Workshop at Bath University

1. Curriculum Transformation: a rough guide to Solent’s approach
University of Bath
27 November 2018
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
• Developing the framework
• Methods and process (card game and cards)
• The theory behind the framework
• Implementation
• Tensions
A guide to the rough guide

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

4. • 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

5. Curriculum (n) running, chariot, course

6. 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)

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

8. So why a curriculum framework?
• Make a difference to the student experience
• …in a consistent and systematic way
• …but not in a strait-jacket
• Articulate shared educational purpose
• Identify what makes us special and how we want
to grow and develop
• Develop a more thoughtful and theoretical
approach to curriculum design

9. Bombs away!
Top down, bottom up, student-centred
This is an exciting
creative change process
with students at the
centre
PVC Osama Khan
It must improve
the student
experience. I
am backing you
all the way!
DVC Julie Hall
New
Curriculum
framework

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

11. Where did we begin?

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

13. 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

14. 1 4
• 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

15. S L T C C 2 0 1 8 1 5
So, I’ve been thinking about all this data we have so helpfully generated for
ourselves. I think we have the following:
• a few hundred Curriculum Wall quotes
• more pieces of coloured card than I’ve ever seen in my life
• a whole bunch of kiviat charts with pretty shapes on them
• half the professional services and a few academics’ thoughts about the
new curriculum framework
• less completed online questionnaires than we might have hoped for
• a set of random images of diamond nines (on various people’s portable
devices)
• pages…and pages…and pages…and pages…of ethnographic field notes
The analysis should be a piece of cake, eh (or, more accurately, will require the
consumption of large amounts of cake along the way).
A lot of data

16. Thematic analysis of n=373 cards

17. Thematic analysis: first cut

18. 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)

19. What’s your university/discipline
emphasis?
• Knowing is about selecting
and understanding key
concepts in the discipline
• Acting is about becoming a
historian, actor, engineer, or
philosopher
• Being is about understanding
yourself, orienting yourself
and relating your knowledge
and action to the world
Knowing
Being
Acting

20. Entering society’s important conversations…
.

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

22. Learning how to learn
Caring
Human dimension
Integration
Application
Foundational knowledge: Topics A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I…
The learning-
centred
paradigm
pushes
teaching and
learning in
this
direction,
into multiple
dimensions
of learning
The content-centred paradigm pushes teaching and
learning in this direction, along one dimension of
learning
Content vs learning-oriented (Fink 2003)

23. 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

24. 2 4
Personal knowing

25. 2 5
Solent’s real world curriculum

26. 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 6
Making it happen: reviewing all courses

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 2:
Vision, ideas,
philosophy

28. 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 8
CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
WORKSHOP 3

29. 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.

30. The old unit descriptor

31. The new unit descriptor

32. Are we there yet?

33. Tensions
• Quality assurance and enhancement
• Compliance or culture change?
• Cynicism or hope
• Initiative fatigue or excitement
• Slow professor thinking or routine thinking
• Generic dogma or disciplinary expertise
• New wine in old wine skins…

34. Can the caged bird fly?

35. 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.