Programme Title

MSc Atypical Child Development

Final Award
(exit route if applicable for Postgraduate Taught Programmes)

Master of Science

Programme Code

PSY-MSC-CD

UCAS Code

HECoS Code

100952

ATAS Clearance Required

No

Health Check Required

No

Portfolio Required

Interview Required

Mode of Study

Part Time

Type of Programme

Postgraduate

Length of Programme

2 Academic Year(s)

Total Credits for Programme

180

Exit Awards available

Awarding Institution/Body

Queen's University Belfast

Teaching Institution

Queen's University Belfast

School/Department

Psychology

Framework for Higher Education Qualification Level 
www.qaa.ac.uk

Level 7

QAA Benchmark Group
www.qaa.ac.uk/quality-code/subject-benchmark-statements

Psychology (2010)

Accreditations (PSRB)

Does the Programme have any approved exemptions from the University General Regulations
(Please see General Regulations)

N/A

Programme Specific Regulations

N/A

Students with protected characteristics

N/A

Are students subject to Fitness to Practise Regulations

(Please see General Regulations)

No

Learning Outcomes: Cognitive Skills

On the completion of this course successful students will be able to:

a. Show a high level of scientific reasoning, linking and evaluating theory and evidence in developmental psychology.
b. Contrast different levels of explanation in developmental psychology, examine their implications and recognise their limitations.
c. Critically analyse research studies, commenting both on theory, methods and conclusions.
d. Reflect on how theory and research can inform interventions and practice.
e. Formulate a research question, choose an appropriate research design, plan and conduct an independent piece of research.
f. Deal with complexity and uncertainty in planning projects, interpreting data and making recommendations.
g. Make informed choices about effective communication.

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Cognitive skills are developed particularly in seminars, through class discussion and exercises, homework assignments, project work, training workshops and by completing a thesis.

Methods of Assessment

Cognitive skills are assessed via informal (e.g. class exercises, class interactions) and formal means (class tests, project work, essays, reviews of the literature and thesis).

Class tests, essays and case studies give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to consider and formulate problems/issues and to discuss how they might be addressed at an advanced analytical level. Students also must consider the implications for interventions of the theory and research that they have learned about in their assessed case study. (Skills a-d)

Reviews of the literature assess student skills to critically evaluate theories, to formulate research questions and to integrate theoretical approaches. (Skills a-c)

Students must give a critical presentation of a research paper to the class, which is assessed on the basis of its critical evaluation of the paper and how well the student communicates their ideas. (Skills a, b, g)

The dissertation affords students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply their theoretical and methodological knowledge and skills of analysis and synthesis to specific problems of their own choosing. Dissertations can assess student skill to choose appropriate methodologies to answer specific research questions, to present research questions and findings in a professional manner and to draw meaningful conclusions from research findings. Assessment includes evaluation of students’ methods of communicating ideas, results and conclusions. (Skills e-g)

Learning Outcomes: Transferable Skills

On the completion of this course successful students will be able to:

a. Communicate ideas, principles, theories and research findings by oral and written means.
b. Elicit high quality information and data from field sources.
c. Use information technology (e.g. WWW, bibliographic data bases such as Psychinfo, word processors, statistics packages).
d. Conduct themselves in a professional (accountable, responsible, ethical) self-regulated and constructively critical fashion.
e. Use interpersonal and social skills as appropriate.
f. Use analytical skills in a problem solving context.

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Transferable skills (a) to (f) are promoted via class work in lectures, seminars, workshops and the dissertation. Students are explicitly guided to be increasingly self-regulating throughout the duration of the course and to demonstrate initiative, self-efficacy and personal responsibility/accountability in the way they conduct themselves towards members of staff and towards their peers as well as in the pursuit of their academic and practical tasks.

Methods of Assessment

Transferable skills (a) to (f) are assessed informally through practical work pursued in class and formally through course work and dissertation.

Learning Outcomes: Knowledge & Understanding

On the completion of this course successful students will be able to:

a. The inherent variability in children’s developmental pathways.
b. The recent history of developmental psychology in relation to theoretical approaches to typical and atypical child development.
c. Different levels of explanation in accounting for children’s development.
d. Theories and research related to specific examples of atypical development.
e. Practical issues relating to research and/or intervention with atypically developing children.
f. Basic and advanced research design and methods of investigation, data analysis and techniques and how they relate to theoretical and applied issues in child development.
g. The ethical conduct of research with human participants, specifically with children.
h. Effective means of communicating research to specific audiences.

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Outcomes (a) to (h) are acquired through lectures, seminars, talks and workshops.

Methods of Assessment

Outcomes (a) to (h) are assessed by a variety of assignments (e.g. essays, case studies, design and evaluation of interventions, literature reviews, dissertation, class tests) which involve demonstrating a deep understanding and critical assessment of theory, application and specific techniques.

These outcomes are also assessed by informal means (i.e. class discussion, interactions and exercises).

Learning Outcomes: Subject Specific

On the completion of this course successful students will be able to:

a. Show competence in a range of methods to analyse both quantitative and qualitative data using statistical packages, if appropriate.
b. Show specialist competence in the methodology and analyses chosen for thesis work.
c. Use a variety of psychological tools relevant for working with children, e.g. psychometric tests, laboratory equipment, specialist software.
d. Write well-structured and well–argued prose, using style and conventions appropriate for publishing in the psychology literature.
e. Make a successful application for ethical approval for planned thesis.

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Outcomes (a) to (e) are acquired through lectures, seminars, talks and workshops.

Methods of Assessment

Outcomes (a) to (e) are formally assessed by a variety of assignments that focus specifically on particular skills (e.g. statistics assignments, case studies, literature reviews and thesis work).

These outcomes are also assessed by informal means (e.g. class discussion, interactions and exercises).