Professional Development (Childhood Studies)

The BA (Hons) Professional Development (Childhood Studies) is designed for current and future practitioners in child health and welfare. It builds your knowledge of children’s development and gives you the skills to be a better practitioner with innovative approaches to supporting your learning.

The course content explores the range of subjects fundamental to an understanding of children’s development in society and how policy and professional interventions contribute to better outcomes for children.

You will begin by studying developmental psychology and how a child’s early years form an understanding of themselves and their world. You will look also at sociology and related early years research to consider the context for childhood study and practice.

In understanding how society responds to the needs of children, you will study the development of social policy and review the issues and approaches to managing children’s welfare.

A particular focus of the honours programme is the research and submission of a detailed dissertation on your choice of subject from a range of challenging contemporary concepts in childhood studies. It is a test of your ability in a team to devise and carry out a project relating to a work situation, documenting your learning and its application. Further study will enable you to focus in detail on your chosen subject area helping you advance your learning and define a specialist path.

The BA (Hons) programme is designed around five areas of importance for the early years sector and for those working with young children: - Developmental psychology - Sociology - Research - Social policy - Welfare. In addition, when enrolled on the BA Professional Development programme, you will have the opportunity to study Challenging Contemporary Concepts and submit a dissertation. You will study Theories and Methods; you will then be formed into multi-disciplinary teams, devising and carrying out a project that connects with a real work situation. The module concludes with you documenting your learning and its application. The second module, which will be delivered alongside the first module, will be specific to your subject area and will really help you advance in your chosen path.

There are no exams in this course, but a range of assessment methods, relevant to the topics and themes studied, are employed throughout the course.

To work as a teacher at a state school in England or Wales, you will need to achieve qualified teacher status (QTS). This is offered on this course for the following level:

• Course does not award QTS