Essay on Departmental Curriculum Review.
Even though most professors frequently revise and update their course or experiment with new approaches to make the teaching and learning process more effective and enjoyable, systematic curriculum review of a program falls outside the expertise of nearly all university faculty. Student participation is non-existent in the processes that review content of courses and structure of programs. The only extant example, at the
Therefore, the proposal of student participation in such a committee means that the questions and processes must be considered carefully to avoid the appearance or reality of conflict of interest, to address any concerns students may have over the possibility of their suggestions affecting how they are graded by the professors, and other concerns that may arise. It should also take care to avoid duplicating the existing mechanisms of undergraduate program review, teaching evaluations for particular courses, course descriptions as approved by university Senate, including the process of calendar changes, or Senate committees on undergraduate studies or teaching and learning. It should not put the students in the position of receiving confidential material of any nature. On the positive side, it should capitalize on its advantages over other forms of seeking student input in the undergraduate programs, such as holding annual town hall meetings. Whatever statements the committee develops would ultimately require the building of consensus within the department and would have to remain advisory and subject to all the university policies, including of course the protection of academic freedom.
There are a number of options for an advisory committee with student participation on curriculum review.
1. It can propose to the department a philosophy for its teaching. The committee would develop and propose statements on beliefs, assumptions, and values to the department for its consideration. It could propose principles of teaching, such as the need for challenges and for enjoyment, for breadth, coherence and relevance in the curriculum; such as the need to encourage innovation, and for the tolerance of diversity in pedagogy, for the encouragement of pedagogical experimentation, even if there are failures; for taking care in posing no constraints to change, structural, informal, or otherwise; for the testing of what has been taught. The committee could propose values such as learning; such as ongoing change to meet educational needs and to improve learning; such as encouraging access while maintaining quality; for encouraging diversity in order to broaden understanding and learning; for encouraging partnership with the community; for developing systematic approaches to decision-making.[1] One possible model is that propose by Paulo Freire in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed:[2] the teacher should work as a collaborating ally of the student, not as a supervisor; the subject of the study must be the lives of the students or the perceptions of their own lives; the goal is not changing the student but working with the student to change external, objective reality. Or it could consider Peter Elbows’ four principles: seeing students as smart and capable; showing students the instructors are on their side; explicitly trying to help students do better in testing and grading; revealing our own position, doubts, ambivalence, and biases.[3] It could consider whether control or independence strategies should be used, defined as the use of objective, highly structured courses versus learning contracts and problem-based learning, for example.[4] It could consider such questions as whether the department should focus on knowledge or intellectual skills, on intellectual skills or abilities, competencies, attitudes, and dispositions.[5]
2. The university believes that each program should teach students to be critical thinkers, to be socially and environmentally aware, and should develop student leadership. The faculty of social sciences encourages active pedagogies wherever possible: these include case-based learning, classroom simulations, community-based learning, practicum, problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning, learning through peer groups, learning communities, weekly forum, learning cells, debating controversial issues, and many others. The department committee could therefore consider such questions as whether the program should result in training for particular professions, and whether faculty members have a responsibility to encourage independent student learning. The department committee could also consider potential characteristics of a political science graduate, such as the demonstrated capacity for acquisition, application and integration of knowledge in politics; research skills, including the ability to define problems and access, retrieve and evaluate information; critical thinking and problem-solving skills; responsible behavior to self, others and society; literacy skills; interpersonal and communications skills; teamwork, and personal and group leadership skills; creativity; and the ability and desire for continuous learning. It could also considerable whether skills ought to be transferable, and what part those skills ought to have in the curriculum.
3. The department committee could also investigate whether the department enrolment has any characteristics, such as the participation of Aboriginal students, of first-generation immigrants, of speakers of English as a second language (as is the case for several faculty members), of proportion of men and women, of mature students, of politically active students, and any other characteristics. It could also consider the motivation of students, of whether they do or should consider themselves product for the job market, of whether it would be appropriate for the department to train good citizens, and what that would mean.
