Curriculum Design In Higher Education Research Articles

Enacting Business Education Employability Skills Through a UDL Lens

This article introduces the notion of synergies between employability skills embedded within the university curriculum and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework. It draws on a previous study which examined the disjuncture between espoused and that of actual teaching and assessment practice of employability skills within the business curriculum. While that study produced a typology to aid in the development of these skills, this paper now considers how a UDL perspective might make the teaching more relevant to individual students and in doing so more inclusive. We argue that employability skills applied through a UDL lens is particularly appropriate since they have a common goal – to create expert learners. As defined by the UDL guidelines (CAST, 2018) such learners are purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, as well as being strategic and goal-directed. While this is one example of UDL underpinning effective teaching and assessment practice, it also reflects a growing awareness around the potential of UDL within higher education curriculum design.

Disciplinary digital capabilities of professionals

This paper is concerned with the digital practices of professionals, and the ways in which educators can support higher education (HE) students with successfully transitioning into professional life by developing relevant digital capabilities according to their disciplines. Digital capabilities have received significant attention in recent years, with various attempts made to develop digital frameworks to support curriculum design in HE. However, few studies have articulated these generic capabilities in terms of specific disciplines. This paper addresses the gap of disciplinary conceptualisations of digital capabilities by exploring how they are planned in HE curricula in two professional disciplines, engineering and management. Originality of the study is achieved in part through a conceptual framework that weaves together Shulman’s notion of signature pedagogies with JISC’s Digital Capability Framework (DigiCap). The study employed a multiple-case study methodology with each discipline as a case, and four undergraduate/postgraduate modules as the units of analysis, drawing on documentary sources, and academic, professional and student perspectives via interviews and focus groups. The research design section presents a practical manifestation of this conceptual framework in the form interview questions, which is one main outcome of this study. The study offers insight into the digital capabilities in engineering and management education, as well as the digital practices of engineers and managers. Findings report on which digital capability elements are prioritised, and how, in the two professions, followed by a discussion of their most distinct, 'signature digital capabilities'. These indicate that the development of digital capabilities is aligned with the respective discipline’s signature pedagogies. In engineering, digital problem-solving and collaboration/communication, followed by data and information literacy, appear to be most prominent. In management, data and information literacy overlap with problem-solving, and, together with digital content communication, form its prominent digital capabilities. The study also identifies management’s overarching signature digital capability. The paper argues that simply just using a descriptive, typological framework (e.g. DigiCap) is not sufficient to identify signature digital capabilities of a subject without tending to their disciplinary aspects. It is the combination of a typological digital capability framework through the lens of signature pedagogies, which can be effective in identifying disciplinary digital capabilities.

Curriculum design in higher education: A reflection

The ideology of curriculum design is believed to be the core of teaching and learning, yet it is in direct opposition to current notions of curriculum development. The contextual factors that underpin teaching and learning are derived from curriculum design. The principal factors that influence what is being taught may be categorised into three levels: the macro, meso and micro. At the macro level, there are national and international influences such as globalisation, massification, and marketization. Also, socio-economic, and political influence may be included. At the meso-level the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and institutional level influence is forthcoming. Issues such as policies, culture, location, student profile and so forth are examined. Also, external influence from employers, professional bodies, accreditation bodies, quality agencies as well as political redress is evaluated. The micro-level examines individual academics and support staff concerning personal theories, beliefs, and professional knowledge. Systems theory in the educational context views the institution as a system where there is an interaction of variables of input, process and output that enable learning to take place. Because of the complexity and nature of curriculum design, there is limited change in this critical sphere of the education system. This paper reflects on the design and development of a curriculum in an open distance learning higher education institution.

