CURRICULUM DESIGN & EVALUATION

Curriculum Design & Evaluation



Curriculum Design & Evaluation

Learning Activities

The challenge for nursing as a subject discipline is to provide educational programmes with sufficient academic challenge to ensure appropriate intellectual development for unconventional students as well as their clinical progression. QAA reports from subject reviews frequently refer to the need to attend to the academic and theoretical underpinning in this subject area and this was also highlighted in the recent subject benchmarking exercise which emphasised the need to locate theory development in the context of clinical practice This educational development project addresses this challenge through re-integrating theory with practice by focusing upon the complex demands of patient care in the context of service delivery. The project will collect real patient case studies and develop them as teaching resources, aimed at preparing nurses to provide high quality care to their patients. Teachers, clinicians and students will inform the development and embedding of the case studies into teaching practice. The learning materials will act as a balance, synthesising theory and practice and strengthening the learning environment in a way that integrates the practical learning experience with the theoretical underpinning central to the nursing programme. We seek to improve patient care by changing the teaching that informs it (Wright, 1959) (Wright, 1959).

Learning Theory-Based Curricular Strategies

Learning materials predicated on case history will enhance and strengthen the learning experience of the student through locating theory within the context of application to patient care. Such an approach will move the student towards deeper learning from the materials as they support the student in getting underneath the superficial and explore how differing approaches and theories predicate differences in nursing activity. The learning materials will develop links to current courses offered by the nursing academic community and create a dynamic between the clinical context and the wider development of theory. Contextualising learning in this way allows students to place patient data in context (information) and information in context (knowledge). The opportunity to analyse and map real case histories on to nursing curricula is welcome as it allows for an ëintellectual depthí and rigour to be applied that is rarely achievable in a busy, pressured and rapidly changing clinical environment. In addition, such a representative set of case histories will capture the cultural diversity of the care environment and allow for a more inclusive curriculum to be developed that both acknowledges and is sensitive to diverse multifaith and multi-cultural care requirements (Wright, 1959) (Wright, 1959).

Innovative Learning Experience

The project has the full support of the senior officers of the consortium partners' that includes support from the respective partners' Policy and Resource Committees and teaching and learning committees. Pro-Vice Chancellors for academic affairs from the consortium partners have agreed to the terms and conditions under which this project will be conducted through the signing of a partnership agreement. The lead institution's finance department has been supportive during the putting together of this bid and will continue to be supportive and committed to the project from initiation ...