Curriculum Development in Nursing

Process and Innovation

Leana Uys, Nomthandazo Gwele

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781134280315
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

Education for nurses and allied health professionals is being radically overhauled both in the UK and overseas. Curriculum Development in Nursing offers nurse educators a single text that covers curriculum development processes, and highlights case study examples on innovation in approaches to nurse education.

Written by internationally well-known authors based in South Africa, who take a truly international perspective looking at education in the UK, Europe and the US, as well as Africa and the Middle East, this book is an essential guides to curriculum development and will be an invaluable resource for nurse educators and postgraduate nursing students internationally.

Chapter 1
Education philosophy and the curriculum

Nomthandazo S Gwele

Introduction

The term curriculum means many things to many people. Any attempt to define the concept within the context of this chapter is not aimed at seeking consensus of interpretation but rather an understanding of the meaning attached to the concept in the context of this book. Curriculum here refers to planned learning experiences that the educational institution intends to provide for its learners. This definition does not deny the existence of hidden and null curricula (that which the educational institution chooses to exclude from its curriculum (Eisner, 1994), in educational institutions, but is seen as an appropriate point of departure for a book on curriculum development, since what is not planned or cannot be planned would be difficult to articulate in such a book.

Despite the lack of agreement on the meaning of the term, there seems to be consensus that educational institutions, as institutions charged with the all important societal function of educating citizens, have the sole claim to curriculum. Furthermore, most agree that in education of all forms, there is no such thing as being neutral (Bode, 1937; Moore, 2000; Smeyers, 1995). Some authors believe that education should be directed towards helping learners become intelligent and critical citizens in a democratic society (Dewey, 1916, 1961); yet for some, education is a political act that ‘demands from educators that they take it on as a political act and that they consistently live their progressive and democratic or authoritarian and reactionary past or also their spontaneous, uncritical choice, that they define themselves by being democratic or authoritarian’ (Freire, 1998: 63). Put simply, either the learners have to be taught to fit as a cog into the existing social machinery, or to recognize their own responsibility for the transformation of the social, political and economic world in which they live (Bode, 1937). In Cuffaro’s words ‘philosophy of education represents choices, values, knowledge and beliefs of teachers as well as their aspirations, intentions and aims. It serves to guide and inspire and contributes to determining the detail of every day life in the classroom’ (1994: 1).

Central to making educational choices is a need to make explicit the philosophical beliefs underpinning what the educational institution sees as worthwhile for learners to experience. Such beliefs, whether made explicit or not, permeate the curricula experiences of all the learners in whatever context they find themselves. As noted by Wiles and Bondi ‘at the heart of purposeful activity in curriculum development is an educational philosophy that assists in answering value-laden questions and selecting from among the many choices’ (1998: 35). This is specifically true about choices and questions related to the purpose of education, the nature and role of the learner, the nature and role of the teacher and the teaching/learning process.

Choices and decisions about curriculum are, hopefully, not random choices, but are based on thorough understanding of the educational ideologies on which they are based. Three broad streams of educational philosophy underpin curricula choices and decisions; the conservative, the progressive and the radical views. It should be noted, however, that most of what has been written in educational philosophy has been directed to formative education, that is, that aspect of education that takes place during the years of primary and secondary education. For some reason, it seems that educational philosophers have preferred to stay clear of tertiary education, especially professional education. On the other hand, educators in the professions have been drawn to the philosophical debates underlying their practice.

The conservative view

The basic premise underpinning the conservative vision is that there are certain enduring worthwhile truths that should be taught and learned. According to this view, the purpose of education is to transmit worthwhile bodies of information to generations of learners so that that which is worthwhile is conserved. Two schools of thought, perennialism and essentialism, fall within the conservative vision. Although the two schools of thought differ somewhat in how they view education, they agree on various fundamental aspects about education. For both the perennialists and the essentialists, education should concern itself with the cultivation of the intellect and not learner needs or interests (Tanner and Tanner, 1995). Furthermore, the two schools of thought agree that:

• social change should be slow
• there is need to conserve and therefore to oppose reform
• methodology should be teacher directed
• emphasis should be placed on ensuring content-centred curriculum (Hearne and Cowles, 2001: 54).