Indonesian and Tunisian Constitutional Frameworks: The Impact on the Development of Higher Education Curriculum

Education has a critical role in the development of a new generation of individuals. It all depends on the constitutional frameworks and norms around which educational institutions and educational praxis are founded, and education is one of the tools to maintain national identity. The quality of education cannot simply be measured by the percentage of GDP spent on education. According to the World Data Bank, Tunisia spends 26.63 percent of its budget on education, while Indonesia spends only 20.50 percent. However, this does not guarantee that the quality of education in Tunisia is higher than in Indonesia due to the cultural and constitutional framework disparities between the two countries. The aim of this study is to compare the higher education curricula in Tunisia, which was developed from the French secular, or laicite, system, with that in Indonesia, which is founded on the ideology of Pancasila. Moreover, this study aims to analyze how the laicite system and Pancasila ideology have an impact on higher education curriculum design. The method used is a qualitative approach with a comparative case study analysis. Data was obtained from interview sessions with policy makers on curriculum as well as from the handbooks of curriculum in the Faculty of Culture at Indonesia University and the curriculum of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Tunis University and focuses on the learning method and outcomes, as well as other journal and mass media pieces that are relevant. The data shows that disparities between constitutional frameworks and ideological contrasts between Pancasila and the laicite system have a significant impact on the religious component of the curriculum development process. In Tunisia, in particular, the curriculum has yet to achieve the government’s goal of developing critical consciousness. In Indonesia, the curriculum is based on the process model design, while in Tunisia, it is based on the product model design.

The Inclusion of Cultural Diversity in Higher Education Curriculum Design

This paper reports findings of a study which assesses the measures taken by universities in selected South East Asian countries when developing the competencies of students from other countries. Itaddresses the link between the content of education programme and different cultural background of the society. This is to address the internationalization thrust which constitutes the participation of international students and academics in higher education-related activities. The research assesses whether education programmes have been developed to suit students’ diverse background. Four participants from four universities in four countries have been approached to gather their responses on the subject studied. The finding is expected to enlighten universities and higher education authorities on the appropriate method to design curriculum in universities which host international students.
 Anahtar Kelimeler: : Intersection of culture; Universities; Curriculum; Cultural background; International students; South East Asian countries.

From Snaps to Maps: Using Literature, Mobile Applications, and Mapping Software to Design an Engaging L2 Curriculum

:This article demonstrates the pedagogical potential of two free digital tools: the mobile app Snapchat and Northwestern University Knight Lab's StoryMap. By combining Snapchat and StoryMap in the second language (L2) literature classroom, students adapt L2 language skills to twenty-first-century modes of communication, collaborate with peers, and creatively cross-disciplinary boundaries. Essential to this approach is the consideration of Snapchat (and image-based social media apps) as a twenty-first century literary genre (Bender 2020), and of mobile apps as interdisciplinary research objects (Morris and Murray 2018). From this point of departure, this essay offers a case study of a "medium-inflected DHL2" approach (Cro 2020) to a Spanish literature seminar. It demonstrates how non-traditional, DH-inflected assignments increase student engagement with literature by fostering creativity and productive language play in communicative and analytic contexts. At the curricular level, literature professors' essential role in second-language acquisition becomes visible and active, as DH tools bridge the "language/literature split" (Bernhardt 2001) in L2 pedagogy and curriculum design in higher education. A creative DHL2 approach that adopts an alternative view of traditional L2 literature content to generate non-traditional assessments will improve L2 literature pedagogy and make literary content relevant to students' personal and professional experiences

Critical literacies for a datafied society: academic development and curriculum design in higher education

Participation in democracy, in today’s digital and datafied society, requires the development of a series of transversal skills, which should be fostered in higher education (HE) through critically oriented pedagogies that interweave technical data skills and practices together with information and media literacies. If students are to navigate the turbulent waters of data and algorithms, then data literacies must be featured in academic development programmes, thereby enabling HE to lead in the development of approaches to understanding and analysing data, in order to foster reflection on how data are constructed and operationalised across societies, and provide opportunities to learn from the analysis of data from a range of sources. The key strategy proposed is to adopt the use of open data as open educational resources in the context of problem and research-based learning activities. This paper introduces a conceptual analysis including an integrative overview of relevant literature, to provide a landscape perspective to support the development of academic training and curriculum design programmes in HE to contribute to civic participation and to the promotion of social justice.

