Agents for curriculum change: the role of Learning Development

Abstract

Learning Development (LD) can rightly see a role as positive institutional change agents. However, this perception can often be frustrated by external interpretations about the value of study skills (Richards and Pilcher, 2023), which could go some way to perpetuating something of an identity disconnect, where others may often continue to perceive LD as remedial (Bishop et al., 2009). This session aimed to inspire a sense of where opportunities may lie for challenging perceptions with LD as change agents, using our institutional experience of having made some significant headway in influencing wholesale curriculum change. The workshop was an opportunity for exploratory discussions, with participants sharing their experiences of participation in curriculum change initiatives or challenges faced in trying to engineer this role. It considered ways to seize and make the most of other opportunities, such as student guidance on Artificial Intelligence, to be similarly influential. Based on our experience of a new curriculum framework, discussions explored challenges the LD team faced in seeking, in the first instance, to have a significant role in the process, achieving this and the inherent frustrations nevertheless. With participants, we discovered how LD can seize opportunities through recognising the role LD can play, such as defining pedagogical concepts of resourcefulness and resilience, which was inherent in the curriculum design. Group activities explored the challenges in trying to influence curriculum change, shared successes and considered whether this is an effective use of LD time. Group investigations also looked at the importance of collaborating with academic developers, and how this can help address and evolve perceptions of LD as change agents, given that staff educational development can be assumed to be the more natural agent for progressing institutional curriculum change and why an LD presence can bring a unique perspective.