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Planning the curriculum

The ‘Skilbeck’ model (1)

It includes: 

Skilbeck M (1975) School Based Curriculum Development and Teacher Education.  cited by Mulholland H (1988) in Curriculum Design and Development. Centre for Medical Education, University of Dundee, Dundee. 

How can you determine the curriculum? 

Involvement of the learners in the process is vital. It is most effective if you can involve teachers, learners and programme planners together, and gather data for planning from a variety of sources. Remember that ‘perceived needs’ and ‘true needs’ may be different. You may need to establish standards based on evidence and the views of experts to establish ‘true’ needs. 

How can you decide on competencies? 

Competencies ‘underlie the behaviours thought necessary to achieve a desired outcome. A competency is something you can demonstrate where it is clear the behaviour is successful’. These can be broken down into smaller stages when the overall competency is difficult to achieve. Many useful behaviours involve ‘subtle application and experience to be effective such as teaching competency’. Competency-based learning has mainly been directed at technical topics such as learning practical nursing procedures rather than interpersonal competencies, for example working with others or dealing with patients. 

Weightman J (1994) Competencies in Action. Institute of Personnel and Development, London. 

Methods

There are five main methods of describing and determining a curriculum:

Harden RM (1986) Approaches to Curriculum Planning. Medical Education. 20: 458–66. 

Harden’s ten questions to ask when planning a course: 

Harden described ten issues needing to be considered in formulating a new curriculum for a course or programme of learning.(4) His strategies for such a curriculum are: 

1. needs in relation to the product of a training programme 
2. aims and objectives 
3. content 
4. organisation of the content 
5. educational strategies 
6. teaching methods 
7. assessment 
8. curriculum details communicated to others 
9. educational climate 
10. management of the whole process 

Harden RM (1986) Ten questions to ask when planning a course or curriculum. Medical Education. 20: 356–65. 

Spiral curriculum

More recently there has been much written about the spiral curriculum, where certain themes run through the years of learning, spiral upwards, getting broader, with more knowledge, skills and appropriate attitudes being established as the learner develops. 

5. Harden RM and Stamper N (1999) What is a spiral curriculum? Medical Teacher. 21: 141–3.

Source: Teaching made easy Chambers and Wall

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