Providing a ‘point of entry’: Approaches to framing sustainability in curriculum design in Higher Education

AbstractThe rationale for including sustainability in Higher Education curriculum has been made clear, yet how to facilitate effective learning in this field has received less research attention. This article focuses on approaches to the ‘framing’ of sustainability in curriculum design as a tool for educators to contextualise sustainability concepts and practices to engage learners within traditional disciplines where sustainability studies are still relatively novel, and therefore, not embedded within existing disciplinary ‘frames’. The article draws together findings from a qualitative study of four undergraduate sustainability courses to provide initial insight into different framings of sustainability and student experiences within the courses. Drawing on an analysis of empirical data and theory, this article argues that the way sustainability is framed may assist in addressing barriers in the uptake of sustainability by teachers and students in Higher Education. Framing has the potential to support student engagement with sustainability courses and the integration of sustainability within degree programs and professional practices. The findings also indicate that framing, and its effect on learning, are shaped by both the presentation of content and also, more importantly for transformative learning, the pedagogy underpinning the curriculum design.

Building an Industry-Oriented Business Sustainability Curriculum in Higher Education

In the past, research addressing the issues reflecting industrial needs for sustainability-related curriculum design in higher education has been limited. To narrow this gap and to provide students with better business sustainability curricula, we propose employing a mapping concept to extract the opinions and needs of industrial professionals. A total of 14 industrial professionals were invited to brainstorm on topics of business sustainability to be included in the curriculum, and we were able to obtain 52 topics. The participants were then asked to group the topics on the basis of their own perception of similarity, and rated their importance and difficulty levels. To associate the topics into clusters, we conducted multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. We achieved five clusters: resource usage reduction and management, corporate governance and labor safety, business sustainability practices, employee rights and community involvement, and knowledge of the regulations. A derived importance–performance analysis (dIPA) was later implemented to further categorize the topics on the basis of the distinct levels of importance and difficulty of each topic. The four quadrants in dIPA could act as guidelines for designing a series of progressive courses on business sustainability in higher education.

Entrepreneuring for transition: A participatory action research on community-engaged curriculum design in higher education

The paper is grounded in higher education in a local context in Taiwan. The purpose is to explore pioneering efforts against poverty and social exclusion and to create a context and opportunity for authentic participation among educational institutions and communities in the co-creation of meaning, knowledge, and action during community transitions. Based on participatory action research, the researcher initiated an entrepreneurial spirit through teaching and learning in the context of community-engaged curriculum design. The paper provides an analysis of how university and local actors reach the common objective of local development, after which they initiate processes of personal transition as well as community transition. Participatory planning processes create a space for transformative social learning that leads to the evolution of academic research into partnership research, the transformation of oneself and others, and a shift in relationship dynamics leading to solutions for societal challenges and convivial and inclusive social action.

Disability in higher education – do reasonable adjustments contribute to an inclusive curriculum?

ABSTRACT The study focuses on the importance of inclusive curriculum design in Higher Education (HE) and the impact of reasonable adjustments in ensuring inclusive practices. Although making reasonable adjustments attempts to ensure inclusivity, the data gathered suggests that some staff struggle to accommodate disabled students, due to a lack of knowledge, training and awareness of disability. The findings are drawn from qualitative data collected from five participants by way of in-depth interviews. The study explored the perceptions of staff members in a Law School, and attempts to offer practical recommendations to ensure HE institutions adopt inclusive practices in their curriculum design. The findings suggest that having an inclusive curriculum can in some cases minimise or obviate the need to make reasonable adjustments. It is suggested that HE institutions should now switch their focus to the social model of disability which focuses on attitudes, so as to transform the perception of staff towards disabled students. Additionally, practical solutions are provided in an attempt to recognise that disabled students may need to be treated differently, in order to achieve their full potential, which ultimately ensures inclusion within the curriculum.

How to measure students’ innovation competences in higher education: Evaluation of an assessment tool in authentic learning environments

In all sectors of the economy, the importance of innovation is underlined. Although education plays a central role in the development of human innovation skills, several studies suggest that higher education institutions cannot fulfill these demands. In such, there is a need to update pedagogical practices and develop assessment tools to measure and develop a person’s innovation capacity. The aim of this study is to test and evaluate the functioning of the earlier developed assessment tool to measure students’ innovation competences in the authentic learning environments of Finnish higher education institutions. The electronic self-assessment questionnaire was distributed to students (n = 495) from four Finnish universities of applied sciences. The results showed that the questionnaire statements formed a functional innovation competence barometer for self-assessment, including creative problem-solving, systems thinking, goal orientation, teamwork, and networking competences. The assessment tool facilitates the development of teaching, assessing, and curriculum design in higher education.

