This document provides an overview of a presentation on transformative curriculum development. It discusses defining curriculum and transformation, and developing a shared understanding of these concepts. It also covers curriculum responsiveness, constructing transformative curricula, and the challenges of curriculum alignment. The purpose of higher education and dominant ideas shaping curriculum at NMMU are debated. Transformation is linked to addressing societal needs through curriculum content and activities. Constructive alignment between learning outcomes, teaching, and assessment is emphasized.
2. INTRODUCTION
What is the purpose of Higher Education?
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4. Developing a shared understanding
• Divide into 2 groups
• Introduce key questions
– Curriculum Development
– Transformation
• Move around to each question
• Discuss question
• Note answers down
• Move to the next question
• Repeat process with the other group’s questions
– Look at the previous groups answers & discuss
– Add to previous answers
• Provide feedback
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5. Developing a shared understanding
Curriculum
• How would you define
curriculum?
• What role do you think
curriculum plays in higher
education?
• What are the dominant
ideas that shape curriculum
development practices at
NMMU?
Transformation
• How would you define
transformation?
• What role do you think
transformation plays in
higher education?
• What ideas relevant to
transformation are evident
at NMMU?
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6. CURRICULUM
Developing a shared understanding
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7. Curriculum Development
• Latin Root: “racecourse”
• Wiles and Bondi (2011: 2) state that “for many students,
the school curriculum is a racecourse to be run, a series of
obstacles or hurdles (subjects) to be passed”.
• What other associations
are there with “racecourse”?
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12. TRANSFORMATION
Developing a shared understanding
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13. Transformation
• … process of profound and radical change
• … implies change of character and little or no
resemblance to the previous structure
Transformation reflects deep change and
restructuring enabling HE institutions to
address challenging needs and demands posed
by a changing environment.
(Hay & Marias, 2011: 230)
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14. Transformation
• In the South African context HE is often driven by
an institutional understanding and interpretation
of transformation concepts, how and what
institutions perceive for example as social justice,
discrimination, social cohesion and the burning
societal and research imperatives
(Hay & Marias, 2011: 233)
• Address historical imbalances
– E.g. Black graduates in Health Sciences
– E.g. Indigenous knowledge in the curriculum
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15. Transformation @ NMMU
• Widening access =
diversity
• Developing a culture
that embraces
transformation
16. Developing a shared understanding
How does curriculum development and
transformation relate? https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MyBsRn2vIlE/maxresdefault.jpg
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyBsRn2vIlE
18. Curriculum Responsiveness
Curriculum
Responsiveness
Economic
Institutional
/ cultural
Learning
Disciplinary
… training qualified
people in sufficient
numbers to meet the
needs of industry & the
economy whilst being
educationally responsive
… changing social
practices through
research & teaching. Thus
changing itself (NMMU) &
what it values in response
to pressing social needs
(transformation, equity,
redress, poverty, HIVAIDS)
... Moving beyond a
“student deficit
discourse” -
“disadvantage” is not
situated in the student
but forms part of an
unfamiliar context.
… Staying current in the
discipline & ensuring a
that students are
inducted into disciplinary
ways of producing new
knowledge.
IDENTITY?
Moll, 2004
21. Transformative curricula
Curriculum development cannot be detached from
societal and cultural transformation, or from
evolving trends that drive global and national
change…
(Hay & Marias, 2011: 229)
• … transformation is strategically linked to
curricula reflecting the
– academic content
– learning activities
– extra curricular knowledge & competencies
Hay & Marias, 2011: 232
22. Transformative curricula
• Formal access vs Epistemological access
(Morrow, 1993)
• Social and political redress has mandated
curricular redress, specifically in terms of
participation rates and access to higher
education
• Enable students to adapt to the HE
environment
(Hay & Marias, 2011: 234)
23. Transformative curricula
• #RhodesMustFall
• #RhodesSoWhite
https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=pCityGJCaYI
• #Luister
https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=sF3rTBQTQk4
• #FeesMustFall
By transforming HE curricula to address segregation and
conflict, universities are preparing a new generation of South
African citizens.
(Hay & Marias, 2011: 235)
24. Transformative curricula
Brainstorm:
• How can the Psychology curriculum be
transformative?
Content
Teaching strategies
Assessment
Technology
Student Development / Support
Peer collaborative learning
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26. Underlying the outcomes approach is a theory of learning
known as constructive alignment (Biggs 1999)
Aligning all the elements of teaching, learning and assessment
Solo taxonomy
Constructive alignment
Content
Learning
outcomes
Teaching &
Learning
activities
Assessment
activities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXq3Uyfi18E
27. Alignment in outcomes based curriculum development
Constructive alignment
Rationale Purpose
What support is in
place to enable
student success?
Academic incl. digital
Deliberate
planning
28. • Purpose:
• Why should the students want to do the
module?
• Outcomes:
• Is it clear what the students should be able to do
at the end of the module?
• Content:
• How will the content assist the students to meet
the outcomes?
• Assessment:
• Will the assessment tasks enable the students to
achieve the outcomes?
Module purpose, outcomes & content
29. The purpose of this module is to enable students to make a strong
cup of filter coffee.
Outcomes:
• Identify the different ingredients and tools required to make a
cup of coffee.
• Select the correct ingredients to make a strong cup of filter
coffee
• Demonstrate how to make a strong cup of coffee using a
peculator.
Content:
• Coffee and its ingredients
• Principles of making coffee
• Choosing the correct coffee bean for its properties regarding
coffee strength
• Insight into the tools required to make filter coffee
Constructive Alignment
30. Identify the different ingredients and tools required to make a
cup of coffee.
