Workshop at Irish National Forum for Enhancement of T&L. 9 April 2019

1. Tansy Jessop
Irish National Forum for the Enhancement of T&L
9 April 2019
Who
am I?
How do I
know
this is
true?
What is truth?
Any evidence
to back it up?
This is costing
me a fortune –
do I care about
truth claims?

2. 2
• Our context: who we are
• Your thoughts about curriculum (and a card game)
• Developing our framework: the process (more cards!)
• The theory behind the framework
• Bringing about culture change
• Tensions and how we might overcome them
The workshop

3. Who we are
• Mid-sized, applied,
modern university
• Maritime, Arts, Sports
• Teaching-focused
• 12,000 students
• 70% first generation
• Diverse, low income
• Upward trajectory

4. Why a new curriculum framework?
Make a
difference to
the student
experience
The DVC
said so…!
Let’s get
systematic
and
consistent
Shared
educational
purpose
Let’s be
thoughtful and
theoretical

5. • You have 18 statements
about curriculum
• Agree 9 statements to
create your diamond 9
• Place your favourites
towards the top discard
your six least favourite
Curriculum: diamond 9

6. Curriculum (n) running, chariot, course
What’s going on here?
What could possibly go wrong?
Who are the stakeholders?
What are their interests?

7. Balancing the WHAT, HOW and WHY
PRODUCT: structuring and managing content
(WHAT)
PROCESS: the lived experience (HOW)
PRAXIS: wider purpose of HE, social justice,
equality (WHY)

8. Curriculum is…
…complicated
conversation
…a verb
‘currere’
rather than a
noun
…an intellectual
rather than an
institutional or
bureaucratic pursuitWilliam Pinar

9. Stage 1: Generating the framework
• Solent ‘distinctives’
• Aspirations
• Lived experience
• Other models

10. Where did we begin?

11. Consultation
(not just another brick in the wall)
 900
comments
 Responses to
7 dimensions
 Mainly from
students

12. Consultation: 9 x curriculum cafes
(n= 143/182 academic)
• 62 Kiviat charts
• 65 individual
reflections
• 373 coloured cards
• 73 typed pages of
ethnographic field-
notes

13. 1 3
• What would you want to see in a curriculum
framework at your university?
• Write down three crucial things: one per card
• Thematically analyse responses
Card activity

14. Thematic analysis of n=373 cards

15. Thematic analysis: first cut

16. Theory behind the framework
• Balancing knowing, acting and being (Barnett
and Coate 2004)
• Significant learning (Fink 2003)
• Intellectual journeys (Perry 1998; Baxter-
Magolda 2001)
• Personal knowing (Polanyi 1954;1966; Palmer
1983)

17. How big are your circles?
(Barnett and Coate 2004)
• Knowing is about
content
• Acting is about
becoming a historian,
actor, psychologist, or
philosopher
• Being is about
understanding yourself,
orienting yourself and
relating your
knowledge and action
to the world
Knowing
Being
Acting

18. L.D. Fink (2003)
Creating significant
learning
experiences: an
integrated approach
to course design on
college courses
Significant Learning (Fink 2003)

19. Learning how to learn
Caring
Human dimension
Integration
Application
Foundational knowledge: Topics A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I…
Learning-centredparadigm–
multi-dimensional
Content-centred paradigm – one dimensional
Content vs learning-oriented (Fink 2003)

20. Intellectual development in a nutshell
Model Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Perry Dualism Multiplicity Relativism Commitment
Baxter
Magolda
Absolute
Knowledge
Transitional Independent
Contextual
self-
authorship

21. 2 1
Personal knowing

22. 2 2
Solent’s real world curriculum

23. P R E S E N T A T I O N T I T L E – G O T O I N S E R T > H E A D E R & F O O T E R T O E D I T T H I S T E X T 2 3
Making it happen: reviewing all courses

24. 2 4
53 programmes in
16 departments in
six months!
Oh no, 11
departments
to go!
There have been triumphs!
And there have been casualties…

25. P R E S E N T A T I O N T I T L E – G O T O I N S E R T > H E A D E R & F O O T E R T O E D I T T H I S T E X T 2 5
Curriculum Framework
Workshop 2:
Vision, ideas,
philosophy

26. 2 6

27. P R E S E N T A T I O N T I T L E – G O T O I N S E R T > H E A D E R & F O O T E R T O E D I T T H I S T E X T 2 7
CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
WORKSHOP 3

28. Listen and write
Talk to a partner about your unit, as if they are a student. Tell
them:
• What is novel and exciting and significant about the unit
• What they will learn and become through the unit
• How they will learn and be assessed
• What knowledge and capability they will take away from it
• How it links to industry and to other units on the degree
PARTNER: Please jot down key words while they talk.

29. The old unit descriptor

30. The new unit descriptor

31. Are we there yet?

32. Tensions
• Quality assurance and enhancement
• Consistency or creativity
• Compliance culture or culture change?
• Cynicism or hope
• Initiative fatigue or excitement
• New wine in old wine skins…

33. Can the caged bird fly?

34. References
Barnett, R. and Coate, K. 2004. Engaging the curriculum in higher education.
Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University
Press.
Baxter-Magolda, M. 2001. Making their own way: Narratives for
transforming Higher Education to promote self-development.
Davies, Mark 2017. Developing 'A Personal Knowing': A Grounded Theory
Study. PhD. University of South Wales.
Fink, L. Dee 2013. Creating significant learning experiences: an integrated
approach to course design on college courses.
Palmer, P. 1983. To know as we are known: Education as a Spiritual Journey.
HarperOne.
Perry, W. 1998. Forms of Ethical Intellectual Development in the College
Years: A Scheme.
Polanyi, M. 1966. The Tacit Dimension. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Polanyi, M. 1958. Personal Knowledge: towards a post-critical philosophy.