Differences between the two schools of thought revolve around specifications of exactly what is to be taught and for what purpose. Perennialists’ views of education have limited relevance to professional education because of their focus on the basics such as the reading, writing and arithmetic. Hence, this chapter focuses mainly on a brief analysis of the essentialists’ view of education.

The decision to focus mainly on essentialism is not to negate the tight grip that perennialists’ views on education have had on nursing education in particular. It has been noted that ‘perennialists contend that there is an organized body of knowledge that children (learners—insertion mine) need to know so that society might cohere around a common identity’ (Gaudelli, 2002: 198). That nursing education has always largely been, and continues to be, in many parts of the world a content-driven and transmission-dominated educational system is by no means an accident. The biomedical approach, and its foundational sciences in the form of applied medical sciences, continue to dominate what is learned in nursing schools globally. Attempts to marginalize the concepts of disease and the pathophysiological processes affecting body organs and systems, through the introduction of integrated curricula in nursing education have not been very successful. Regulatory nursing organizations implicitly or explicitly continue to demand clear indications of how much medical nursing, surgical nursing, paediatric nursing or obstetric and gynaecological nursing a prospective practising nurse has been exposed to during her/his period of education and training. The pervasive and enduring quality of perennialism in education, including professional education, cannot be underestimated.
Admittedly, this is not the list of topics that one would find in the Great Books of western civilization, but it is a list of topics that one would find in western medical and/or nursing textbooks.

Essentialism

Rooted in idealism and realism, essentialists contend that both body and mind are important in education and as such ‘core knowledge and skills are essential to a successful society, because those requisite abilities allow the individual to be an economically productive member of society’ (Gaudelli, 2002: 198). Four broad presuppositions that underpin essentialism are identified by Gaudelli (2002: 199) as follows:

• human nature tends to be bad
• culture is outside the individual
• consciousness should be focused on the present and the future
• the centre of value is found in the body and to a lesser degree in the mind.

The mind, however, has value in so far as it can be manipulated, cultivated and moulded to deal with the demands of an academically demanding education. In the words of Tanner and Tanner ‘like the perennialist, the essentialist conceives of the mind as a vessel or container. Individual differences are marked off according to mental capacities, and education is simply a matter of filling and stretching each mind with the same curricular brew to the utmost of each mind’s capacity’ (1995: 314).

The purpose of education

The purpose of education, from the essentialists’ perspective, is the preservation, through transmission to generations of learners, of that which is essential to learn. The goal of education is to instil in learners the academic and moral knowledge which should constitute those ‘essential things that a mature adult needs to know in order to be a productive member of society’ (Hearne and Cowles, 2001: 54). There is no doubt that education is the most contested sector in any country. Power and politics often dictate which path in education will hold sway at any point in time in any part of the world. Ernest (1991) refers to present-day essentialism as technological pragmatism, in which absolutist epistemological views about education are based on the values of utilitarianism, expediency, wealth creation and technological development.

The curriculum

For the essentialists, knowledge is not to be found only in the Great Books of the western world, but is likely to be found in a variety of places. For them, knowledge is what is real and reality exists outside the individual and is subject to observation. Nevertheless, similar to the perennialists, the essentialists are of the view that only certain subjects are capable of cultivating the intellect; and therefore essential for the school to realize its purpose. These are ‘the fundamental academic disciplines of English (grammar, literature and composition), mathematics, science, history and modern languages…. The performing arts, industrial arts, vocational studies, physical education and other areas of the curriculum are regarded as frills’ (Tanner and Tanner, 1995: 313). The essentialists do admit, however, that core knowledge and skills might change over time, depending on what is essential to know in order to function as a mature and productive adult both in the present and in the future. According to this view, a curriculum cannot be based on learners’ needs and wants, but rather on what those in authority know is essential for the learners to know.