Mapping Diversity Through Inclusion: Thinking of a Multicultural Curriculum in Higher Education in Assam.

The deepening of Democracy is no more resembles to the earlier majoritarian perspective, where the minority’s culture, demands and needs were no value in the majority obsessed society. It was something which the fanatic assimilationist groups trying to submerge the voices of the downtrodden in the name of National Concord in the pre-liberal democracies. It showed exclusive tendencies. But with the hasty extension of equity and inclusiveness in Democracy in a plural nation the diversity certainly got a major place into the government agenda. It is no exception even in India. The framers of Indian Constitution in the beginning although did not value the necessity of a multicultural curriculum which can represent the diversity of India into the syllabus for the coming generation. But with the maturity of Constitution the governments have been recognized the importance of inclusion of local – regional art, history, culture and language as a major subjects to be taught at the higher education side by side with the mainstream ideas. This has often been debated whether the local be represented or submerged by nation states in projecting a unified nation system. The Assam in this connection become a major reference point where the “little nationalisms” are still fighting for representation in the higher education curriculum design which is in many ways submerged by the mainstream society and authors. There have been two major movements fought for protection of Language and many such movements were already initiated for inclusion of local languages and culture by the smaller language groups in Assam, the streets were filled by many mass protest for representing local history and culture in the curriculum, the walls were being written for demanding separate educational facilities for the natives in the post independent period. Taking these demands were into consideration the paper intended to study the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion via a multicultural curriculum design in higher education in Assam in retrospect to the mass demands mooted by the people from Assam. The methodology adopted for the paper is descriptive and analytical and data will be collected from relevant secondary sources.

Compassion on university degree programmes at a UK university

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the neuroscience that underpins the psychology of compassion as a competency. The authors explain why this cognitive competency is now taught and assessed on modules of different degree subjects in a UK university.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is divided into first, an exploration of recent psychology and neuroscience literature that illuminates the differences, and relationship, between empathy and compassion for safeness building in teams. Within that, the role of oxytocin in achieving social and intellectual rewards though the exercise of cognitive flexibility, working memory and impulsive inhibitory control (Zelazoet al., 2016) is also identified. The literature findings are compared against relevant qualitative data from the above university, so far, nine years of mixed methods action research on compassion-focussed pedagogy (CfP).FindingsThese are that the concept and practice of embedding compassion as an assessed cognitive competency in university group work is illuminated and rationalised by research findings in neuroscience.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the study are that, so far, fMRI research methods have not been used to investigate student subjects involved in the CfP now in use.Practical implicationsThe paper has implications for theory, policy and practice in relation to managing the increasing amount of group work that accompanies widening participation in higher education (HE).Social implicationsThe social implications of what is outlined in the paper pertain to student mental health, and academic achievement; to policy and practice for HE curriculum design across subjects and disciplines; and for the HE remit to serve the public good.Originality/valueA review of this kind specifically for student assessed group and its implications for student academic achievement and mental health has not, apparently, been published.

Authentically enhancing the learning and development environment

Constructivism is increasingly being included into higher education curriculum design. The goal is simple: to enhance the learning experiences, the learned outcomes, and the graduate capabilities of students. However, the inclusion or addition of constructivist learning models and methods into curricula can occur in a non-holistic, inefficient or piecemeal manner. There exists an increasing demand from stakeholders in higher education course curricula that they produce graduates with a greater level of authenticity in their competency and capability and to be better able to cope with change, complexity and uncertainty as professional practitioners. Can a more effective learning and development environment where active learning is observable and assessable be created using a blend of constructivist learning and instructivist/objectivist learning philosophies, models, methods, and techniques? Can the authenticity and practice proximity be quantitatively assessed for such a learning and development environment in order to better enable the design, implementation, and ongoing dynamic optimisation of more authentic course curricula? To research this, a learning and development environment inclusive of constructivist experiential learning methods and traditional instructivist/objectivist learning methods was trialled in 2016 within a core undergraduate project management unit. Observations and results from the initial trial indicate that the proposed learning and development environment model can be successfully implemented and achieve improved learning outcomes. A conceptual quantitative method seeking to determine the relative combined proportion of task authenticity and practice proximity was also developed.

