Identifying pedagogy and teaching strategies for achieving nationally prescribed learning outcomes

ABSTRACT

With the globalisation of university education, national frameworks are commonly used to prescribe standardised learning outcomes and achieve accountability. However, these frameworks are generally not accompanied by guiding pedagogy to support academics in adjusting their teaching practices to achieve the set outcomes. This paper reports the results of a scoping review of health science literature aimed at identifying pedagogy and teaching strategies relevant to achieve the learning outcomes specified by the Australian Qualifications Framework at a master's degree level. Eight practical teaching messages emerged from the review and three broad pedagogical trends were identified: the need to use authentic disciplinary-based learning activities; ensure that students are able to discover different perspectives about future practice and bring student reflection about their own knowledge into curricula. More critically, the review highlights that academics attempting to translate national learning outcome frameworks into their teaching practices face a complex and time-consuming task which may involve searching beyond their own disciplinary focus to identify practical teaching strategies to meet prescribed learning outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic standards
• health education
• learning outcomes
• pedagogy
• master's coursework
• teaching strategies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Shaun Ewen http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5198-2401

Additional information

Funding

This review was supported by a Learning and Teaching Initiative grant from The University of Melbourne.