Medical faculty and curriculum design1? ‘No, no, it's like this: You give your lectures …’

Abstract

Background and aims: The purpose of this study was to understand more completely the (tacit) curriculum design models of medical faculty. We report on two research questions: (1) Can medical faculty give an account of their curriculum design assumptions? and (2) What are their assumptions concerning curriculum design?

Method: We conducted an explorative, qualitative case study. We interviewed educational decision makers at the three Danish medical schools and associate professors from different courses concerning curriculum design. We carried out four individual, in-depth interviews and four focus groups with 20 participants in all.

Results and conclusions: Only one decision maker had an explicit curriculum design model. However, all participants had assumptions concerning curriculum design. We displayed their assumptions as five essentially different and increasingly complex models: the method-driven, pragmatically driven content-driven, outcome-driven and vision-driven curriculum design models. In the five models, the role of learning outcomes differs. The differences range from a belief that learning outcomes are essential, to a belief that learning outcomes are unimportant, to a belief that learning outcomes are incompatible with higher education. Finally, we found that teachers do not necessarily play a clear, central role in curriculum design.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne Mette Morcke

ANNE METTE MORCKE is an associate professor at the Medical Education Unit (MEDU), Aarhus University. She focuses on curriculum planning in her research and projects.

Berit Eika

BERIT EIKA is the professor at MEDU, Aarhus University, and conducts research projects in fields like curriculum, teaching and supervision, and skills training.