Curriculum

In 2003, the John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing (Hartford Institute), in collaboration with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, conducted a survey of baccalaureate schools of nursing in the United States to compare gerontological content to baseline data collected by the Hartford Institute in 1997. Since last surveyed in 1997, baccalaureate nursing programs have been the recipients of substantial new resources and initiatives focused on gerontological curriculum enhancement. While these initiatives are ongoing, and some are in an early stage of development, resurveying baccalaureate programs was seen as a means of taking a midcourse "pulse" as to the effectiveness of these efforts. Data suggest that there has been a fundamental shift in baccalaureate curriculum toward incorporation of a greater amount of gerontological content, integration of gerontological content in a greater number of nursing courses, and more diversity of clinical ...

The article used curricular documents affiliated with 3 different subgenres of Catholic schooling. The author suggests a critical reading of these curricular materials for the purpose of better understanding the kinds of educational messages sent to students through a) the hagiography of saints affiliated with the schools as well as in the b) documents produced by religious orders for lay and avowed teachers meant to propagate a unique schooled experience. In the process, the author draws upon curriculum theory as a way to critique the largely unquestioned kinds of theology-as-pedagogy that become intrinsically influential for teachers and students.

This article examines internship courses in undergraduate hospitality management programs in the Southern Association of Colleges and School Commissions on Colleges (SACSCOC) region. The purpose of this article is to examine how internship course curriculum compares to the industry employers’ internship expectations. The results show the disconnect between curriculum for internship courses and what industry employers desire for internships. The findings show that undergraduate hospitality management programs in the same region vary in requirements, and these requirements do not meet industry employers’ internship expectations

Competence-based education (CBE) has become a central topic in transnational education policy. The approach has been applied at various education levels around the world, and it has been promoted by various international actors, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU). During the latest curriculum reform, the Finnish education system took a step towards CBE as new transversal competences were introduced into the national level core curricula (Uljens & Rajakaltio, 2017). Even though CBE has been studied widely, there is a need for contextual understanding (Nordin & Sundberg, 2016; Weninger, 2017b). In this dissertation, I focus on the contextualisation of CBE within the Finnish curricular framework of basic education. The results provide conceptual tools to understand, develop and implement a competencebased curriculum.

This dissertation is constructed on two interrelated levels following the inductive logic of grounded theory research. Firstly, on a more specific—micro—level, I focus on the individual concept of multiliteracy to understand how it is contextualised in curricular contextualisation of the CBE. Based on these research topics, I locate this dissertation to cross the following three areas of educational research: 1) on the micro level, the results offer new contextual knowledge about multiliteracy for literacy studies (Kulju et al., 2018; Mills, 2010; Zhang et al., 2019); on the macro level, the results provide new knowledge 2) in the field of curriculum studies, addressing curricular contextualisation in particular (Fernandes et al., 2013; Leite et al., 2020) and 3) in the field of education studies, focusing CBE (Priestley & Sinnema, 2014; Sinnema & Aitken, 2013; Voogt & Erstad, 2018).

This dissertation consists of three published peer-reviewed research articles and an integrative chapter synthesising the dissertation. The curricular contextualisation of CBE is studied in this research using the method of qualitative content analysis. The broader methodological framework is oriented from qualitative grounded theory research. The research data consist of international peer-reviewed research articles collected in 2015 (n=14) and Finnish local curricula collected in 2017 (n=219) and in 2019 (n=220). The first sub-study (Palsa & Ruokamo, 2015) focused on the relationship between the conceptualisations of the concept of multiliteracy in the Finnish core curriculum and the international research discussion. The second sub-study (Palsa & Mertala, 2019) addressed the contextualisations of the concept of multiliteracy within the Finnish local curricula for basic education. The third sub-study (Palsa & Mertala, 2020) focused further on the contextualisation of multiliteracy in the specific disciplinary settings of social studies and mathematics in the lower secondary education.

On the micro level, the findings clarify the relationship between the conceptualisations of multiliteracy between the national level core curriculum and the international research discussion. In addition, the research provides new contextual knowledge about how multiliteracy is contextualised in the local curriculum in general and in the disciplinary settings of social studies and mathematics on the levels of rationale (the ‘why?’), definition (the ‘what?’), and practice (the ‘how?’).

On the macro level I introduce new theoretical concepts—conceptual contextualisation and disciplinary contextualisation—and a theory, which helps in understanding the different dimensions of the conceptual contextualisation of CBE. The research findings support education through the development and implementation of the curriculum.

A growing number of publications have been exploring the possible effects of mindfulness-based interventions on teachers' well-being and their professional lives. Notwithstanding promising results in this domain, this paper identifies some difficulties involved in introducing teachers to mindfulness and proposes that there may be a need to develop alternative routes by which to expose more teachers to experiences of mindfulness. We report on a mixed methods study of a 5-week teacher learning program implemented in an Israeli middle school with 30 teachers, 28 of which were females, with an age range of 29-55. The program was designed to invite teachers into initial experiences with mindfulness without formally engaging in mindfulness practice but rather based on studying education-relevant brain theory through a contemplative pedagogical approach. Outcomes were analyzed quantitatively by comparing collaborative concept maps created by the participants before and after undergoing in the program, and qualitatively by analyzing themes extracted from the participants’ discourse. Findings show that the program: (a) mobilized teachers from fixed to growth mindsets in regards to their role as educators as reflected in a significant increase in teachers’ beliefs that basic brain abilities are malleable (as extracted from the concept maps, p=0.004), (b) offered them initial experiences of mindfulness, and (c) possibly opened them to consider more direct approaches to mindfulness practice that are offered in mindfulness-based interventions.