Teachers’ Involvement in Curriculum Design in Higher Education

Complexities and incessant changes in all spheres of life in the global world ranging from climatic to socio-economic conditions such as increasing school enrolment, dwindling economic resources, high rate of unemployment, cultural and environmental challenges, place demand for emerging curriculum in higher education that will meet the evolving educational needs, so as to prepare learners for their future roles in the changing world. This calls for high level of proficiency in curriculum design on the part of faculty, either at the program or course level. This paper reveals that some of the key factors that affect the faculty from being proficient in curriculum design are, (1) beliefs and values of faculty, (2) gap in use of Information Technology (3) lack of design expertise (4) lack of collaboration among faculty and (5) inadequate support of faculty leadership. The paper suggests that these mitigating factors need to be addressed so that faculty can become more proficient in review and design of appropriate curricula that will meet the plethora of educational demands of the twenty first Century.

A direction of the Korean curriculum design in higher education for the Korean Studies in Europe - Through the analysis of the foreign language curriculum in KU Leuven, Belgium

A direction of the Korean curriculum design in higher education for the Korean Studies in Europe - Through the analysis of the foreign language curriculum in KU Leuven, Belgium

The student voice in higher education curriculum design: is there value in listening?

This article presents a case study illustrating the potential value of enhanced student participation in higher education (HE) curriculum development, in response to an absence of research in this area. Lecturers and students had divergent views of the effectiveness of a staff-led redesign of a module curriculum. Focus groups were used to investigate reasons for the opposing views informing a second, more successful, redesign evidenced by improved feedback, attendance and marks. We discuss how a closer alignment with the ‘student voice’ facilitated the emergence of perceptions not revealed by usual feedback routes. We suggest potential reasons why this occurred including how student views challenged staff assumptions about the learning and teaching process and our initial interpretation of literature. We discuss how our findings might enhance the development of the student voice in HE, and their relevance to continuing debate about the purpose of HE curricula.

Effective Employment: A Basic Objective for Curriculum Design in Higher Education

Education is the most fundamental factor in social and economic development, and economic growth is a major objective for all countries. Education leads to change individuals' values and perceptions and this alone directly affects economic condition. In this review paper, it is aimed at investigating the extent to which students and pupils are prepared and trained for gaining skills and motivation needed in today's job market. It should be the most basic and essential concern of the curriculum planners of Iran's education system. The most important question mainly addressed in this study is as follows: What features should education system and curriculum have to help students develop and improve economic growth of labor market? In analyzing the studies and researches carried out in this regard, the following results were obtained: Attracting graduates from universities and centers of higher education in the labor market depends on their abilities and characteristics some of which should be provided for them while studying. It seems that lack of congruence between processes and educational materials at universities and required skills and abilities for labor market is the most important factor for graduates in failing to find jobs and be employed. Business process implies the application of machines instead of manual tasks. Thus, it seems that curriculum designers should reduce the amount of handwork skills and instead they should add mental skills training. To this end, priority funding should be allocated to public education.

Interventions in teaching first-year law: feeding forward to improve learning outcomes

Aligned assessment is a cornerstone of higher education curriculum design. Yet, it does not address the problem of how students learn how they should proceed when faced with a new assessment task. That teaching task is often left to the role of ‘feedback’. This article examines changes to a first year law unit, introduced following negative student feedback about an assessment task. The feedback made apparent a lack of alignment between staff and student expectations as to what was being assessed and how it was being assessed. The article considers formative assessment through a feed-forward model, and relates this to the design and process of the intervention. The teaching method of the feed-forward model is detailed. The analysis of the results shows that a number of key misperceptions were held by students as to the points of difficulty in the assignment. A significant number of students also found it extremely difficult to judge the quality of past assignments against a marking guide. This direct feeding forward allowed some of the students’ tacit and false assumptions to emerge and be addressed, before they began their first major assessment, resulting in improved pass rates for the assessment.