Aligning the teaching strategy to the learning outcome
• A 35min lecture on the theory associated with the
ingredients of coffee and the tools required to make a cup
of coffee.
Or
• Watch a video of someone making a cup of coffee whilst
taking notes on a hand out of what ingredients and tools
the person in the video used. Compare and discuss your
answers with a peer and adapt your worksheet accordingly.
Constructive Alignment
31. Identify the different ingredients and tools required to make a cup of
coffee.
Watch a video of someone making a cup of coffee whilst taking
notes on a hand out of what ingredients and tools the person in the
video used. Compare and discuss your answers with a peer and
adapt your worksheet accordingly.
Assessment:
Identify and label the different ingredients and tools required for
making coffee in the picture supplied
Or
Write a 500 essay discussing the characteristics of the tools required
to make a cup of coffee?
Integrated feedback and support
Constructive Alignment
32. Just for Fun
My inspiration
A quick history lesson…
https://www.youtube.com/user/historyteachers
What can you remember?
Why can you remember it?
Biggs Solo Taxonomy:
Appling what the student already knows to new
information.
http://henrycavill.org/images/Films/2007-The-Tudors-1/promo/Henry_Cavill_The-Tudors_promo_10.jpg
Ice breaker: Fold piece of paper in 3s write name on the front and draw of picture of your approach to teaching in the classroom.
knowledge (and truth)
production
democracy
self – identity
critique
emancipation
This short film produced by the North Alliance explains the background to the Curriculum for Excellence and how it links to Community Learning and Development principles. The film is narrated by Keir Bloomer, a member of the original Curriculum Review Group
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyBsRn2vIlE
Learning: For Slonimsky “disadvantage” is not inherent in the individual, but is a result of “a relation between a familiar cultural context, which (the learner) has internalised, and the unfamiliar cultural and institutional context (of the university) which she has not yet internalised.”
Cultural Capital – My story
Moll suggests that economic responsiveness (which seems to dominate policy documents) can only be achieved if the other elements of responsiveness are achieved.
Africanisatin – personalogy only module when I was studying
National health plan – mental health
Access / redress / transformation
Therefore curriculum facilitates the development of extra-curricular knowledge, as it prepares graduates not only to fulfil their responsibilities in the labour market but also to become responsible citizens, contributing to overall human capital endeavours. It also addresses social, economic, educational and political issues of the day.
Access / redress / transformation
Therefore curriculum facilitates the development of extra-curricular knowledge, as it prepares graduates not only to fulfil their responsibilities in the labour market but also to become responsible citizens, contributing to overall human capital endeavours. It also addresses social, economic, educational and political issues of the day.
NMMU’s co-curricular record
#RhodesSoWhite explores systematic white privilege within Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. Students talk through the current controversies and share their ideas of transformation in this 24 min documentary.
Luister is a documentary about the lives of students of colour who attend Stellenbosch University, a South African institution of higher learning. In a series of interviews, students recount instances of racial prejudice that they continue to experience in the town of Stellenbosch, and the enormous challenges that they face due to the use of Afrikaans as a language of teaching at the university. Luister is a film about Afrikaans as a language and a culture. It is a film about the continuing racism that exists within a divided society. It is a film about a group of students whose stories have been ignored.
The process of aligning all the content, teaching, learning and assessment activities to learning outcomes is known as Bigg’s constructive alignment.
Workshop on it’s own
As demonstrated by the slide every aspect on the curriculum development process is aligned – from the rationale to the assessment tasks provided to students. This alignment also includes what support structures are included in the curriculum in order to enable student success.
The module outcomes can be considered building blocks to achieving the more holistic exit level outcomes at programme level, which is why the alignment is crucial.
The module purpose, outcomes, content and teaching, learning and assessment methods need to be aligned in order to holistically develop students that will meet the exit level outcomes.
CTLM is able to assist with the writing of the purpose and outcomes and then to align the teaching, learning and assessment methods the outcomes. Furthermore we are able to suggest potential support initiatives, such as academic literacies that can be embedded into the curriculum in order to assist with enabling student success.
As demonstrated by the slide, the alignment of the module purpose, outcomes and teaching, learning and assessment methods should assist with identifying the necessary assessment criteria, marking tools, such as rubrics and how to provide students with feedback.
Mention outcomes… specific, measurable, written for the students
How does it all fit together?
Based on the last page for Form 2
Note how the purpose, outcomes and content is aligned.
Assists with prioritising the selection and sequencing of the content
For example, in the content I don’t have a section on the history of coffee or slavery or even how to grow a coffee bean.
That is interesting information, potentially something we would like to teach or our students to know, however, there is no outcomes that is aligned to the content.
Ideally we should choose our outcomes first and then align the content to the outcome. However, if you strongly believe that there is content that should be there that is not covered by the outcomes, an outcome should be added to accommodate the content, otherwise it is unclear to the students and the lecturer how that content will be assessed. Also, it should be clear how the content is then aligned to the purpose of the module.
I have also assisted with aligning outcomes and content with the purpose of the module.
Once we have an outcome we need to identify the best strategies to teach the outcome.
This is also a section of the document we have been commenting on.
An example would include looking at how the proposed teaching strategy will or will not meet the outcomes associated with the module. If the teaching and learning strategy does not meet the outcome we could discuss alterative teaching and learning strategies to enable constructive alignment.
NMMU Moderation policy
The same is true for assessment, as the outcome and teaching strategy indicate how the module (or content) will be assessed. Biggs argues that if these (outcome, teaching strategy and assessment is aligned) students will be more motivated to engage with teaching and learning and potentially realise the benefit of attending class.
Once again this is an aspect of the process where we are able to assist.
Flip chart…
How can these be solved?
BLENDED LEARNING