Developing a new curriculum framework

The curriculum of a mandatory tertiary teacher development programme for staff in a New Zealand Institute of Technology was re-designed so that it would better prepare them to teach in contemporary learning, teaching and work environments (Barnett, 2011; Land, 2009). The main driver for the project was the perception of teaching team members that gaps were opening up between the ideal, enacted and experienced versions of the curriculum and that it was no longer adequately meeting institutional stakeholder needs. We aimed to base the redesign on a carefully formulated set of concepts and principles concerning education, learning and teaching, a rigorous appraisal of the gaps and comprehensive consultation with stakeholders. There were four stages to the project. First, we reviewed and discussed both our own concepts and principles and those presented in literature on such programmes. Second, using focus groups, we gathered the views of current and past students regarding the curriculum and learning, teaching and assessment activities. They identified their expectations and their actual experiences. Third, we contrasted our own, literature and student perspectives using a gap analysis methodology (Brown and Swartz, 1989). Recommendations for the new curriculum were then developed and presented to a range of institutional stakeholders. They identified further gaps between institutional perspectives and the proposals and provided feedback. Finally, we formulated a new curriculum framework, which included a set of concepts and principles, graduate outcomes, and topic and area of competence maps. This paper reports on the feedback from institutional stakeholders and the new curriculum framework, which provides an overview of the renewed tertiary teaching development programme.