"As simple as possible": the bones of curriculum design

Abstract

Einstein is reported to have said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler". Educational designers working with university teachers bring to their work models and theories from a range of disciplines, many of which are unfamiliar to or discounted by their discipline-based colleagues. This paper outlines a simple yet flexible approach to discussions of curriculum design which highlights key aspects - intended learning outcomes at program and course level, content (declarative knowledge), teaching and learning activities and assessment (functioning knowledge), and graduate attributes, qualities and capabilities. The Bones Model provides a framework to assist discipline-based teaching academics to describe more clearly their curriculum and the standards to which they hold their students. It demonstrates the links between program-level intended learning outcomes, statements of graduate attributes, and course-level intended learning outcomes. It highlights the most obviously pedagogically relevant purpose for assessment strategies: to collect evidence of how well students have achieved intended learning outcomes. It provides for discussions about the link between declarative knowledge and functioning knowledge. Moreover, it provides a mechanism to assist the institution to collect some of the evidence necessary to demonstrate quality to external reviewers and auditors. The Bones Model guides discipline-based academics through the essential aspects of the curriculum design process quickly, without requiring of them a deep knowledge of the theories and research underpinning the practice of educational designers and developers.