Try searching under the key words of curriculum development and you soon discover the relative scarcity of recent literature on the combination. While reports of practice, some very good practice, and examples of content and rationale are available, have we really seen anything new in the last almost 20 years? And given the rapid changes in learning environments and the emergence of the collective culture of learning shouldn’t we be? Look at the scholars of the field; Biggs, Bloom, Toohey, Perry. When was their work done? Where are they now; emeritus professors passing the baton?
Where does that leave us as curriculum developers or commentators some two decades since the last big thing in curriculum development? Contrary to popular belief curriculum design did not begin with John Biggs Student Approaches to Learning (1987) and Enhancing Teaching through Constructive Alignment (1996). There were other models before, and as unlikely as it may seem, students still learned … and they became the teachers of today.
A programmatic approach designs a course to meet a need. A course evaluation approach focuses on the student experience to inform course design, where the creation of a certain learning environment will predict learning outcomes. The epiphany moments cannot be planned and designed for. All these models look at a discreet item of curriculum and approach design from that perspective.
Is it possible to construct a learning experience that is going to meet everyone’s needs? Biggs’ (2003) principle of Constructive (build and develop) Alignment (teaching, learning and assessment) as a ‘system of interrelated, sequential items’ for outcomes based curriculum design, gives us a robust repeatable model; a model derived from both the teaching and learning perspectives, and designed with the end in mind. Thus good curriculum design is a ‘transitional sequence (of activities) supported by linked items of assessment; Relational Curriculum Design’ (Nulty, 2011). The relational model is a way of delivering constructive alignment.
Course curriculum design is underpinned by identifiable characteristics of good design. A targeted approach can be used. This is constructive alignment where learners construct meaning via cognitions and teachers deliberately align learning outcomes with learning activities measured by appropriate assessment and feedback.
Relational Curriculum Design (RCD) (Nulty, 2011) is a process model for operationalising constructive alignment. It elucidates a rigorous, theory-based, repeatable process of curriculum design to make transparent and articulate what is usually only happened upon through experience and intuition. By combining Nulty’s (2011) Traffic Light Learning Model of acquisition, understanding and application, with assessment at the heart, RCD is the reality filter of what and how to do in curriculum design for constructive alignment.
