Reclaiming constructive alignment

Abstract

Constructive Alignment (CA) is neither the panacea, nor the unalloyed evil depicted in the majority of higher education discourses. But rather, the theory is a heuristic and accessible representation of commonly agreed upon aspects of modern curriculum and educational theory, designed explicitly to support learning and teaching. However, when imposed top-down for accountability purposes, or used as a quality assurance tool, the seemingly step-by-step simplicity that gives it an administrative potential can also diminish or even destroy its relevance as an educational tool. For these reasons CA and particularly learning outcomes are often vilified amongst academic staff as a pernicious influence on learning and teaching. It has been argued that the mechanistic use of alignment and learning outcomes for validation and audit purposes can create an illusion of quality control which bears little relation to the reality of teaching practice and student learning. This paper explores the tensions that have been created as constructive alignment has journeyed and expanded from an educational theory into Higher Education teaching policy and practice. The purpose is to reclaim its original perspective as a tool for professional academic teaching.

Responding to Covid‐19: A thematic analysis of students' perspectives on modified learning activities during an emergency transition to remote human anatomy education

“…In a rapid transition with such a drastic impact on the context of anatomy teaching as that experienced during the Covid‐19 shutdown, these considerations are easy to overlook. However, instructors should critically reflect on the learning outcomes that they can and should target as the pandemic continues, then carefully design their course activities and assessments for truly student‐centered constructive alignment (Loughlin et al, 2021 ; Smith & Pawlina, 2021 ).…”

The Structure and Delivery of Police Use of Force Training: A German Case Study

“…This has led to efforts to show how empirical evidence might inform the content and delivery of police training on order to further professionalize practice within this domain . Researchers in the field of coaching and education have proposed constructive alignment as one way of drawing in empirical findings in a structured and coherent way (Abraham et al 2015;Biggs 1996;Loughlin et al 2020). Constructive alignment can be operationalised at a macro programme level and at a micro session delivery level.…”

“…Instructor expertise and effectiveness is evaluated with reference to what they do and their capacity to rationalise why this is constructively aligned. Ultimately, the point of constructive alignment is to facilitate the development of desired skills and, where relevant, the transfer of skills from a training setting to a real-life setting (Loughlin et al 2020 Fig. 1 A schematic of the process to develop a constructively aligned programme (Adapted from Abraham et al 2015) Our focus in this paper is on police use of force training and its constituent components (e.g.…”

Postgraduate Education in a Postcurriculum Context

“…Often presented in terms of responding to the demands of students and reflecting consumerist notions of choice, the increasingly popular approach of modularisation and micro-credentialing has been used in a way that supports modernist, rationalist, and instrumentalist approaches to the curriculum. This is supported by the adoption of the principles of constructive alignment (Biggs and Tang 2011), (mis)used in such a way that the role of the teacher is diminished, becoming merely an interchangeable instrument required to deliver activities designed to achieve intended learning outcomes (Loughlin et al 2020). Ralston (2021: 83) described this approach along with the 'craze' for micro-credentialing as reflecting, '(1) administrative urgency to unbundle higher education curricula and degree programs for greater efficiency and profitability and (2) a renascent movement among industry and higher education leaders to reorient the university curriculum towards vocational training.'…”