to learning, fostering a thought-modality of diversity – both neuro and physical - rather than ‘disability’ and/or disadvantage. 

This Personal Tutoring Module will support you with your transition into HE and undergraduate study expectations, based around MMU’s Careers and Employability offer. The Module will also encourage you to participate in appropriate career-enhancing experiential learning and other professional opportunities within the MMU partnership and/or Local Authorities. Practical professional knowledge will also be included such as professional SEND and related bodies, DfE guidance, funding frameworks, the role of the Local Authority. 

In this Module, we will explore the educational and political history of SEND, leading up to present-day legal and professional frameworks. Reflecting the SEND Code of Practice, you will take account of learner entitlement from 025 years, from Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) to Profound (PMLD) and/or Complex Difficulties. You will understand SEND’s close connections to Safeguarding, a critical feature of the Module.

This Module will familiarise you with key learning theories, current critical thinking on learning development stages and how delay or interruption to these may be indicative of neurodiversity. The Module will foster an asset mindset of ‘atypical’ learning development, rather than ‘disability’, enabling you to distinguish between cognitive delays and barriers to learning. You will build skills in early identification of neurodiversity, as outlined in the DfE SEND Plan: Right Time, Right Place, Right Support (March 2023).

This Module will cover the many ways in which barriers to learning can be positively managed. Practical support and intervention, such as access arrangements, assistive technology, and skilled use of physical environments, will be explored through a theoretical lens, arming you with a secure understanding of the powerful role colleagues can play inclusion. Equally, the Module will address wider, more complex barriers to inclusion – such as Adverse Childhood Experiences (A.C.E.) children in foster or L.A. Care – covering sector-recognised frameworks such as Attachment and Trauma-Informed Theory. 

This Module will explore the expectation on those working in Special and inclusive education to work with a wide range of professionals. Against the framework of every L.A.’s Local Offer, the Module will foster a multidisciplinary, ‘pathway’ thought-modality, equipping students to work skilfully with stakeholders, from vulnerable parents to L.A. experts. The Module will encourage students to recognise professionals as a champion of diversity, fostering and developing thought on their own professional identity / ideology. This module will offer a virtual WIL experience. 

Building on the Level 4 Module of the same name, Personal Tutoring is embedded alongside academic skills development and the University’s Careers and Employability offer. Again, you will be encouraged to participate in career-enhancing experiential learning, Local Authority and/or MMU Partnership professional opportunities. Practical professional knowledge will be further developed, such as sharing frameworks and approaches encountered on WIL, to develop and widen your practical knowledge.

This is a Work Integrated Learning Module in which you will be attached to a SEND/Inclusion setting for a block placement. You will have the opportunity to explore teaching and learning within your setting, with a focus on SpLD. Through discussions with your Tutor and engagement in the Module’s assessment, you will begin to gain a greater sense of your professional identity in practice.

Building on the Level 5 Module of the same name, Personal Tutoring is embedded alongside academic skills development and the University’s Careers and Employability offer. You will be expected to participate in career-enhancing experiential learning, Local Authority and/or MMU Partnership professional opportunities will be promoted. Guidance and preparation for professional life will be a key focus of your learning. You will engage in personal review to track your career thinking, career planning to explore career options and career literacy to successfully applying for jobs and career opportunities. This module will offer virtual WIL experience. 

This Module will hone your insights into different interpretations of special and inclusive education, in preparation for your final Case Study (Module 4). Research methods and enquiry skills will be a key element of the Module, to support your completion of the assignment, designed to advance your understanding of a self-selected topic of professional interest. Modelling good cognitive-load practice and spiral curricular learning, this Module both builds on the content of Level 4, Module 4, whilst scaffolding your learning within the next and final two Modules. 

This is a Work Integrated Learning Module in which you will be attached to a SEND/Inclusion setting for a block placement. You will have the opportunity to explore teaching and learning within you setting. Through discussions with your Tutor and engagement in the Module’s assessment, students will fine-tune their skills, knowledge and understanding of both the workplace and your role as professionals.

This module will enable you to develop and apply research and enquiry skills to a self-selected topic of professional interest as a Case Study. The assignment will balance critical and theoretical understanding of the topic with genuine practical knowledge and experience, synthesising links between the two. This links directly to the proposal assessment from L6 Module 2 and experience from module 3 WIL.