The influence of curriculum on master’s students’ perceived abilities in four domains of graduateness

Abstract

Potentially all university graduates, regardless of the discipline they have studied, are expected to have obtained generic learning outcomes, which we refer to as 'graduateness' . This study investigates the extent to which learning programmes' emphasis on graduateness affects students' perceived abilities in the domains of graduateness. Four domains of graduateness are considered: reflective thinking, scholarship, moral citizenship and lifelong learning. Based on curriculum maps, master's programmes were clustered according to the emphasis placed on each domain. Unexpectedly, there appeared to be no difference in students' perceived competence in the four domains of graduateness between master's programmes that placed little to no emphasis on reflective thinking, moral citizenship or lifelong learning and master's programmes that placed more emphasis on these domains. Only in the scholarship domain was a difference found in students' perceived competence; surprisingly, it was in the opposite direction. In conclusion, we can say that the relation between emphasis on the domains of graduateness and students' perceived abilities in these domains were not found across a large sample of study programmes.

The Examination of Competencies in Master’s Degree Programs in the Context of Lifelong Learning Key Competencies

“…In literature, there are studies that associate lifelong learning competencies to undergraduate, graduate and doctorate programs in higher education (Griffin, 1982;Pepper, 2011;Pitman & Broomhall, 2009;Reeves, 2011). In the study called -The influence of curriculum on master's students' perceived abilities in four domains of graduateness‖ conducted by Steur, Jansen and Hofman (2016), it was found that there is no difference between the students who are enrolled in the programs that do not emphasize lifelong learning and those enrolled in the programs that emphasize lifelong learning. However, researchers suggest that program contents and practices should be examined more closely in terms of having lifelong learning competencies.…”