The four-dimensional curriculum framework: 10 years on

Abstract

The Four-Dimensional Curriculum Framework (4DF) was first published in Focus on Health Professional Education in 2013. It was created in response to a gap in the literature for a curriculum development tool for interprofessional health that could navigate the challenges associated with conceptualising shared educational opportunities across siloed health professional programs. Its four interconnecting dimensions emphasise the dynamic interplay between curricular elements, highlighting the fact that curriculum design is rarely linear. As a theoretical curriculum framing tool, it facilitates the articulation of big picture considerations when designing learning and teaching activities. Since 2013, it has been cited 60 times by researchers and educators across the globe, indicating that it has been used largely as it was originally intended—to interrogate the purpose and effectiveness of a curriculum in broad terms. This paper revisits the features of the 4DF and, in the light of its application in the literature, explores opportunities to expand its functionality from a theoretical framing tool to one that also provides a practical application of the framework.