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Professional Practice in Education - EDU00127M

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  • Department: Education
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
    • See module specification for other years: 2023-24

Module summary

This module seeks to raise students’ awareness of several aspects of professional practice that will be relevant to them in their educational careers. Additionally, it enables students to develop practical employability skills, including syllabus design, materials development and technology-based educational resources for particular teaching contexts, and prepares them for the 60-credit Professional Portfolio module.

Related modules

Pre-requisite modules

  • None

Co-requisite modules

Prohibited combinations


Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2024-25

Module aims

This module aims to support students in preparing practical educational projects such as a course syllabus, a coursebook unit or a technology-based educational website. In the course of this module, students will develop awareness, practical skills and expertise relevant to their future educational careers. It will also equip them with theoretical and practical knowledge that will help them to effectively plan their professional portfolio projects and enhance their professional development.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be able to:

  1. demonstrate theoretical and practical knowledge with respect to designing course syllabi, instructional materials and technology-based educational resources;

  2. link theoretical and practical knowledge in their subject areas (TESOL and Education) to workplace practices;

  3. plan workable practical projects for particular educational contexts;

  4. effectively communicate decisions and plans in relation to their projects to a variety of audiences using a range of media;

  5. collaborate effectively within their project groups, equally contributing during all activities while working towards an agreed project outcome.

  6. reflect on their workplace practices and professional learning in a critical fashion.

Module content

The following is indicative of the different topics that will be covered:

  • Introduction to collaborative work, reflective practice, professional development and conduct, and theories of teaching and learning

  • Theoretical introduction to syllabus design (e.g., types of syllabus)

  • Theoretical introduction to materials development (e.g., principled approaches, frameworks)

  • Theoretical introduction to technology-based educational resources (e.g., blog, website)

  • The process of designing syllabi

  • The process of developing materials

  • The process of designing technology-based educational resources

  • Practical tasks and skills for designing syllabi

  • Practical tasks and skills for developing materials

  • Practical tasks and skills for designing technology-based educational resources

  • Poster presentations proposing artefacts with underlying principles

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Module feedback

Individual written feedback reports, with follow-up tutor meeting, if necessary. The feedback is returned to students in line with university policy. Please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

Indicative reading

Beaird, J., & George, J. (2014). The principles of beautiful web design: Designing great web sites is not rocket science! (3rd ed.). SitePoint.

Crabbe, R. A. B., Nyingi, M., & Abadzi, H. (2014). Textbook development in low income countries: A guide for policy and practice. World Bank.

Faravani, A., Zeraatpishe, M., Azarnoosh, M., & Kargozari, H. R. (Eds.). (2018). Issues in syllabus design. Sense Publishers.

Germano, W., & Nicholls, K. (2022). Syllabus: The remarkable, unremarkable document that changes everything. Princeton University Press.

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit.

Harrington, C., & Thomas, M. (2018). Designing a motivational syllabus: Creating a learning path for student engagement. Stylus Publishing.

Miao, F., Mishra, S., Orr, D., & Janssen, B. (2019). Guidelines on the development of open educational resources policies. UNESCO and Commonwealth of Learning.

Norton, J., & Buchanan, H. (Eds.). (2022). The Routledge handbook of materials development for language teaching. Routledge.

Richards, J. C. (2017). Curriculum development in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (2011). Materials development in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

RTI International. (2015). A guide for strengthening gender equality and inclusiveness in teaching and learning materials. USAID.

Zhou, M. Y. (Ed.). (2019). Open educational resources (OER) pedagogy and practices. IGI Global.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.