TEACHING IN CONTEXT - 2026/7

Module Overview

This module is central to the MA programme.  Participants will be supported to reflect upon how teaching in their own disciplinary / professional context is conceptualized using a range of practical and theoretical lenses that draw upon contemporary educational research.

The module will emphasize and bring to the fore key elements of the regulative discourse that underpins the pedagogic framework of the programme: connectivity and transformation.  This will provide participants with an appreciation of the pedagogy that runs through the programme (and tools to make it explicit) and will also help them to consider the influence of the teaching-research nexus and role of technology in contemporary education.

Emphasis will be placed on 'starting and ending with the discipline / professional context' to scaffold participants' developing understanding of the contexts within which they work.

Module provider

Surrey Institute of Education

Module Leader

MEDLAND Emma (SIoE)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative contents of the module include:

• Disciplinary / subject knowledge structures 
• Disciplinary / subject threshold concepts
• Forms of knowledge (e.g. conceptual / procedural; theory / practice) 
• Teaching frameworks and models (e.g. TPACK; student-centred learning)
• Research-teaching nexus

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Where a live poster presentation is not possible, participants will be permitted to submit a recorded poster presentation for assessment.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide participants with the opportunity to demonstrate:
 

• Communication of evidence-informed understanding through a variety of formats;
• Critical reflection upon the nature of own disciplinary / professional context through comparison with a variety of pedagogic contexts;
• Engagement with a range of theoretical lenses to develop greater insight into own pedagogic context;
• Synthesis of multiple sources (i.e. self-reflection, literature, practice, feedback etc.) to interrogate entrenched pedagogic practices characteristic of own context;
• Critical and responsible use of generative AI (GenAI) through engagement with, evaluation, and interrogation of AI-generated outputs, thereby strengthening analytical judgement, evaluative skills, and pedagogical decision-making.

The module design is underpinned by the concept of constructive alignment to ensure that the learning and teaching strategies and assessment tasks align with the module learning outcomes.  The assessment strategy is, therefore, designed to provide participants with the opportunity to demonstrate their achievement of the learning outcomes. 

The summative assessment for this module consists of two parts:

1. SA1: Poster Presentation (25%): A visual or written overview of the knowledge structures and forms of knowledge that characterise the participant's teaching context, drawing on literature to gain insight into the implications for practice [LO1, LO2 & LO5].
2. SA2: Applied Multi-perspective Analysis in Teaching Practice (75%): an analysis of own teaching in which participants will use multiple theoretical lenses from the module to explore teaching and learning in practice, including a critical reflection on the use and influence of technology, such as GenAI [LO3, LO4 & LO5].

Formative assessment:

There are two formative assessment tasks that will support participants to develop their ideas for their summative assessment tasks, and receive feedback from tutors and peers.  In other words, FA1 will inform the development of SA1, and FA2 will inform the development of SA2:

1. Discussion Forum Posts (for SA1): Participants will be scaffolded to share their reflections upon the nature of knowledge structures and forms that characterise their disciplinary / professional context.  Participants will receive feedback from both their tutors and peers, and will be expected to provide feedback on their peers' contributions too.
2. GenAI Concept Map (for SA2): Participants create a GenAI concept map of the same area focused on in SA1 and compare the two, identifying the strengths and areas for development of the GenAI version and explaining how they would develop their original concept map as a result.  Participants will be encouraged to use language that is as familiar as possible so as to enhance the inclusivity of the module by reducing the educational jargon that might prove a barrier to learning. 

Feedback: 

A dialogic approach to teaching will be adopted within this module, in which all participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences of their contexts.  This will allow frequent opportunities for participants to gain insight into a diversity of other contexts, and in so doing, to compare this to their own contexts and to develop their inner feedback skills (Nicol, 2021).  Participants will also be supported to contribute to discussion forums on a thematic / topic basis and to engage with the peer and tutor feedback provided in order to continue to develop their understanding on a continuous basis, as well as to reflect and act upon the feedback focused on assessment task ideas.  When combined with the multiple opportunities that participants will have to provide feedback to their peers, this will support the development of feedback literacy.

Module aims

• Develop participants' understanding of the structure and nature of knowledge within their own disciplinary or professional context, and how this informs teaching and learning.
• Engage participants with theoretical and conceptual models of teaching and support their application to analyse and enhance practice and the research-teaching nexus within their context.
• Foster critical reflection on teaching practice, including the role of digital technologies such as generative AI in shaping disciplinary knowledge and pedagogical approaches.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• Scaffold participants to view teaching within their own contexts through a variety of interpretive lenses;
• Enable participants to visualise / articulate and interrogate the often-implicit knowledge structures and forms of knowledge that characterise disciplinary / professional contexts;
• Support participants to develop digital capabilities around literature searching / researching a topic and presenting the findings in an accessible format that can be shared more broadly;
• Develop participants critical engagement with and synthesis of pedagogic literature, communication of ideas, engagement with peer and tutor feedback (i.e. feedback literacy), and application of theory to develop greater insight into practice, thereby developing future employability skills.

