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A image to illustrate Learning and teaching: understanding your educational practice module
This module is for those who, in some capacity, are involved in educating learners in the 3–19 years age range. It offers significant interactivity as you engage with educational debates about how a rapidly changing, social and digital world is affecting learning, pedagogy and assessment in a variety of educational settings. It explores the key concepts from the perspective of learners (how is learning experienced), teachers (how are learning and teaching enacted) and contexts for education (how are learning and teaching organised). You'll also focus on how learning and teaching are researched, with a unit dedicated to researching practice.
In this module you'll review ideas about learning, pedagogy and assessment from the perspectives of learners, teachers and the educational context. The four sections are:
Section 1
In the first section, you'll consider learners’ perspectives on learning, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. This includes the issue of pupil voice and how it’s accessed and used in educational settings. It also includes consideration of the concepts of learner identity and learner agency and how students experienced the global pandemic.
Section 2
In the next section, you’ll focus on educators’ perspectives on learning, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. This includes the consideration of the concepts of teacher agency and teacher identity, alongside teacher leadership. The unit will explore the link between pedagogical beliefs and pedagogical practice and highlight some of the tensions that emerge when policy changes. It includes consideration of how technology can support learning and teaching, and the impact of the global pandemic on how learning and teaching are enacted.
Section 3
In section three, you’ll learn about research design, including alternative research paradigms, research methods, and research ethics. Developing your research skills is an ongoing theme throughout the module.
Section 4
The last section focuses on educational settings, including culture and organisation. It considers the concepts of a learning organisation and a self-improving school (an intelligent school), alongside debates about what makes an effective learning organisation in a changing world.
Each section considers concepts in different educational contexts through case studies from a range of international settings. Each section also includes an ‘activity week’ in which you’ll be provided with a set of resources and given the opportunity to reflect in depth, with others, on an issue or case study.
There’s an opportunity for you to pursue your own interests within each section, so that by the end of the module, you can consider yourself to be an ‘expert’ on a chosen issue, having critically engaged with the literature and research in that area.
The aims of the module are to:
We’ve designed this module to contribute to your current or future roles in relation to educational provision, with a strong emphasis on how the key concepts that underpin learning and teaching play out in practice. Part of the module’s activities will support your professional development planning. You’ll be encouraged to reflect explicitly on your digital information literacy skills and developing research skills, plus how you can use and continue to develop them in your context.
You’ll have a named tutor who will support your studies and mark and comment on your assignment work; you can also ask them for academic advice and guidance. You and your tutor will primarily communicate with each other through email and tutorials. Tutorials are offered via online meeting rooms and support is also facilitated asynchronously in tutor group forums and course forums. Tutors will also offer online sessions about aspects of the content of the module to the wider cohort of students on the module, which will be a good way to ‘meet’ other students and tutors. Additionally there will be some live webinars. We will advertise the tutorials and webinars before the module starts. Tutorials will be with your tutor, but some webinars may be led by other academic staff associated with the module. We recommend you book online to attend tutorials and note the dates for the live webinars.
Working with other students
There is no compulsory requirement for you to interact or collaborate with others in your tutor group although there is an assessed task which is recommended to be completed as a collaborative group in TMA03. How you collaborate will be a matter for you to decide. Many students do this asynchronously through forums and social media, others choose to meet online. We know that the sharing of ideas and experiences with your peers increases understanding of the issues that are studied on this module and therefore there are some activities that recommend working with other students. Your contribution to the collaborative task is marked individually, so if you choose not to collaborate this, in itself, will not mean that you attain lower marks in this module. We see collaboration as an important way in which people broaden their knowledge and understanding and therefore an important part of understanding the purpose of education for children and young people in and across different contexts.
Course work includes:
Access to the module study materials via the module website. This includes:
EE831 is an option module in our:
Sometimes you cannot count a module towards a qualification if you have already counted another module with similar content. To verify any excluded combinations with this module, check with an adviser before registering.
Learning and teaching: understanding your educational practice (EE831) starts once a year – in October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2026, when we expect it to start for the last time.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
You must have a minimum of:
Some knowledge and understanding of learning and teaching (around curriculum, pedagogy and assessment) will be expected.
We recommend you have an IELTS (International English Language Testing System) score of 7.0 if English is not your first language.
You must also have:
In some cases, students may be able to use credit transfer from relevant prior postgraduate study to meet the entry requirements for this module. For more details and how to apply, please see the Credit Transfer website.
*One of the discontinued modules E805, E854, E855, E891, EE811, EE814, EE817, EE880, EXA884, EXC884, EXG884, EXL884, EXM884, EXN884, EXP884 or EXT884
You do not need to be employed in or have access to an educational setting to study this module. However, it is important that you have an interest in education and some experience of engaging or working with learners, children or young people, as all our learning experiences are explored through the lens of education. You will need to be in a position to be able to apply your learning to a relevant context or learning environment. In order to get the most out of your studies on EE831, you do need to have an educational context that you know well, in mind, to which you can apply what you learn. This may be somewhere you have worked in the past, or somewhere that you volunteer as a School Governor or in some other role.
If you haven't studied EE830, we highly recommend you complete our badged open course Looking globally: the future of education. This free six-week course runs twice a year – in March and October.
Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader (and where applicable: musical notation and mathematical, scientific, and foreign language materials may be particularly difficult to read in this way). Our resources have been accessibility checked and information to support accessibility of these resources will be found on the module website, which is available during study. This includes alternative formats of the module materials where available, which may be extended in the future.
Where possible, we can make reasonable adjustments to facilitate your participation where a learning difficulty or disability may impact studying.
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03 Oct 202631 Oct 202717 Sep 2026Not yet available*
*This start date is open for pre-booking, which means you can reserve your place ahead of the fees being confirmed. We’ll publish updated 2026/27 fees and funding information on the 25th of March.
If you study this module as part of an eligible qualification, you can apply for a postgraduate loan to support your study costs. To find out more, see Postgraduate loans in England.
Studying with The Open University can boost your employability. OU courses are recognised and respected by employers for their excellence and the commitment they take to complete. They also value the skills that students learn and can apply in the workplace.
Over 30,000 employers have used the OU to develop staff so far. If the module you’ve chosen is geared towards your job or developing your career, you could approach your employer to see if they will sponsor you by paying some or all of the fees.
You can pay part or all of your tuition fees upfront with a debit or credit card when you register for each module.
We accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Visa Electron.
Please note: your permanent address/domicile will affect your fee status and, therefore, the fees you are charged and any financial support available to you. The fee information provided here is valid for modules starting before 31 July 2026. Fees typically increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our Fee Rules.
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