Failure is an option:an innovative engineering curriculum

PurposeAdvancements and innovation in engineering design are based on learning from previous failures but students are encouraged to ‘succeed’ first time and hence can avoid learning from failure in practice. The purpose of the study was to design and evaluate a curriculum to help engineering design students to learn from failure.Design/Methodology/ApproachA new curriculum design provided a case study for evaluating the effects of incorporating learning from failure within a civil engineering course. An analysis of the changes in course output was undertaken in relation to graduate destination data covering 2006 to 2016 and student satisfaction from 2012 to 2017 and a number of challenges and solutions for curriculum designers were identified.FindingsThe design and delivery of an innovative curriculum, within typical constraints, can provide opportunities for students to develop resilience to failure as an integral part of their learning in order to think creatively and develop novel engineering solutions. The key issues identified were: the selection of appropriate teaching methods, creating an environment for exploratory learning, group and team assessments with competitive elements where practicable, and providing students with many different pedagogical approaches to produce a quality learning experience.OriginalityThis case study demonstrates how to design and implement an innovative curriculum that can produce positive benefits of learning from failure. This model can be applied to other disciplines such as building surveying and construction management. This approach underpins the development of skills necessary in the educational experience to develop as a professional building pathologist

The Solomon Islands mathematics: Pedagogy in transition?

This article examines the transition of the Solomon Islands School of Education's primary and secondary mathematics education programme from a focus on content knowledge and teacher transmission, to a more activity-based, problem-solving, learner-centred approach. The ways the development team co-constructed that change so that it incorporated current mathematics education pedagogy, the Solomon Islands' Mathematics Curriculum document, and elements of Solomon Islands mathematics are described. How the team attempted to manage the dilemma between local educational imperatives and the globalisation of mathematics education is considered. Central to this are comparisons with international research on mathematics education pedagogy, while giving recognition to the situating of these within localised contexts. The article describes the ways the transition evolved, and how issues related to the change process, such as trust, culture, pedagogy and power, were engaged with, both proactively and incidentally. It will also consider lecturer/student reflection on the programme and the ways the changes may have influenced teaching. This article contends that change that is co-constructed and hinged to respectful partner relationships, will lead to greater participant autonomy and enhance the sustainability of the change. Finally, it poses questions that require subsequent examination for the transition to be sustainable

The Australian science curriculum

The Australian Science Curriculum has appeared at a time when there is widespread concern for the quality of science teaching and learning in Australia and the engagement of students in learning science, leading to calls for significant reform. The new curriculum thus carries the hopes of reform-minded scientists and educators for a change in the way science in schools can support teaching practices that engage students in quality learning. This analysis will examine whether it is an adequate vehicle for doing this. Will it live up to our expectations?<br /

Teacher Professional Development: Who is the learner?

One of the challenges in in-service teacher education is how teachers can be given professional development (PD) that enables them to respond to national curriculum and policy change. In recent years primary teachers in New Zealand have been inundated with Ministry of Education-funded professional development programmes to help them implement a plethora of curriculum policy and reform initiatives. This paper explores how the design and delivery of one PD programme, the Physical Activity Initiative (PAI), positioned and supported teachers as learners. An evaluation of the programme sought data from 25 teachers and 14 advisers to schools. The focus was the impact of the PD on how and what teachers learnt about teaching physical education and how their learning impacted upon their classroom practices. The data highlight the difficulty of accommodating the teacher as a learner, within a “one size fits all” PD model. Little attention was paid to the learning differences among the teachers. It is argued that providers of PD need to understand the unique complex web of contextual factors that impacted upon each teacher, and that each teacher’s learning needs and learning approaches vary and this needs to be accounted for in the design and the delivery of PD

The Solomon Islands School of Education Partnership: Aspirations, context and design in educational change.

This article provides a background and context for a project that linked the School of Education in Solomon Islands College of Higher Education (SOE) with an external partner to work together on institutional and educational change. The four and a half year Partnership was funded by the New Zealand Aid Programmei. Pre-service teacher education in Solomon Islands is mainly provided by the School of Education. For a number of years the school has faced many challenges in its attempt to offer quality pre-service teacher education. Some challenges were external, such as political instability and ethnic unrest, and some were internal, such as a need to address the school's aims, design of programmes, quality of teaching, learning and assessment and the professional development of academic staff. We explain how the partnership responded to challenges and evolved in a way that recognised the input of the School of Education staff and avoided the imposition of solutions by the external partner. The major aspirations and intentions of the Partnership are described along with indications of positive changes that led to an extension of the project. A major change in the school was the inclusion of a teacher education programme for some of the many untrained practising teachers in the Solomon Islands. It is pointed out, however, that there were risks and challenges that faced the Partnership over its duration. Some were outside the control of the partners and others could be addressed and improvements made, especially within the school using a collaborative approach. It is argued that issues remain and further impetus is needed to effect more lasting change

