Abstract
<p class="apa">The move on decentralization of curriculum development in recent decade has become one of the major tasks in developing scientific fields in Iran. By implementing these programs some drawbacks have become evident. The objective of this study was to identify and assess the existing challenges involved in the development of academic disciplines from the faculty members’ views. For this aim, through a descriptive study, a body of 125 faculty members involved in academic disciplines development from state universities of Isfahan, Tehran and Ferdowsi are randomly selected. The study pursued seven research questions using a researcher-made questionnaire. Findings showed that interdisciplinary challenges, structural challenges and management challenges significantly exceeded the moderate level. Moreover, scientific-professional and financial challenges significantly affected the curriculum development of the academic disciplines. Results of MANOVA further showed that there were significant differences between the mean scores of faculty members’ views regarding the structural and management challenges in different universities. In general, results of the study highlighted the challenges which can be considered as important obstacles in the development process of disciplines and society at large. Optimization of this process needs the correctly addressed opinions of the faculty members in this respect.</p>
Highlights
University as one of the most important organizations in the process of formal education has taken different roles for the manifestation of human potentialities, creating learning opportunities and the development of science in human communities (Ahonen & Liikanen, 2009; Kpee, Oluwuo, & Baridam, 2012)
Based on the research questions, the results are presented as below: Research question 1: What is the effect of professional-scientific challenges on the development of academic disciplines in the view of the faculty members?
Regarding the fact that the direction of this challenge is negative, it can be deduced that the mean scores of this challenge is smaller than that of the hypothetical mean of 5 and its effect on the process of intruding and developing disciplines is significantly less than the moderate level
Summary
University as one of the most important organizations in the process of formal education has taken different roles for the manifestation of human potentialities, creating learning opportunities and the development of science in human communities (Ahonen & Liikanen, 2009; Kpee, Oluwuo, & Baridam, 2012). Along with the rise of change and rapid developments in different scientific, economic, social and political fields, universities are expected to tend to extensive innovative measures and problem solving approaches This is because many of the experts believe that higher education has entered a new era with ‘competition and quality’ as its main characteristic (Freeman, 1993; Jakab, 2005; Newton, 2007). This has had a particular repercussion for the universities measures and behaviors in a way that by developing new disciplines, they have attempted to train a scientific community and prepare them to enter this community through a socializing process (Diamond, 1989; Toohey, 1999). Due to these multiple demands in the second decade of the 21st century, the scholars involved in introducing and developing new academic disciplines are on increase
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