IMP Guidelines

Embedding Learning Technologies (ELT)

IMP Guidelines

In completing your portfolio and final report you must choose to carry out one of the following assessment tasks, defined by the Integrated Masters Programme of the School of Graduate Studies in Arts and Education. It is not necessary to decide straightaway which task you intend to carry out, but it may help you to focus on an appropriate format for your report, enabling you to select appropriate evidence for your portfolio.

Unless you have specific reasons for choosing another task (e.g. because you have already completed these Tasks in submitting another IMP module for assessment) it is suggested that you submit your ELT work for Tasks 3 or 4.

The task headings and generic advice that follows is largely taken from the student handbook of the Integrated Masters Programme. As a result, not all of it is directly relevant to the ELT course: Please ask your tutor if you have any questions about the IMP tasks relation to ELT.

1. Critical Review of a Corpus or Body of Knowledge

In the context of our Programme, which spans such a range of different subjects and concerns, 'knowledge' may be seen as embodied in literature on the subject, in artefact, in performance, or in integrated combinations of these. The definition and justification of what constitutes an appropriate 'body of knowledge' for the selected topic is an important element in you demonstrating mastery of this Task.

The principal purpose of a review of a corpus or body of knowledge is to establish the nature and origins of the insights which have informed others' work on it; to decide upon the validity of such insights; and to identify aspects to be further explored, or hypotheses to be tested, or important research questions to be posed. This is why it is such an important ability to master before undertaking the Masters Project or Dissertation. The assignment will be judged upon your ability to select, summarise, compare and evaluate the material, and to identify appropriate conclusions or implications.

It is therefore likely that, in order to undertake this Task satisfactorily, you:

will show familiarity at first hand with key writings, artefacts or performances relevant to the subject - sources may include books, journals, slide libraries, archives, exhibitions and catalogues, performance reviews, scripts and scores
will ensure that your review of the body of knowledge includes up-to-date material and goes back as far as is appropriate for the subject (e.g. material on education management dating from before, say, 1982 may well be inappropriate, whilst material dating from the 1920's on the development of children's drawing may be highly relevant)
will identify any limitations in the range of material you have been able to review, whether arising from the absence of such material, from the inadequacies of available Library or other provision or from time constraints
will be selective in order to identify and delineate the variety of theoretical positions on the subject to be found in the chosen material, demonstrating strengths and weaknesses of each and identifying where they contradict or agree with each other, and where you yourself agree or disagree
will indicate what appears to be an agreed position on the subject, or, alternatively, indicate the range of divergence of opinion and the lack of consensus.

If you submit your ELT project under this heading, your final report (Outcome 6) will build on the analysis and review undertaken to meet Outcome 1, which will be quite substantial. Your implementation project and portfolio evidence will provide examples for reference.

2. Data Collection and Analysis.

A data collection assignment is not simply a matter of accumulating a quantity of data. Nor does it necessarily require a large sample, or demand the use and statistical analysis of questionnaires and similar techniques. It can be as small as the observation and analysis of two children's learning difficulties, or the identification and analysis of the history of site-specific sculpture in a particular urban locality.

What it does do, in preparing you to undertake a Masters Project or Dissertation, is to focus attention upon the prior decisions that you need to make in order to ensure that any data collected, and the methods used to collect it, will be appropriate and will meet the purpose of your study. You therefore need to be very clear about the type of approach appropriate to your purpose.

Your approach may be logico-deductive. In such an approach you will use your understanding of existing theory to generate specific hypotheses about the chosen situation. and then set out to test them by appropriate methods. But your approach may be inductive. You will start by observing a meaningful situation and then speculate about these observations in order to construct a tentative "theory" and some resulting broad hypotheses. You may then use these as the basis for collecting more data which enables you to further refine your ideas in order to arrive at a more "grounded" and so more useful theory, from which you may drive implications for your practice.

Whichever approach is adopted, it is likely that, in order to undertake this Task satisfactorily, you:

will clarify, either with reference to reading on the theoretical background to the topic or through a critical analysis of the situation being investigated, or both, the purpose for which the data is to be collected
will explain the nature of such data and its suitability for the purpose, and will establish criteria for its selection, showing clearly how these related to the defined purpose
will identify the chosen methods of collecting, recording and analysing the data and will subject them to critical scrutiny in order to demonstrate how such recording and analysis will service the purpose of the study
will analyse the data appropriately and present findings and conclusions clearly.