A programme management approach for ensuring coherence in IS (higher) education

This paper examines IS higher education, concentrating on issues of ‘coherence’ in IS curricula. While curriculum coherence can be jeopardized by poor curriculum design, misalignment between module content and/or misalignment between module or course aims can cause serious coherence issues over time. Misalignment of this type is exacerbated by the traditional processes of curriculum (re)design, which rely heavily on the (singular) interpretation of highly abstract documents, such as module syllabi and course specifications – often produced by curriculum designers in isolation. To improve curriculum coherence, this paper examines the use of a programme management framework as a means of (a) ‘humanizing’ the abstract aims and goals of curricula schemes and (b) managing the delivery and evolution of curricula in relation to the stakeholders in the process of delivery. The practical use of the framework is examined in the context of a Masters-level course in ‘Information Systems Management’. An action research approach is used to demonstrate the practical utility of the framework in terms of (a) improving communication of curricula, (b) improving the coherence between modules and between modules and course and (c) removing content redundancy. Guidelines are presented that generalize the findings in order that key practices may be adopted by others

Facilitating Institutional Curriculum Change in Higher Education

This paper discusses the strategies and processes used within one Higher Education institution to support curriculum design and, change the culture around this activity. The paper provides a brief discussion of two institution wide projects related to curriculum design that have been taking place over the last few years and have been used to support this area of development. The discussion will then identify some of the issues around terminology and barriers to staff engaging in curriculum design as well as processes that had been used by staff and then move to discussing the strategies used to support this activity. Throughout the paper there will also be reference to comments gained from peers during the workshop that took place at the Eighteenth International Conference on Learning in Mauritius in July 2011

Managing evolution and change in web-based teaching and learning environments

The state of the art in information technology and educational technologies is evolving constantly. Courses taught are subject to constant change from organisational and subject-specific reasons. Evolution and change affect educators and developers of computer-based teaching and learning environments alike – both often being unprepared to respond effectively. A large number of educational systems are designed and developed without change and evolution in mind. We will present our approach to the design and maintenance of these systems in rapidly evolving environments and illustrate the consequences of evolution and change for these systems and for the educators and developers responsible for their implementation and deployment. We discuss various factors of change, illustrated by a Web-based virtual course, with the objective of raising an awareness of this issue of evolution and change in computer-supported teaching and learning environments. This discussion leads towards the establishment of a development and management framework for teaching and learning systems

The sustainable delivery of sexual violence prevention education in schools

Sexual violence is a crime that cannot be ignored: it causes our communities significant consequences including heavy economic costs, and evidence of its effects can be seen in our criminal justice system, public health system, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), and education system, particularly in our schools. Many agencies throughout New Zealand work to end sexual violence. Auckland-based Rape Prevention Education: Whakatu Mauri (RPE) is one such agency, and is committed to preventing sexual violence by providing a range of programmes and initiatives, information, education, and advocacy to a broad range of audiences. Up until early 2014 RPE employed one or two full-time positions dedicated to co-ordinating and training a large pool (up to 15) of educators on casual contracts to deliver their main school-based programmes, BodySafe – approximately 450 modules per year, delivered to some 20 high schools. Each year several of the contract educators, many of whom were tertiary students, found secure full time employment elsewhere. To retain sufficient contract educators to deliver its BodySafe contract meant that RPE had to recruit, induct and train new educators two to three times every year. This model was expensive, resource intense, and ultimately untenable. The Executive Director and core staff at RPE wanted to develop a more efficient and stable model of delivery that fitted its scarce resources. To enable RPE to know what the most efficient model was nationally and internationally, with Ministry of Justice funding, RPE commissioned Massey University to undertake this report reviewing national and international research on sexual violence prevention education (SVPE)

The sustainable delivery of sexual violence prevention education in schools

Sexual violence is a crime that cannot be ignored: it causes our communities significant consequences including heavy economic costs, and evidence of its effects can be seen in our criminal justice system, public health system, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), and education system, particularly in our schools. Many agencies throughout New Zealand work to end sexual violence. Auckland-based Rape Prevention Education: Whakatu Mauri (RPE) is one such agency, and is committed to preventing sexual violence by providing a range of programmes and initiatives, information, education, and advocacy to a broad range of audiences. Up until early 2014 RPE employed one or two full-time positions dedicated to co-ordinating and training a large pool (up to 15) of educators on casual contracts to deliver their main school-based programmes, BodySafe – approximately 450 modules per year, delivered to some 20 high schools. Each year several of the contract educators, many of whom were tertiary students, found secure full time employment elsewhere. To retain sufficient contract educators to deliver its BodySafe contract meant that RPE had to recruit, induct and train new educators two to three times every year. This model was expensive, resource intense, and ultimately untenable. The Executive Director and core staff at RPE wanted to develop a more efficient and stable model of delivery that fitted its scarce resources. To enable RPE to know what the most efficient model was nationally and internationally, with Ministry of Justice funding, RPE commissioned Massey University to undertake this report reviewing national and international research on sexual violence prevention education (SVPE). [Background from Executive Summary.]Rape Prevention Education: Whakatu Maur