A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

52 ❘
Teaching, supervising, learning
DECISIONS
EVALUATION
analyse
assemble
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
how
ASSESSMENT
what
why
how
TEACHING
what
how
LEARNING
what
why
Figure 4.1 The logical model of curriculum development
The ‘how?’ and the ‘what?’ at each step in the development cycle also have significance.
These are intended to encourage us to think through the point that the form of the
programme or module should depend more on the type of content and expectation and
learning outcomes than the actual nature of it.
For example, if our intention is to facilitate learning in such a way that students’ abilities
to analyse data, the method and approach taken, will have much in common with
someone else who has a similar aim but within a different discipline, then ‘how’ is much
more central to the design of the curriculum than ‘what’, which is particular to a discipline
(Cowan, 2006, personal communication).
The model allows for and encourages an interrogation of ‘how’ to assess and ‘what’ to
assess, how to facilitate learning and what sort of learning to encourage, and so on around
the cycle.
A recent modification to this model is shown in Figure 4.2. This modified model puts
learning outcomes at the centre of the development process, representing a minor change
in the language reflecting aims and objectives for courses and programmes. The addition
of the question ‘why?’ at each stage of the developmental process is intended to encourage
staff to interrogate their classroom practice and to engage in reflection on curriculum
development.