Abstract
Curriculum reviews are becoming more prevalent in higher educational institutions as a means to address quality assurance and improve program offerings. However, the review process can be structured so that instructors experience professional learning benefits as they work with program-level learning outcomes, map their courses, and analyze curriculum data with their colleagues. This paper shares an approach that was used to conduct a 1-year, complex, multi-program curriculum review in a faculty’s graduate unit. This approach enhanced the instructors’ continuing growth and their ability to carry out a curriculum review. To illustrate the dynamic nature of the curriculum review process, a three-level and three-phase curriculum review model has been developed.Based on our experience when implementing the model with an array of instructional teams, we identified four key recommendations for practice that promoted a professional learning environment while implementing a multi-program curriculum review: (1) mentoring and distributed leadership, (2) standardizing flexible structures and processes, (3) customizing the process for deep inquiry, and (4) collaborating. Curriculum reviews are becoming more prevalent in higher educational institutions as a means to address quality assurance and improve program offerings.
Highlights
The primary reasons for endorsing the Canadian Degree Qualifications Framework, Procedures and Standards for New Degree Program Quality Assessment, and the Procedures and Standards for Assessing New Degree-Granting Institutions for government decisions relating to new degree programs and new degree-granting institutions are as follows:
To provide assurance to the public, students, employers, and postsecondary institutions at home and abroad that new programs and new institutions of higher learning meet appropriate standards and that performance against the standards will be assessed by appropriate means
Ministers expect postsecondary institutions in each province/territory to be committed to working with other postsecondary institutions, transfer agencies, and governments, as appropriate, to develop, enhance, and maintain quality assurance standards and procedures that reflect best practices in quality assurance
Summary
The credential awarded for the bachelor’s degree is designed to acquaint the student with the basic conceptual approaches and methodologies of the principal discipline or disciplines that constitute the program of study, to provide some specialized knowledge, and to nurture the capacity for independent work in the discipline/disciplines and field of practice. Profession-oriented master’s programs normally admit students holding baccalaureate degrees and provide them with a selection of courses and exercises intended to prepare them for a particular profession or field of practice or, if they are already involved in the profession or field, to extend their knowledge base and skills as professionals/practitioners. In addition to providing personal and intellectual growth, bachelor’s programs, in varying degrees, may prepare students for entry into graduate study in the field, second-entry professional degree programs, or employment in one or more fields. A master’s degree with an appropriate specialization or a master’s degree with appropriate bridging studies
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