Nature and role of the learner

From the essentialist perspective, the learner is seen as a passive recipient of information transmitted by disciplinary experts. The learner’s role is not to reason why, but to do as told. The interests and needs of the learner are seen as irrelevant to the educative process. What is important, though, is the conviction that learners differ greatly in their mental capabilities, and that it is not the function of the education system or the school to provide what the learner’s genes have failed to provide. Hence the emphasis on ability grouping and testing to weed out those who can from those who just can’t.

Nature and role of the teacher

The teacher knows best. The teacher is an expert with a wealth of information which he/she must transmit to the learner. It is therefore his/her duty to ensure that all that is essential to learn is taught. The teacher is charged with the responsibility to identify, select and organize that which is to be learned, and to decide how and when it is to be learned.

The nature of the teaching/learning process

For the essentialists, learning is no more than acquisition of knowledge and skills. According to this perspective this acquisition is best achieved through a teaching/learning process that places emphasis on lectures, drill, recitation and demonstration, provided and led by an expert in the discipline. Mastery has to be demonstrated through performance in various forms of assessment. In fact essentialists are credited for the proliferation of standardized tests and assessment in the USA (Tanner and Tanner, 1995)

The progressive view

Progressivism is associated with the rise in dissatisfaction with traditional education practices which placed emphasis on content and totally disregarded the place of learners’ needs and interest in education. Two streams of progressive education are evident in the educational philosophy literature. The European stream, often referred to as ‘child-centred’ education based on Rousseau’s fictitious teacher, and his equally fictitious pupil Emile, rebelled mainly against what was seen as over-subjugation of the pupil to conservative ideals propagated through traditional education. This stream is also sometimes called progressive romantic naturalism (Tanner and Tanner, 1995). The basic premise underpinning romantic naturalism (European progressivism) was that society interferes too much in the education of children. Children, if left alone, have the potential to grow up and become distinct and individual beings, untainted by societal influences and thinking. Each learner, therefore, is seen as a potential flower. In fact, Rousseau believed that the best that the teacher can do is do nothing (Tanner and Tanner, 1995). Closely related to romantic naturalism is existentialism. Advocates of existentialism proceed from the view that the world is an impersonal and indifferent place, and therefore, individuals must find their own meaning for existence because in their view ‘existence precedes essence’ (cited in Noddings, 1995: 59). Meaning for one’s existence therefore, can only be found through freedom of choice and introspection. Existentialism and/or romantic education, has not had any significant influence in nursing education. For this reason, these two schools of thought will not be dealt with any further than the cursory reference they deserve in a chapter whose main focus is to provide a frame of reference for developing a nursing curriculum.

Progressive education in the United States had some tenets in common with its European counterpart, but was also very distinct in its view about the place of education and therefore the school in the society. John Dewey, a prominent and prolific writer in educational philosophy, is often referred to as the father of progressive education in the USA. Dewey’s philosophy of education is often called pragmatism or experimentalism. From this perspective, education should not be isolated from its social context, because education and experience are inextricably intertwined. Education therefore, must focus on the learner’s experiences and interests rather than on predetermined bodies of knowledge. This does not mean that content has no place in education, but rather that the learner’s experience must be used to mediate knowledge.

Distinctions aside, a number of commonalities exist among the broad streams of progressive thought in education. From the progressives’ perspective knowledge is not static but dynamic, and learner’s interests and needs are just as important as the content to be learned. Experience is the best source of knowledge, rather than the textbook. Learners learn best by doing, experimenting and finding meaning in their own actions and in the consequ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• Glossary
• Chapter 1: Education philosophy and the curriculum
• Chapter 2: An overview of the process of curriculum development
• Chapter 3: Establishing the context and foundations
• Chapter 4: Developing a macro-curriculum
• Chapter 5: Developing a micro-curriculum
• Chapter 6: Implementing a new curriculum
• Chapter 7: Curriculum evaluation
• Chapter 8: A problem-based learning curriculum
• Chapter 9: A case-based curriculum
• Chapter 10: Developing problem scenarios and cases
• Chapter 11: Developing a community-based nursing education curriculum
• Chapter 12: Developing an outcomes-based curriculum
• Chapter 13: A curriculum for interprofessional learning
• Chapter 14: Conclusion