Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport (ECYS) Curriculum Showcase

This is a welcome session by the School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport management team.

This session introduces the idea of a community of practice and how this translates into a community of learners at a distance. Drawing from his experience of informal professional development, a Level 2 Education Studies (primary) student will share how he engages with Twitter to support and develop his identity as a student and lifelong learner with a passion for children’s learning. Another student, who has just finished her Level 1 modules, will share how she has created her own professional identity in an online space and how this has been supported in her workplace, where she is a Lead Learning Coach and SLT member. The session will finish with some suggested informal professional networks and resources which students may wish to engage with before starting or resuming their studies in October.

The aim of this session is to introduce you to some exciting new developments in the sport and fitness programme at The Open University. We will be exploring two of our new modules, E236 and E312, focusing on some of the contemporary topics they cover such as myth-busting in sport coaching and mental health in sport. You will be given an insight into how each module can help you to progress your career within sport and fitness settings. We will introduce some of the technology developed alongside the modules and discuss how we use sport and exercise sciences in our applied roles.

During the past two years, according to official crime figures and news-media reports, there has been a dramatic increase in youth knife crime. There are a number of contradictory arguments put forward as to the causes of this problem and they include: gangs, drill music, poor parenting, poverty. Similarly, there have been innumerable solutions about how to best tackle the problem. In this session we will be drawing upon real world research data to examine and unpack some of the key issues. So join the debate and have your say!

This session introduces our new Level 2 module, Exploring childhood and youth. It takes you deeper into childhood and youth studies, looking at children and young people’s everyday lives across the world today. In this session we'll talk about some of the things covered in the module – like children’s involvement in climate change activism, and how food features in children’s lives.

A new dissertation module has been created which acts as the final module for students on two qualifications: the Masters in Education and Masters in Childhood and Youth, bringing students together from both qualifications to study the research design process and apply it to a dissertation of their own choice. This session will talk about what it will be like to study on this module, and why it offers new, exciting opportunities for carrying out a piece of small-scale research. In particular, the module offers a desk-based form of research which does not require students to collect data in person in a setting during the module. There will be opportunities to meet members of the team involved in the module’s production, who will explain how they think students will be excited and supported on this module.

During the widespread disruption to schooling and home learning during the pandemic, some practitioners, parents, children and young people are reflecting on, and even campaigning to change aspects of what is argued to be a broken system of ‘schooling’. While different groups and communities hold very different ideas about how best to achieve change within and outside of ‘school’, some families have and continue to leave the conventional system altogether to pursue home-schooling or elective home education as it more commonly known in the UK. What are the reasons for this? What are some of the key debates and challenges connected to this choice? If any of these ideas interest you, please join us.

A lot of people are expressing worries and challenges with having their children at home, losing schooling and contact with their friends. Some of these worries are about the effects of the change, including increases in children’s screen time, on longer-term developmental outcomes. This session will discuss what developmental psychology can tell us about the effects that might follow, and offer an opportunity for you to share your own concerns.

This session will outline what is unique about The Open University’s Early Childhood modules and to whom they may be of interest. You will hear from the programme leader, module chairs and one of the staff tutors, who will give some suggestions as to what you can do with an Early Childhood degree. They will draw your attention to varied career choices, pathways at the end of your study and the significance of having a degree and the doors it can open for you. The session aims to help you with shaping your study path, choosing your optional modules and what you can do over the summer to prepare yourself for returning to or starting your studies at the OU.

This session will explain the principles of personal development planning, how these are used within the Masters in Education programme and how they could be relevant to you at any stage of your learning. It will highlight ways in which to identify your academic, personal and professional goals and plan towards them. It will outline the work of the peer coaches, how they have supported other students and what they have learned about personal and professional development through their role.

Children around the world love to play and many types of activities are commonly defined as play. But what activities do children define as play and what do they think about learning through play?  

Funded by the LEGO Foundation, Prof Teresa Cremin and Dr Sarah Jane Mukherjee worked with colleagues from Argentina, Denmark, Hong Kong and the US to listen to 400 five and seven-year-old children talk about their conceptions of play and its relation to learning. 

Did the children think that activities such as bubbles, video games, hula-hoop, playing with numbers or dressing up were play, or both play and learning?  Did the children think that while playing they are also learning? Their delightful responses revealed insights into the types of activities that children conceive as playful and offered some surprises about the children’s ideas of playing to learn and learning to play.