Dismantling the Curriculum in Higher Education

Hall, Richard; Smyth, Keith

doi:10.16995/olh.66

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Conversely, French cautioned that this potential can also fragment learning by disaggregating content, and assessing discrete components of learning to the exclusion of integrative learning. Others have also critiqued the intellectual fragmentation of modularisation for its ability to simplify the complexity of the real world (Hall & Smyth, 2016) by limiting opportunity for discussion, analysis of material and reflection, leading to lowered standards (French, 2015).…”

Section: Intensive Modes Of Teaching and The Vu Blockmentioning

confidence: 99%

Block Mode Study: Opportunities and Challenges for a New Generation of Learners in an Australian University

Samarawickrema

Cleary

2021

SUCCESS

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This article is an update on a university-wide overhaul of its pedagogy, curriculum and delivery to support the expanding non-traditional, new generation learners while enhancing opportunity and success for traditional learners. The Block Model developed by Victoria University (VU), Australia for its undergraduate cohort, was a bold response to support all students including its high proportion of First-in-family (FiF), low socio-economic status (LSES), and non-English-speaking background (NESB) students. In this radical new hybrid Block model, students study one unit/subject at a time over four weeks. The article reports on preliminary results after two years of implementing the VU Block Model. While both traditional and new-generation cohorts significantly improved their performance, there was a higher improvement in the pass rates of LSES, NESB and FiF students, compared to the improvements in the traditional cohorts of students. These initial results confirm the value of the institution-wide strategy to expand opportunity and enhance success for all.

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Section: Intensive Modes Of Teaching and The Vu Blockmentioning

confidence: 99%

Block Mode Study: Opportunities and Challenges for a New Generation of Learners in an Australian University

Samarawickrema

Cleary

2021

SUCCESS

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“…Moving beyond well-established notions of the curriculum as a body of knowledge, as a product, or as process (Smith, 1996(Smith, , 2000, and extending the notion of curriculum as praxis into the idea of curriculum as space and place. In doing so we sought to build upon the work of Hall and Smyth (2016) who outline the range of ways-technological, cultural, and pedagogicalin which the curriculum and the activities of the curriculum are currently often "bounded" within the university. These include, but are not limited to: (i) the cultural narrowness of the curriculum; (ii) modularized curricula structures that create false distance between disciplines and cohorts; (iii) abstract and other forms of assessment that "lock" student knowledge and knowledge artefacts within the virtual and physical walls of the university; and (iv) one dimensional conceptualizations of open education that conflate open with open online.…”

Section: A Response To the Symbiosis Of Neoliberalism And Populism: Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Engagement for Active Participation: The Digital University in an Age of Populism

MacNeill¹,

Johnston

Smyth

2020

New Dir Adult Contin Educ

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“…It should be noted that while we recognised from the outset the spectrum of activities and range of terms that can be associated with RTL, including research-informed teaching, research-based learning and teaching, and research-led learning and teaching, we use the term RTL as an overarching one that encompasses the aforementioned and other recently emerging practices. The latter include, and which we subsequently come on to explore, concepts and approaches related to 'Student as Producer' (Neary, Saunders, Hagyard & Derrico, 2014) the Connected Curriculum (Fung, 2017), and 'the curriculum as praxis' (Hall & Smyth, 2016;Johnston, MacNeill & Smyth, 2019). The latter, concerned with conceptualising and enacting the curriculum as a means and medium through which to address directly the knowledge requirements and needs of our wider communities and society, was identified as a key touchstone and aspirational end point at the outset of the project.…”

Section: Overview and Purpose Of Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academics' conceptions of and approaches to research-teaching linkages: Challenges for realising the curriculum as praxis

Rayner

Smyth²,

Fotheringham³

2020

JPAAP

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In this paper, we seek to provide a rich exploration of the conceptions of and approaches to research-teaching linkages (RTL) that are held and undertaken by scholars, researchers and academics within Higher Education (HE). The work we report has been undertaken as part of a longitudinal institutional project to broaden and deepen engagement with RTL in a geographically distributed university that sits within a particular social and economic context. The project has a primary focus on exploring creative new ways to embed RTL principles and practices across a broad range of subject areas, within formal learning and teaching, and curricula, in such a way that the intellectual work our students undertake and produce has a direct value to the needs of the wider communities the university serves. Within this paper, we present key aspects of our work and findings to date in three distinct parts. Part 1 summarises the main findings from an extensive review of the literature related to RTL that we undertook, and in which we synthesise the literature on RTL into four distinct areas comprising: perceptions of RTL; principles of RTL; productivity in RTL, and practice in RTL. In the latter area we consider the concept of the ‘curriculum as praxis’. Part 2 of the paper describes and reports on the emerging findings of our own research, which took the form of a phenomenographic study investigating the conceptions of and approaches to RTL within the range of staff who are participating in the aforementioned institutional project. The phenomenography represents a contribution to a relatively small research base of phenomenographic research concerning RTL. In Part 3 of the paper we consider and look towards how we reconcile the promise and possibilities of RTL, particularly in relation to the ‘curriculum as praxis’, with the perceptions and practices emerging from our phenomenographic study. In doing so we offer a consideration of practical next steps that we are now taking, including recommendations we hope others may find useful.

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Dismantling the Curriculum in Higher Education

Cited by 15 publications

References 13 publications

Block Mode Study: Opportunities and Challenges for a New Generation of Learners in an Australian University

Block Mode Study: Opportunities and Challenges for a New Generation of Learners in an Australian University

Critical Engagement for Active Participation: The Digital University in an Age of Populism

Academics' conceptions of and approaches to research-teaching linkages: Challenges for realising the curriculum as praxis

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