ABSTRACT
In this book we have considered some general aspects of study, such as how you can approach and monitor your learning and how you may function as a person in terms of managing the pressures of time and other demands.We have also looked at the ways that you can work with a variety of media in order to obtain information and to develop and present your ideas. Also, at a more general level, we have outlined some approaches where study involves moving beyond published works and is to do with finding things out through, for example, dealing directly with people and events. However, in relation to teaching and education, there are particular issues concerning the scope of a course of study, and to this end we have included chapters which consider such factors as the different historical, social and political forces that can come into play through the development or imposition of a curriculum, and how these can affect teaching and learning. We have also looked at how the notion of a curriculum has been studied, and have argued that, as teachers, we may also need to develop an awareness of how knowledge and understandings can be categorised, how different subjects, or areas of content, have evolved and the demands that can be made upon learners. Finally, if you are studying to teach then you may also be concerned with your own role as a professional, the roles of others, and how you relate to a variety of people in a variety of settings. Being highly proficient with regard to any one or two of the above aspects of study may be relatively easy. Ensuring that you do not neglect the other aspects, however, can be very demanding as you seek to find a balance among the different areas and the demands that they entail. By providing an overview, we hope that this book will assist in getting a balance in approaches so that one aspect of study supports another.
