Curriculum design for diversity: layering assessment and teaching for learners with different worldviews

ABSTRACT

Teaching learners with different disciplinary backgrounds, aptitudes, worldviews and cultures is an abiding problem in Higher Education. Special measures are needed to ensure that course design, teaching methods and, especially, assessment does not exclude, alienate or disinvite learners simply because they have different capabilities and ways of understanding. Most of these measures involve the radical diversification of assessment and teaching methods and, designing curricula that allow learners to reach different conclusions and learning outcomes without penalization. This paper evaluates and commends the use of Spiral Dynamics’ layered system of alternative worldviews as a means of developing learner skills in critical analysis and building deeper understanding of diversity. Using Spiral Dynamics-based pluralism to guide course design fosters greater inclusion and achievement.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive education
• pluralism
• spiral dynamics
• diversifying assessment
• curriculum design
• sustainability education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.