4. The department committee could explore what principles should guide student evaluation: should it be the sequence of unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious incompetence?[6] Or should it use the levels of ignorance, unistructural, multistructural, relational or extended abstract?[7]
5. The committee could explore what principles should guide interactions outside of the classroom, i.e. whether the instructor should show interest in the person who is speaking and the subject under discussion; should continue to listen when the subject becomes boring; should not allow prejudice to reduce attention; should not permit enthusiasm to carry them away; should not be critical of the other person’s speech or method of delivery; should regularly summarize what is heard; should check for understanding; should not allow emotional reactions to affect understanding; should concentrate when difficult ideas are being expressed; should create the right environment for listening; should allow sufficient time for full understanding before treating; and should make a final review of understanding of facts.[8]
6. The department committee could also propose what students ought to be able to do at the close of a program, such as critically review research articles in the discipline, create and implement some form of political change, or advise the community on such changes, analyze and compare theories on various issues, assess the performance of political actors, or reason out a position on political issues. Should they be able to apply already-learned concepts to the widest range possible of information? Should they have the ability to build new concepts?
7. The department committee could achieve the above by brainstorming, by consulting students and faculty members through surveys or town hall meetings, by inviting speakers or faculty members to discuss various issues, by sponsoring open forum or debate on their proposed statements, by investigating how issues are handled in other Canadian universities, or by developing a mission statement. The committee could also adopt or identify certain good practices, such as allowing for variation, requiring consultation and consensus, that overarching university policies and practices are not contradicted; that the committee require the department to work by consensus.
All this points to the student participation being a channel for a broader consultation of students enrolled in a particular program or taking an interest in a particular discipline. The work involved would be extensive, and points to a possible need for an honorarium to be paid to such students.
Proposed Course Outline Template[9]
| PREREQUISITES | courses, knowledge, skills, experience |
| ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS | Contact information for instructor and teaching assistants, office hours, office location |
| AIM PURPOSE RATIONALE | introduction to subject matter and how course fits with college or departmental curriculum; why course is important to students; consideration of student characteristics |
| LEARNER OUTCOMES | what a student will gain as a result of taking the course; knowledge, skills, and attitudes or values that you expect students to have when they leave; alignment with faculty and university goals and objectives |
| HOW THE COURSE IS ORGANIZED | explain why topics are organized in a certain way |
| CALENDAR OR SCHEDULE | required versus recommended work; estimate of student workload; how and why topics follow each other; contribution of that structure to learner outcomes or student needs; alignment with faculty and university goals and objectives |
| FORMAT, ACTIVITIES, PEDAGOGY | contribution to learner outcomes; materials used; details of pedagogy, format, activities used; alignment with faculty and university goals and objectives |
| STUDENT EVALUATION | list assignments, term papers and exams; nature (expected length), deadline dates; describe grading procedure; alignment with learner outcomes or student needs; alignment with faculty and university goals and objectives |
| RESOURCES | one text or a series of readings; other resources; alignment with learner outcomes or student needs; alignment with faculty and university goals and objectives |
| PROPOSED LEARNING CONTRACT | |
| COMMENT FROM PREVIOUS STUDENTS | |
| COURSE POLICIES | attendance; late work; makeup work; make-up exams; academic fraud; alignment of each with learner outcomes or student needs, with faculty and university goals and objectives |
| PHILOSOPHY | beliefs, assumptions, and values related to course and teaching; alignment with faculty and university goals and objectives |
Proposed Work Schedule
Meeting 1 Consideration of how the department committee should go about its work
Meeting 2 Consideration of department principles, values in teaching
Meeting 3 Consideration of existing characteristics of students and potential characteristics of graduates
Meeting 4 Consideration of principles guiding student evaluation
Meeting 5 Consideration of principles guiding one-on-one teacher student interactions
Meeting 6 Consideration of course outline template
Some Information on Selected Active Pedagogies
Inquiry-based learning is a form of self-directed learning and follows the four basic stages defining self-directed learning. Students take more responsibility for determining what they need to learn, identifying resources and how best to learn from them, using resources and reporting their learning, and assessing their progress in learning. A comprehensive senior inquiry course will have all four of these elements. Students will take the initiative and be largely responsible for seeing they successfully complete their learning in a given area. Generally, students draft a “learning contract” and then execute it – the instructor submits a grade on completion of the contract.
Problem based learning is a pathway to better learning, helping students to learn how to learn. This method challenges students to develop the ability to think critically, analyze problems, find and use appropriate learning resources. It is a learner-centered educational method. Learners are progressively given more and more responsibility for their own education and become increasingly independent of the teacher for their education. It is based on real world problems. Learning is based on the messy, complex problems encountered in the real world as a stimulus for learning and for integrating and organizing learned information in ways that will ensure its recall and application to future problems. It is a motivating way to learn. Learners are involved in active learning, working with real problems and what they have to learn in their study is seen as important and relevant to their own lives.