If you submit your ELT project under this heading, your final report (Outcome 6) will develop from the evaluation work you undertook to meet Outcome 5, describing the methodology and placing your findings in context.

3. Developing Practice through a Project

For many of you working towards a Masters degree in the Programme, your study will be grounded in professional/vocational practice, and the subjects which you tackle will be based in your work context. One important aspect of such study will therefore be that of undertaking a project in which you show the ability to apply your growing insights to a specific issue or practical problem, and which service to enhance your practice. Such a project will always have some clear goal beyond the straightforward accumulation of knowledge.

This enhancement may in some cases be substantially in terms of increased depth and quality of practice, of an art, or a therapeutic or educational approach, or an academic ability. In other cases such enhancement procedures, or a longitudinal study of children's learning. If this is so, it is acceptable for your assignment to address the design of the Project, without necessarily carrying out the full study.

It is therefore likely that, in order to undertake this Task satisfactorily, you:

will identify a project, of worth and relevance to your personal situation, with defined aims and objectives, of a manageable scale within an agreed time frame
will locate the project within an appropriate conceptual, historical and critical framework
will identify the trajectory of the project's development and, wherever appropriate, will indicate any problems that may be encountered, suggesting, where possible, strategies for overcoming or minimising them
will design and justify an appropriate method or combination of methods for presenting the project for assessment.

If you submit your ELT project under this heading, your final report (Outcome 6) will take the form of a case study, describing the implementation process (Outcomes 2, 3 and 4) with an analysis of how the project outcomes illustrate new possibilities for practice.

4. Reflecting on Practice

A strong element of any personal, professional or vocational development must be that you look carefully at what you do and engage in critical reflection upon it, analysing your experience, taking account of perspectives other than your own, and sharpening your awareness of any illogicalities in your thinking and of any inconsistencies and discrepancies between your expressed intentions and what you actually do.

It has long been recognised that the disciplines of conventional academic study can be very powerful in developing the capacity for and the effectiveness of such critical reflection and analysis. It is increasingly acknowledged also that critical reflection upon practice in a wide variety of fields, such as the Arts and Design, or Education, can be equally powerful and valid in terms of postgraduate study, as well as often demonstrating increased depth and quality of practice. It is such reflection which is the focus of this Task.

It is likely that in order to undertake this Task satisfactorily, you:

will identify and define the chosen area of development of your practice in relation to theoretical and other contexts/frameworks/references
will produce evidence of the nature and quality of your personal engagement
will give evidence of systematic and critical reflection upon and analysis of your practice, including consideration of the nature, boundaries/definitions of the activity in question and of motives, causes and influences contributing to a particular development
will demonstrate, where appropriate, the ability to synthesise and to identify new and imaginative connections
will illuminate the development of your awareness, identity and personal philosophy through appropriate methods (e.g. reflective commentary, journals, working notebooks, sequences or work, audio/videotapes, working with a 'critical friend').

If you submit your ELT project under this heading, your final report (Outcome 6) will build on your Personal Statement and your reflections on the evidence you present for the other outcomes.

5. Making an Argument

For many of you an appropriate format for this assignment will be familiar - that of the conventional 'essay'. But an argument can be made in a variety of formats, and the demands of some modules, and the trajectory of your personal study, may well lead to different types of presentation.

However, in order to demonstrate functioning at Masters level in making your argument and to undertake this Task satisfactorily, you:

will identify clearly the worthwhile topic you are setting out to explore, the problematic issues you are going to consider and, if appropriate, the position you are going to take
will analyse ideas and evidence drawn from a variety of sources (including yourself), select critically from them and synthesise them into a coherent whole
will show that you are aware of alternative arguments or positions (without necessarily explaining or arguing them fully)
will draw your own inferences from the material you have synthesised and, where appropriate, identify the implications
will make points clearly and concisely, indicating their place in the structure of argument.

If you submit your ELT project under this heading, your final report (Outcome 6) will use the findings of the evaluation study (Outcome 5) to extend the analysis and review undertaken to meet Outcome 1.