What is my critisism and what should I do?

The importance of the development of a good curriculum is more en more important in higher education. Students should learn more effective in a shorter study period,  but they should, also, have enough possibilities to follow their own choices. And of course they should find a job and the economy should profit of the investment in the students. The main question to be answered in the blog is:

• how can we exchange our experiences, results and ideas on curriculum development in higher education? Or even better, how can we in this exchange, profit from research relevant for curriculum development? With ‘ we’ I mean: teachers and educational advisors.

The main causes why this exchange is not working smoothly are described in the post: The description of curriculum development is rather general and not very practical. Why?

1. Procedures how to develop a curriculum are old fashioned and are too linear. They didn’t reflect the experiences in higher education. If you follow these models it is difficult to make short cuts.The models of curriculum development are often rather linear and  static. First step 1 , then 2 etc . In reality, curriculum development is not a linear process. The models should stress the dynamics and iterative approach. The model cannot be used to inspire the curriculum developers.
   • I will follow the design approach of the technical engineers. Their approach will be adapted to the special context and characteristics of curriculum development.
2.  The quality criteria for a good curriculum in higher education differ strongly between the teachers and education managers. Often, the criteria are not justified by  proper research,  evaluation studies or serious discussions in the teachers team. The subject is not very popular. There are prejudices what good higher education is. Also teachers do not like to change the education, even if this is the only solution.
   • This means that these criteria should be discussed and analysed in detail before they can used in the model.
3. The gap between curriculum development projects  and the research in higher education is often rather wide.  An important result of research is to show and underpin the importance of certain learning processes. But how you should apply these results in your specific situation is not  the first priority in research because this depends largely on the specific context.  In curriculum development we should think in a creative manner how to apply the scientific results.The literature is often strongly dedicated  to a specific didactical idea. If you does not agree with this vision, than it is difficult to apply their experience in your situation. The process of curriculum development should be described on a more general level, without losing the usefulness in practice. A good overview of the various visions on curriculum in higher education is given by …..
   • The question is how can we communicate the results of research and experiences in curriculum development. Possibilities are: Good practices, but  how can you describe good practices is a useful manner; another possibility is using design rules, what will work in a clearly described context(s).
4. There is more relevant experience then we think. Firstly ,there is the professional knowledge. Secondly, there are many books and articles about higher education. The exchange between the teachers and managers, but also the education experts is rather  low. An very important source of ‘ gray’ information are all kind of (in)formal reports, development plan, self study reports, etc. Often, very experienced teachers and/or education experts explain in detail the structure and the didactical concept using their professional knowledge and  insight in student learning and curriculum development. This satiation means that experiences will disappear when an advisor of teacher leave their jobs. Within a discipline there is more exchange of information then between disciplines. This is a pity because if you want new ideas other disciplines are often very interesting.
   • The professional knowledge and insight and the research results should be combined to update the procedures for curriculum development. The question is how?
   • Ideas should be formulated how we can intensify the communication between the experts.
   • The new colleagues will reinvent the already used good en bad ideas. My blog pretends to develop a structure in which the experiences can be given a place. The possibilities of ICT are analysed to find possible manners for registration and interaction etc.
5. Teachers and managers have not enough insight in how a curriculum could be designed and developed.
   • Ideas should be formulated how we can train the teachers and managers in the available insights to underpin and understand their approach to curriculum development including the quality criteria. See also the first point: there should be more discussed about the necessary qualities of a curriculum.

A question to be answered is: could you described the main qualities of a curriculum (and of a course) without a connection of a specific vision. Of course, a vision should have a place in the list of qualities. But how? One thing is clear if you have a specific vision, for example problem based learning or project education, there will be specific qualities with should be achieved in order to achieve the promises of the chosen vision.

How can we exchange experiences and ideas to be applied in curriculum development. Or , even better, how can we profit from research focussed on curriculum development.