Co-Creation of the Curriculum: Challenging the Status Quo to Embed Partnership
Keywords:
Student Engagement, Curriculum Development, Quality Enhancement, Partnership, Co-Creation of the CurriculumAbstract
Many individuals in the higher education sector claim that co-creation of the curriculum is an innovative process of student engagement in which students and staff members become partners in curriculum development. This research analyses rare instances of co-creation of the curriculum in the Scottish higher education sector to understand individuals’ different conceptualisations of this collaborative teaching and learning practice. The researcher interviewed ten academic members of staff and ten students who participated in co-creation of the curriculum in Scotland to analyse their perspectives of the benefits as well as the challenges of this form of active student engagement. Staff and students participating in co-creation of the curriculum encounter such challenges as staff and students taking on different responsibilities, increased time and effort involved and institutional inertia as they challenge the status quo. This paper will explore how individuals have overcome these challenges to embed partnership and achieve strong benefits of co-creation of the curriculum, including shared ownership and the engagement of both students and staff in the learning community and their increased satisfaction and professional development resulting from working in partnership.
References
Astin, A. (1984) 'Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education.' Journal of College Student Development, 518-529.
Barnett, R. and Coate, K. (2004) Engaging the curriculum in higher education. Maidenhead, UK: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press
Baxter Magolda, M. (1999) Creating contexts for learning and self-authorship: Constructive-developmental pedagogy. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
Bovill, C. (2014) 'An investigation of co-created curricula within higher education in the UK, Ireland and the USA.' Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 51(1), 15-25.
Bovill, C., Morss, K. and Bulley, C. (2009) 'Should students participate in curriculum design? Discussion arising from a first year curriculum design project and a literature review.' Pedagogical Research in Maximising Education, 3(2), 17-25.
Cevero, R. and Wilson, A. (2001) 'At the heart of practice: The struggle for knowledge and power.' In: Cevero R. and Wilson A. (eds.), Power in practice: adult education and the struggle for knowledge and power in society. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1-20.
Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C. and Felten, P. (2014) Engaging students as partners in learning and teaching: A guide for faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Croft, T. (2013, 10 May 2015) The SYMBoL project – Supporting mathematics students in the transition to Year 2. Available at: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/ecampus/documents/pdf/eso/loughboroughcasestudy-thesymbolproject.pdf (Accessed: 10 May 2015).
Crosling, G., Thomas, L. and Heagney, M. (2008) 'Introduction: Student success and retention.' In: Crosling, G. Thomas L. and Heagney M. (eds.), Improving student retention in higher education: The role of teaching and learning. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 1-13.
Dewey, J. (1998) Experience and education (60th anniversary edition). West Lafayette, IN: Kappa Delta Pi.
Entwistle, N. (1992) The impact of teaching and learning outcomes in higher education: A literature review. Sheffield, UK: Employment Department, Training, Enterprise and Education Directorate.
Fraser, S. and Bosanquet, A. (2006) 'The curriculum? That’s just a unit outline, isn’t it?' Studies in Higher Education, 31(3), 269-284.
HEA. (2015) Students as partners. Available at: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/enhancement/themes/students-partners (Accessed: 12 September 2015).
Johansson, C. and Felten, P. (2014) Transforming students: Fulfilling the promise of higher education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kuh, G. D. (2010) Student success in college: creating conditions that matter (First edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J. H. and Whitt, E. J. (2005) Assessing conditions to enhance educational effectiveness: the inventory for student engagement and success (First edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lattuca, L. and Stark, J. (2009) Shaping the college curriculum: Academic plans in context (2nd Edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Merriam, S. B. and Caffarella, R. S. (1991) Learning in adulthood: a comprehensive guide. San Francisco, CA; Oxford, UK: Jossey-Bass.
QAA. (2012). UK Quality Code for Higher Education. Available at: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/information-and-guidance/uk-quality-code-for-higher-education-chapter-b5-student-engagement#.WBe3_C2LSUk (Accessed: 31 October 2016).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright is held by the journal. The author has full permission to publish to their institutional repository. Articles are published under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence.
