Child Development

Course Overview

The MSc in Child Development is designed to prepare psychology graduates for the next stage of their career in research or applied areas of psychology.

Charlotte Bagnall, MSc in Child Development

"Overall, pursuing a masters not only gave me time to critically reflect on what I want to do with my future, but skills, opportunities and insight into other very tantalising prospects which combine my two passions: psychological research and teaching, which in essence has helped me to get to where I am today."

Overview

Application closing date: 31st July

The MSc in Child Development is designed to prepare psychology graduates for the next stage of their career in research or applied areas of psychology.

Keele has a vibrant, well-established and ever-expanding community of researchers in child development. Students will benefit from their expertise across a wide range of areas including child social development (e.g. bullying and peer relationships), child cognitive development (e.g. theory of mind, attention in autism and ADHD) and education (e.g. girls and science and enhancing collaborative learning in the classroom).

MSc students are made to feel part of this research culture both through the formal modules and through involvement in research seminars and meetings. Students become members of the new Children and Young People’s Research Network through which the teaching of the advanced study module is delivered.

Key features of your MSc programme in Psychology will include:

Strong focus on your personal skills development throughout the course to help you pursue your career goals
Opportunities to pursue your personal interests with expert support
A broad range of research methods training to maximise your employability skills
Small group specialist teaching in your chosen field from research-active tutors
A large cohort of MSc students sharing the core modules provides a lively and supportive peer community

The programme provides taught content and research training in a range of areas in Child Development, building on areas of staff research expertise.
Strengths include: children’s peer relationships, e.g. bullying in schools, teenage relationship abuse; eye movements in children with autism and ADHD; children’s face recognition; interrogative interviewing of vulnerable child witnesses; children’s use of humour; social influences on learning, such as how teachers use feedback in the classroom; how to promote collaborative learning; factors that influence children’s subject choices, e.g. girls and science; children’s musical development and engagement; and parenting, e.g. interactions at family mealtimes.

We have well-established links with local schools and have created research partnerships where students come to the university to experience learning in a university setting as well as allowing our students to gain valuable experience working and collecting data in a school setting. We also run the project White Water Writers which gives groups of young people the chance to write and publish their own full length novel in a week. We work with local primary, secondary, SEN and other youth groups such as with looked after children, and MSc students are given the opportunity to take the lead in running this project.

The overall aims of all our MSc Psychology programmes are as follows:

To equip you to formulate and conduct psychological research projects;
To develop your knowledge of different theoretical perspectives, philosophical traditions and methodological approaches to psychology;
To enable you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of different research methods and different forms of data, and to evaluate their appropriateness for different research problems;
To enable you to define and formulate research questions and testable hypotheses, and to design appropriate research to answer these questions using relevant methods of data collection, consistent with British Psychological Society principles of ethics and research governance;
To provide you with knowledge of quantitative and qualitative approaches to research and data analysis techniques;
To provide you with a range of opportunities to engage with advanced research in substantive areas relevant to their own research topic and to the discipline of psychology;
To provide you with opportunities to enhance and develop your written and communication skills, independent learning skills, and critical reflection and evaluation skills.

You will develop these skills in the context of your chosen specialism.

Course structure

How the course is taught

Our MSc Psychology programmes are designed to foster a vibrant and collaborative peer culture amongst our MSc students. Several of our modules are shared by all four of our MSc psychology programmes. We also know it’s vital that you develop the advanced specialised skills you will need to pursue careers in your chosen fields. Throughout your MSc degree you are supported and encouraged to focus your work to help you conduct in-depth explorations of your specialist subjects and personal interests.

Teaching and Assessment

Each module has different prescribed learning activities, including formal lectures and seminars, discussions and consultation with staff. You should expect some lively debates and interesting discussions. Please be aware that you will be expected to contribute to the programme, in the form of advance reading (of which there is a substantial amount), preparing presentations and contributing to discussions in seminars, and bringing your own ideas to bear on the teaching material.

The programme is assessed through a range of formats including:

Blog portfolios
Personal skills audits
Research Critiques
Lab Reports
Unseen exams and class tests
Verbal presentations
Independent research written up as a dissertation.

Full time and part time students all study together for the taught/seminar/class discussion elements of the programmes, but in certain modules part-time students have more extended deadlines to enable them to complete work without placing too much burden on them. Attendance is compulsory at all teaching sessions.

In order to obtain an MSc degree, every student is required to obtain 180 M level credits:

Full time students complete the course in 1 year (51 weeks). In order to obtain an MSc degree, students are required to obtain 180 M level credits, including a 60-credit dissertation.
Part time students complete the course in 2 years (103 weeks), taking 90 credits in each year.

A Postgraduate Certificate is available for students who have completed 60 credits of their programme and a Postgraduate Diploma is available for students who have completed 120 credits of their programme. There are no restrictions on which modules need to be passed.

Taught modules

Core Taught Modules

You will undertake a triple weighted module called Advanced Study in MSc Child Development (45 Credits) that spans both semesters of the programme.

