SCHOOL OF EDUCATION: Curriculum and Pedagogy

Words like curriculum and pedagogy are regularly used within early childhood and education yet not always defined or interpreted from an early childhood perspective. For example, the new Ofsted Framework talks about, “…deciding what we intend children to learn and develop, how we will implement the curriculum so that children make progress in the seven areas of learning and then how we will evaluate the impact of the curriculum by checking what children know and can do.” The term curriculum is used here, but Ofsted do not define what they mean by the phrase. They do, however, state that they do not endorse one particular teaching method over another, suggesting that we are free to interpret this phrase for ourselves.

What societies envisage as important teaching and learning constitutes the "intended" curriculum. Since it is usually presented in official documents, it may be also called the "written" and/or "official" curriculum. However, at classroom level this intended curriculum may be altered through a range of complex classroom interactions, and what is actually delivered can be considered the "implemented" curriculum. What learners really learn (i.e. what can be assessed and can be demonstrated as learning outcomes/learner competencies) constitutes the "achieved" or "learned" curriculum. In addition, curriculum theory points to a "hidden" curriculum (i.e. the unintended development of personal values and beliefs of learners, teachers and communities; unexpected impact of a curriculum; unforeseen aspects of a learning process). Those who develop the intended curriculum should have all these different dimensions of the curriculum in view. While the "written" curriculum does not exhaust the meaning of curriculum, it is important because it represents the vision of the society

Improved clarity concerning the relationship between curriculum and pedagogy in higher education is needed to address issues concerning learning and teaching quality. This paper explores the relationship between curriculum and pedagogy and argues for a stronger and more explicit link between the two. On that basis, the paper proposes a conceptual learning design framework that has the potential to act as a clarifying tool for academic developers and academics as they conceptualise and develop contemporary learning environments for effective learning. Reflections on the implication of the framework for practice are discussed

Curriculum alignment is crucial in realizing learning objectives, but in higher education the alignment is often challenged by practical problems. The adverse effect of misalignment is further amplified by the lack of student awareness of their position within the curriculum. We argue for the importance of the visibility of learning trajectories across the curriculum and discuss the implementation of a digital curriculum mapping tool. We use four case studies to discuss how the tool was employed along four themes: curriculum development, visibility, assessment, and learning enhancement. This article discusses the pitfalls and best practices in the process of introducing a new method of enhancing curriculum visibility.

Collaborative design positively affects both professional development and the implementation of curriculum change, because teachers develop competencies and practice and develop ownership of the change. The current study was aimed to explore what empirical evidence is available about processes that take place when teachers co-design and how these contribute to professional development and curriculum change. Evidence from 14 PhD studies was collected to study their impact on teacher learning and curriculum change, by analysing effects, mechanisms, and conditions.

This paper reports the findings of an integrative review of the literature conducted to gain insight into the relationship between process quality, curriculum and pedagogy. Process quality attends to those aspect of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision associated with children’s interactions and experiences in the ECEC setting, including with peers, adults, materials and other resources. Process quality is considered an important mechanism for moving quality ECEC provision beyond structural dimensions of quality alone (e.g. child-to-adult ratios, minimum space requirements).

Curriculum alignment is crucial in realizing learning objectives, but in higher education the alignment is often challenged by practical problems. The adverse effect of misalignment is further amplified by the lack of student awareness of their position within the curriculum. We argue for the importance of the visibility of learning trajectories across the curriculum and discuss the implementation of a digital curriculum mapping tool. We use four case studies to discuss how the tool was employed along four themes: curriculum development, visibility, assessment, and learning enhancement. This article discusses the pitfalls and best practices in the process of introducing a new method of enhancing curriculum visibility.