A well-designed curriculum provides the foundations for student mental wellbeing.
Designing an academic curriculum involves deciding what to teach (and assess) and how best to teach (and assess) your students. In a well-structured curriculum, these core curriculum decisions are made to ensure that:
- There is ‘alignment’ between the curriculum elements – within and across year levels
- Curriculum materials and learning experiences are optimally organised and sequenced
- Planned learning activities promote deep learning and student engagement
- Planned assessment encourages desired behaviours and informs learning
When curriculum elements are aligned, learning is optimally sequenced, and student engagement and progress are fostered, students have a sound foundation for both learning and mental wellbeing.
How might the elements of good curriculum design support student mental wellbeing? (You can review these elements in 1.3 Wellbeing essentials)
A. Close alignment of curriculum elements
At the degree program level, a well-designed curriculum consists of a series of individual subjects that are horizontally and vertically well-aligned. Horizontally alignment means that subjects complement and reinforce other subjects taught in the same year of a program, and vertical alignment refers to clear connections ‘downward’ to subjects or educational experiences in earlier years, and ‘upward’ to subjects that will be undertaken in subsequent years (Angelo, 2012, p.97).
Good curriculum design also consists of well-aligned elements within the curriculum – that is, a close linkage of explicit learning objectives (or intended learning outcomes), with teaching and learning activities and assessment. John Bigg’s ‘Constructive Alignment’ provides a useful framework for designing subject curriculum based on the principle of curriculum alignment and a constructivist theory of learning (e.g., Biggs, 2003). In a nutshell, this theory posits that students learn best by actively constructing their own learning and building on their existing knowledge (see READ MORE: Constructive Alignment in Brief, in right-hand panel).
B. Purposeful organisation and sequencing of content
Increasingly educators are paying attention to designing curriculum so that students develop a strong understanding of ‘threshold concepts’ – the significant concepts in a subject that are reflective of and essential to the way of thinking in a discipline (Meyer & Land, 2003). Organising content and materials to help build and consolidate students’ grasp of threshold concepts and skills provides students with a solid foundation for complex learning and ‘mastery’ of the subject (see READ MORE: Threshold Concepts in Brief, in right-hand panel).
C. A variety of engaging learning activities
- Encourage students to build on prior learning – i.e., what they already know
- Provide authentic, ‘real-world’ learning experiences
- Enable students to make meaning of their experiences and understand their world
- Are relevant to students’ goals, interests and values
- Enable students to apply knowledge and practice/rehearse skills
- Promote peer interaction and social engagement
- Help students spend their independent study time (outside of class) productively
- Provide opportunities for students to self-monitor and evaluate their learning
D. A focus on assessment for learning
Assessment has a powerful influence on students’ learning. For many students it defines the curriculum and indicates the kind of intellectual work that is valued (Maclellan, 2004). Assessment has multiple (sometimes conflicting) purposes, but in general, the aim of university assessment is to:
- Guide and encourage effective approaches to learning;
- Validly and reliably measure expected learning outcomes; and
- Define and protect academic standards (McInnis et al., 2003).
Well-designed assessment will provide a variety of options for students to demonstrate their learning across the subject.
In addition, when assessment tasks build students’ understanding of what the assessor wants and why this encourages the development of learner self-regulation and, hence, a sense of autonomy. Students’ sense of autonomy is also fostered when assessment incorporates self-review or enables students to make meaningful choices in how they approach tasks.