A central aim of this module is to support participants to engage in theories surrounding the teaching-research nexus, and in so doing enable them to develop evidence-informed practice through the interrogation of their implicit understandings and enactment of their teaching contexts.  This aligns with the MA's educational aims of contribution to participants theoretically-informed understanding, scaffolding of reflective practice, and disruption of existing beliefs about teaching through interrogation of tacit beliefs surrounding the influence of the nature of the context within which they work.  The dialogic approach to teaching adopted will also enable participants to be exposed to multiple disciplinary, theoretical perspectives that will underpin the interrogation of practice.  The module also aligns with the Surrey Institute of Education's core values of respect and dialogue, requiring the development of trust and respect as the basis from which participants can be challenged to disrupt entrenched attitudes found within professional / disciplinary contexts.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Synchronous sessions: Formal online interactions that will take the form of synchronous online sessions.  Each session will focus on one of the topics outlined above and will be accompanied by a guided study task, the results of which will be posted and discussed online, as well as in subsequent synchronous sessions.
• Individual tutorials: tutorials will focus on a range of points, including ideas / readings for the formative assessment task, discussion of the feedback received in relation to the formative task, discussion of the summative task and how the formative tasks and feedback can inform this.
• Guided study: this will direct the participants to consider their own disciplinary / professional context in relation to the content topics.  Participants will be set reading / tasks to focus their thinking on each of these topics, particularly with regard to their disciplinary / professional contexts, and will be asked to return to their original conceptualisations to consider how their learning has confirmed and / or caused its evolution.
• Ongoing interaction: will continue outside formal synchronous sessions via the discussion forums and will support participants to share and be exposed to a variety of different disciplinary / professional contexts, which will in turn encourage the articulation of the nature of their contexts.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: GCAM023

Other information

The MA in Higher and Professional Education is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Digital Capabilities, Employability, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Resourcefulness and Resilience, and Sustainability.  This module is designed to allow participants to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas: 

Digital Capabilities: The digital capabilities developed through engagement with this module work on two levels: conceptual and procedural.  Conceptually, the influence of technology on the nature of teaching within context is one of the indicative content topics for this module.  Procedurally, participants will be supported to develop their own digital capabilities through searching for relevant literature, engagement with online discussion forums, presenting their assessed tasks using a variety of formats (e.g. written assignment, poster / presentation), critiquing GenAI outputs, and reflecting upon the benefits and challenges that digital technologies offer for pedagogic practice in context. 

Employability: The development of greater insight into the nature of teaching within your own disciplinary / professional context through engagement with relevant literature and exposure to a variety of perspectives / contexts / technologies will equip participants with the tools to interrogate their pedagogic practice and challenge entrenched attitudes that can stifle development.  This insight will provide participants with the skills to engage in evidence-informed developments to practice and to develop their digital literacy. 

Resourcefulness and Resilience: The module requires participants to interrogate the implicit structures and forms of teaching that are characteristic of their disciplinary / professional contexts.  This will require the interrogation of entrenched attitudes and application of evidence-informed reflections that could underpin future innovation to practice.  This process is likely to scaffold participants to question the nature of their disciplinary / professional contexts, and the vulnerability that this may potentially create is potentially emotive and challenging.  Through the dialogic approach adopted by the module leaders, and support for the development of a community of learners, the module will create safe spaces for participants to embark on this journey and provide a range of theoretical lenses that can inform the development of greater insight into practice and the ability to be able to justify the pedagogic approaches and developments adopted.  Furthermore, within the final summative assessment task, participants will be encouraged to reflect upon their learning journey and to recognize how the nature of their disciplinary / professional contexts and technologies such as GenAI mediates the outcomes of learning and teaching experiences. 

Sustainability: Reflection upon the nature of teaching within participants own context is central to this module and this insight will scaffold participants to be able to apply evidence-informed justification to interrogate their pedagogic practice.  This insight will provide participants with access to the implicit characteristics of how knowledge is structured and formed, and some of the key influences that can shape it, which will support development of greater understanding of what quality education means within their contexts.  Furthermore, the module provides a foundation for the development of academic writing scaffolded through engagement with literature relevant to own context, which then feeds into the final summative task.  Participants will also be exposed to a range of teaching approaches through the various contributors to the module, as well as through their engagement with other participants enrolled on the module.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2026/7 academic year.