Community based learning is a method which promotes student learning and development through participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences. These experiences are defined, planned, implemented, and coordinated collaboratively by students, the university, and the community. They offer students an opportunity for an application of their education in service to the community which enhances their appreciation, understanding, and respect for others. Service Learning activities may be incorporated into courses or they may be stand-alone, co- or extra-curricular projects. Principles of community-based learning include: structured opportunities for people to reflect critically on their service experience; articulates clear service and learning goals for everyone involved; allows for those with needs to define those needs; clarifies the responsibilities of each person and organization involved; matches service providers and service needs through a process that recognizes changing circumstances; expects genuine, active, and sustained organizational commitment; includes training, supervision, monitoring, support, recognition, and evaluation to meet service and learning goals; insures that the time commitment for service and learning is flexible, appropriate, and in the best interests of all involved; is committed to program participation by and with diverse populations.
Case-based learning tells the story of an interest-arousing issue. It is set in the past five years, and creates empathy with the central political actors. It includes direct quotations and primary sources. It is relevant to the reader, and should be thought-provoking and require some decision-making. It must have some generalizable value and it must serve the pedagogy of the course. It also needs to be short.
Competence-based learning breaks up the role of the instructor into devising the competencies (specifying the knowledge and skills a student must have to get credit); validating the competencies (going to the outside world to determine whether these are the competencies people really need for certain jobs, studies, or tasks); designing the instruction (figuring out what subject matter, activities, and materials should be used to help students get these competencies); early diagnostic testing (finding out whether students are suited for the instruction or need special help); teaching; late diagnostic testing; and certifying.[10]
Learning through peer groups makes it possible for students to learn from each other. Students may see instructors as assessors and are reluctant to display their ignorance by making mistakes; students having problems with a concept can be helped by someone who has just overcome that difficulty; the competitive element within a peer group may motivate students; students can work at their own pace. The role of the teacher is to organize the groups, provide tasks for them and only intervene with support when requested.[11]
Classroom Role Play Simulations are extensively established in the literature.[12] In recent years, classroom role-play simulations have been used for Cabinet and budget processes in courses on Canadian Politics at
Formalized Socratic Thinking The formalization of the Socratic method of structured open-ended questions for supporting analysis, i.e. the worksheet system, is similar to the structured open-ended question system advocated by Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton, in " What's New With The Grid?"
[1] Graham Bradley, “Learning in Effect,” Ronald Barnett, Learning to Effect (London: Open University Press, 1992), 21-38, 26.
[2] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (
[3] Peter Elbow, Embracing Contraries/Explorations in Learning and Teaching (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 149-150.
[4] Graham Gibbs, Problems and Course Design Strategies (
[5] A. Doherty, J. Chenevert, R.R. Miller, J.L. Roth, L.C. Truchan, “Developing Intellectual Skills,” in J.G. Gaff and L.LL. Ratcliff, Handbook of Undergraduate Curriculum (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992), 173.
[6] The attribution of which is contested.
[7] Graham Gibbs, “Improving the Quality of Student Learning through Course Design,” Ronald Barnett, Learning to Effect (London: Open University Press, 1992), 140- 168, 151-2.
[8]Diana Tribe and A.J. Tribe, “The Law Teachers’ Dilemma,” in Ronald Barnett, Learning to Effect (London: Open University Press, 1992), 87-97, 94.
[9] With some ideas from Graham Gibbs, Independent Learning with More Students (Oxford: Oxford Staff Development Centre, 1992), 32.
[10] Peter Elbow, Embracing Contraries/Explorations in Learning and Teaching (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 103.
[11] Malcolm Frazer, “Promoting Learning,” in Ronald Barnett, Learning to Effect (London: Open University Press, 1992), 55-68, 62.
[12] Camelot, A Role Playing Simulation For Political Decision Making, James R. Woodworth, W. Robert Gump; Homewood, Ill. : Dorsey Press, 1982; Simple Simulations : A Guide To The Design And Use Of Simulation/Games In Teaching Political Science / By Charles Walcott (Washington : American Political Science Association, C1976); Scenario, Canada And The United European Community : A Simulation Exercise, Lawrence V. Gould, Jr. (
[13] See Marshall DG, "Socratic Method And The Irreducible Core Of Legal Education,"
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