On the Advanced Study module you get to choose the topic to focus on for the Critique. Previous topics have included: the influence of siblings; the intergenerational transmission of violence; whether attachment in childhood is fixed; the implications of a ‘growth mind-set’; Theory of Mind and Autism; the interplay between child temperament and parenting. For the group report, you work together in small groups to devise an intervention to bring about behavioural change. This year’s projects include: a schools-based mental health intervention, a domestic abuse prevention education programme for primary-age children; and an App for children at risk of exclusion to help manage their emotions.

The teaching for this module is delivered through the new Children and Young People’s Research Network. The module aims to deepen students’ knowledge and understanding of key concepts, theories and research evidence on child development and to develop their critical awareness of current issues and new insights in this area of psychological research. There is a key focus on the ethical and practical issues associated with conducting research with children and young people. Topics can include: children’s humour, children and face perception, children and advertising, bullying in schools.

All MSc Psychology undertake the following core modules designed to help you engage with the pluralistic nature of psychology and understand the broader field within which your specialised interest sits:

Contemporary Research in Psychology	15 credits	This is a breadth module that enables you to engage with psychological research across a range of topics and sub-disciplines at the cutting edge of contemporary research in psychology. You will attend research seminars given by experts within and outside Keele and reflect on and critically evaluate the theoretical, methodological and ethical issues associated with a wide range of contemporary topics and issues in psychological research.
Advanced Research Skills and Design	15 credits	This innovative module gives you a broad range of advanced research skills and familiarity with a range of cutting edge research designs in psychology, the help you progress through the rest of the programme being able to set your work in wider context. It introduces new techniques not typically covered at undergraduate level as well as equipping students with the advanced research skills or critical literature reviewing, generating a suitable research question, identifying a suitable method, ethical issues in research, and managing time and research relationships. You will complete a detailed skills audit and engage in some complex reflections of your own abilities and how you can progress through the course - an innovative assessment praised by our external examiners for encouraging engagement and thinking about personal development.
Advanced Quantitative Data Analysis	15 credits	The topics covered in this module are: extensions of the regression model, analysis of variance, logistic regression, and multivariate data reduction techniques such as factor analysis, together with a few more specialist methods, which you can select between based on your interests. The material is taught using SPSS, and although the module encourages a sound understanding of statistical principles, the primary emphasis is on practical data analysis.
Research Apprenticeship in Psychology	15 credits	Every year we run apprenticeships in which students join staff working on real research projects across a broad range of areas of psychology. Students are allocated to an apprenticeship based on the self-development goals you each identify in your personal skills audit. This ensures the apprenticeship provides you with experiences and opportunities that will support your future career ambitions and encourage you to learn new skills.

Optional Modules

In addition to the core modules all students can tailor their research methods training to suit their needs and interests by choosing one of the following optional modules:

Qualitative Research Methods	15 credits	This module will give you an appreciation of different approaches to qualitative data collection and analysis. We encourage you to try out data collection and analytic methods you haven't used before. During the module you will design, conduct, analyse and reflect on a qualitative research study based on a topic you are interested in. Students often choose to explore something that complements or extends their dissertation research.
Advanced Cognitive Neuroscience Research Methods	15 credits	This module develops your knowledge and practical skills with contemporary methods in cognitive psychology and cognitive neurosceince such as electroencephalography (EEG), eyetracking, and other contemporary methods. It prepares you to design, conduct, and critically appraise research using these methods. Lectures cover the theoretical background of the methods and, for several months, you will gain hands-on experience with data collection, data analysis, and use of specialist software and equipment. This module will emphasise a framework which will allow you to understand existing methods and follow the development of new methods going forward.

Research

Research is a key emphasis in our programmes and you will be supported by a specialist tutor in your chosen field to undertake original research as part of the Dissertation (60 credits) module.

Our expert staff and specialist facilities can support a range of projects across the field.

Programmes Structure

Full time and part time students all study together for the taught/seminar/class discussion elements of the programmes, but in certain modules part-time students have more extended deadlines to enable them to complete work without placing too much burden on them. Attendance is compulsory at all teaching sessions.

In order to obtain an MSc degree, every student is required to obtain 180 M level credits:

Full time students complete the course in 1 year (51 weeks). In order to obtain an MSc degree, students are required to obtain 180 M level credits, including a 60-credit dissertation.

Semester 1	Semester 2	Summer
Contemporary Research in Psychology
Advanced Research and Design Skills
Advanced Study Module	Research Preparation
Advanced Quantitative Data Analysis	Qualitative Research Methods or Cognitive Neuroscience Research Methods
Research Apprenticeship
Dissertation

Part time students complete the course in 2 years (103 weeks), taking 90 credits in each year.

Year 1
Semester 1	Semester 2	Summer
Contemporary Research in Psychology
Advanced Research and Design Skills	Qualitative Research Methods or Cognitive Neuroscience Research Methods
Advanced Study Modules	Research Preparation
Year 2
Semester 1	Semester 2	Summer
Advanced Quantitative Data Analysis
Research Apprenticeship
Dissertation