Innovative Curriculum Design

The higher education landscape is embracing the call to be innovative, yet scholars have not clearly defined what it means to innovate. Innovation is not limited to the use and adoption of educational technologies, and it encompasses a broad array of elements that must be considered if we are to truly aspire toward innovative teaching in higher education. Enhancing Learning Design for Innovative Teaching in Higher Education is a critical scholarly publication that examines how instructional systems design, instructional design, educational technologies, curriculum design, and program design impact innovation and innovative teaching in higher education. The book offers definitions of innovative teaching and examines critical intersections to achieve innovation and innovative teaching in post-secondary environments. Highlighting a wide range of topics such as program mapping and learning design, this book is essential for academicians, administrators, professionals, curriculum developers, instructional designers, K-12 teachers, educational technologists, researchers, and students.

The focus of this book is original research regarding the implementation of problem-based learning and pedagogies of play as active approaches to foster self-directed learning. With the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in mind, educational institutions need to rethink teaching and learning for the future. As such, active engagement can be encouraged, as evident in this book, where problem-based learning drives learning through real-world problems, while pedagogy of play focuses on innovative environments where the action of play and learning are integrated with the aim of developing SDL. The following are addressed in the chapters: an overview of problem-based learning and pedagogy of play, metaliteracy, playful problem-based learning tasks, computational thinking in game-based tasks and geometry, solving puzzles, applying LEGO®, using drama as the pedagogy of play and implementing educational robotics. The empirical research findings disseminated in this book aim to inspire academics in the research focus area of self-directed learning with active learning approaches in the school and tertiary classroom that hold affordances to enhance 21st-century skills. Active learning is an umbrella term for pedagogies that mainstream student engagement, such as problem-based learning, cooperative learning, gamification, role-play and drama. This scholarly book highlights various engaging pedagogies.

This open access book provides insight into what it takes to actively involve teachers in the curriculum design process. It examines different aspects of teacher involvement in collaborative curriculum design, with specific attention to its implications for sustainable curriculum innovation and teacher learning. Divided into six sections, the book starts out by introducing the notion of collaborative curriculum design and discusses its historical and theoretical foundations. It describes various approaches commonly adopted to actively involve teachers in the (co-)design of curriculum materials. Sections two and three provide examples of what key phases in the curriculum design process - such as needs analysis, design and development, and implementation - look like across various collaborative curriculum design projects. Section four reports on the impact of collaborative curriculum design on student learning, teacher practices, teacher professional growth, and institutional change. Building on the research evidence about the outcomes of collaborative curriculum design, section five focuses on sustainability, scaling-up and curriculum leadership issues, which are key to the continuation and further evolution of curriculum innovations. Future perspectives are addressed in section six with emphasis on the infrastructure of a sustainable curriculum innovation.

Place-based Curriculum Design provides pre-service and practicing teachers both the rationale and tools to create and integrate meaningful, place-based learning experiences for students. Practical, classroom-based curricular examples illustrate how teachers can engage the local and still be accountable to the existing demands of federal, state, and district mandates. Coverage includes connecting the curriculum to students’ outside-of-school lives; using local phenomena or issues to enhance students’ understanding of discipline-based questions; engaging in in-depth explorations of local issues and events to create cross-disciplinary learning experiences, and creating units or sustained learning experiences aimed at engendering social and environmental renewal. An on-line resource (www.routledge.com/9781138013469) provides supplementary materials, including curricular templates, tools for reflective practice, and additional materials for instructors and students.

Changing student profiles and the increasing availability of mainstream and specialized learning technologies are stretching the traditional face-to-face models of teaching and learning in higher education. Institutions, too, are facing far-reaching systemic changes which are placing strains on existing resources and physical infrastructure and calling into question traditional ways of teaching through lectures and tutorials. And, with an ever-increasing scrutiny on teaching and teachers’ accountability for positive educational outcomes, the call for closer attention to learning, teaching and, most especially, to the design and delivery of the curriculum is given increasing relevance and importance. Research provides strong evidence of the potential for technologies to facilitate not only cognition and learning but also to become integral components in the redesign of current curriculum models. Some Universities and individual academics have moved along this pathway, developing new and innovative curriculum, blending pedagogies and technologies to suit their circumstances. Yet, there are others, unsure of the possibilities, the opportunities and constraints in these changing times. Curriculum Models for the 21st Century gives insights into how teaching and learning can be done differently. The focus is on a whole of curriculum approach, looking at theoretical models and examples of practice which capitalize on the potential of technologies to deliver variations and alternatives to the more traditional lecture-based model of University teaching.​

A crucial element in ensuring patient safety and quality of care is the proper training of the next generation of doctors, nurses, and healthcare staff. To effectively serve their students, health science educators must first prepare themselves with competencies in pedagogy and curriculum design. Transformative Curriculum Design in Health Sciences Education provides information for faculty to learn how to translate technical competencies in medicine and healthcare into the development of both traditional and online learning environments. This book serves as a reference for health sciences undergraduate and graduate faculty interested in learning about the latest health sciences educational principles and curriculum design practices. This critical reference contains innovative chapters on transformative learning, curriculum design and development, the use of technology in healthcare training through hybrid and flipped classrooms, specific pedagogies, interprofessional education, and more.

This open access book provides insight into what it takes to actively involve teachers in the curriculum design process. It examines different aspects of teacher involvement in collaborative curriculum design, with specific attention to its implications for sustainable curriculum innovation and teacher learning. Divided into six sections, the book starts out by introducing the notion of collaborative curriculum design and discusses its historical and theoretical foundations. It describes various approaches commonly adopted to actively involve teachers in the (co-)design of curriculum materials. Sections two and three provide examples of what key phases in the curriculum design process - such as needs analysis, design and development, and implementation - look like across various collaborative curriculum design projects. Section four reports on the impact of collaborative curriculum design on student learning, teacher practices, teacher professional growth, and institutional change. Building on the research evidence about the outcomes of collaborative curriculum design, section five focuses on sustainability, scaling-up and curriculum leadership issues, which are key to the continuation and further evolution of curriculum innovations. Future perspectives are addressed in section six with emphasis on the infrastructure of a sustainable curriculum innovation. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

This open access book provides insight into what it takes to actively involve teachers in the curriculum design process. It examines different aspects of teacher involvement in collaborative curriculum design, with specific attention to its implications for sustainable curriculum innovation and teacher learning. Divided into six sections, the book starts out by introducing the notion of collaborative curriculum design and discusses its historical and theoretical foundations. It describes various approaches commonly adopted to actively involve teachers in the (co-)design of curriculum materials. Sections two and three provide examples of what key phases in the curriculum design process - such as needs analysis, design and development, and implementation - look like across various collaborative curriculum design projects. Section four reports on the impact of collaborative curriculum design on student learning, teacher practices, teacher professional growth, and institutional change. Building on the research evidence about the outcomes of collaborative curriculum design, section five focuses on sustainability, scaling-up and curriculum leadership issues, which are key to the continuation and further evolution of curriculum innovations. Future perspectives are addressed in section six with emphasis on the infrastructure of a sustainable curriculum innovation.

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

The Second Edition of Curriculum Theory: Conflicting Visions and Enduring Concerns by Michael Stephen Schiro presents a clear, unbiased, and rigorous description of the major curriculum philosophies that have influenced educators and schooling over the last century. The author analyzes four educational visions—Scholar Academic, Social Efficiency, Learner Centered, and Social Reconstruction—to enable readers to reflect on their own educational beliefs and more productively interact with educators who might hold different beliefs.