There is a growing movement to define competency within the field of marriage and family therapy (MFT), particularly with respect to the training of practitioners and the evaluation of clinical practice. Efforts to define competency, however, transcend the practice of MFT and much can be learned from the experiences of other disciplines. Professions such as education, law, and medicine have made strides toward addressing the complex issue of competency standards in their respective fields. This article describes some ways in which the issue of competency has been approached in other professions, as well as some common dilemmas posed by adopting a competency-based orientation, to shed light on the process of defining competency in MFT. Moreover, this article identifies some of the more useful conceptualizations, modes of pedagogy, and evaluative practices found in other professions.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Several factors have been linked to the decline in medical student choice of a career in primary care (eg, gender, race, family income, student debt), yet understanding remains limited regarding the availability of curricular and co-curricular experiences for medical students within family medicine that may play a role, particularly one-on-one opportunities such as faculty mentoring and advising. Our study sought to collect baseline data on family medicine learning experiences during predoctoral training. METHODS An online 21-question survey was sent to family medicine departments at US allopathic medical schools between January and March 2012 (84.6% response rate) to capture institutional representation and experiences within family medicine. RESULTS Most institutions reported offering family medicine interest groups (98.1%), electives (97.1%), and clerkships (90.4%). Career advising as an elective course component was available at 53.8% of schools and as ...

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The need to address culture in the language learning process has been emphasized as a means to promote both intercultural awareness and communicative language curricula. In countries such as Turkey, this has been an ongoing concern in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) education. Thus, attempts have been made to enhance the cultural aspect of EFL learning in Turkey with the current English language curricula for elementary and high schools. To determine whether these curricula truly address culture in ways that support intercultural awareness, the researcher conducted a content analysis of the learning outcomes and objectives for each grade level, focusing on the curricula developed in 2013 and 2014 respectively for elementary and high school, as well as the program updates introduced in 2017 and 2018. The culture-related objectives and outcomes including products, practices, perspectives and persons relating to native Englishspeaking and international cultures were identified, and the total numbers of culture-oriented outcomes and objectives were recorded and analyzed. The findings indicate that culture-related outcomes and objectives were highly limited in number; and they mainly addressed superficial aspects of culture such as names of countries/languages, foods and traditional costumes. Abstract and complex topics such as pragmatics, beliefs, and worldviews were largely ignored. Moreover, while the updated programs of 2017 and 2018 were intended to improve on the 2013 and 2014 versions, little was accomplished in this regard. As such, the findings suggest that current EFL curricula are unlikely to support the development of intercultural awareness in language learners. Some recommendations for addressing this issue are offered.

Since the turn of the millennium there has been a clear rise in the implementation and research of mindfulness across primary, secondary and postsecondary education. These implementations, however, hardly constitute a uniform phenomenon. They reflect a variety of framings, modalities and educational aims, as documented in hundreds of peer-reviewed papers. To date no overarching review has provided an empirically-based mapping of this multifaceted and rapidly developing discourse. This paper offers a first-of-its-kind map of mindfulness in education based on the 447 peer-reviewed papers published between 2002 and 2017 that constitute this academic discourse, applying grounded theory methodology. The research reveals an exponential rise in the amount of publications over years, with a complex discourse that evolves from seven different framings of the practice, applied to nine different educational domains and through various types of implementation. It maps this complexity and outlines two main patterns that reflects this discourse to date: a) Mindfulness in education, which comprises mostly of outsourced, secularized interventions aimed at improved mental-physical health, social-emotional learning and cognitive functions. b) Mindfulness as education, which is a more transformative strand characterized by contemplative pedagogy in higher education and sporadic whole-school implementations. Overall, in the studied period mindfulness has been moving from near-anonymity toward the mainstream; however, this discourse reflects a nascent phase given that it is only beginning to critique itself. Furthermore, its two patterns reflect a split discourse that is challenged by the practice's psychological-secular framing and its Buddhist framing.

Área temática: Investigación de la investigación educativa Línea temática: Formación de la investigación educativa Tipo de ponencia: Reporte final de investigación Resumen: La formación de la Investigación Aplicada en los programas de pregrado y posgrados, se asocia a la toma de decisiones y a la solución de problemas, también está vinculada idealmente con los agentes que toman decisiones (Latapí, 1997). Su conceptualización esta en concordancia con la definición de tales programas; el nivel de alcance de esta investigación se determinado por el grado de estudios, hay una distinción gradual entre la licenciatura, especialidad, maestría y doctorado. Lo cual es compatible con los propósitos delimitados normativamente por parte de la SEP concretados en los acuerdos 279, hoy 18/11/18 para la aprobación de impartición los programas de estudios, así como la reciente política del CONACYT tendiente a incorporar el derecho humano de gozar los beneficios de la ciencia. Una de las preguntas que nos hacemos en las IES es cómo deberá ser la Universidad del siglo XXI para formar tal enfoque de investigación; significa reinventarnos como educadores y concebir un currículo acorde a las demandas de formación; cuyo vínculo entre escuela y realidad esté dado con alto grado de reciprocidad. Para ello, se indagó desde la perspectiva de estudiantes y docentes los conceptos, procesos y condiciones de operación curricular que están implicados para conectar los procesos de formación con la solución de problemas e incidir en las transformaciones sociales. El objetivo fue acercarse desde la mirada por éstos, a las habilidades y capacidades que posibilitan tales vínculos, aparentemente inconexos, entre las diversas ciencias, metodologías y condiciones que conllevan a formar en la investigación aplicada. Palabras clave: formación, investigación aplicada, proyecto integrador, currículo

Medical Education 2010: 44: 387–395Context  Elective courses are a significant part of undergraduate medical education throughout the world, but the value provided by these courses and the reasons for choosing particular elective courses have not been studied extensively.Objectives  The aim of this study was to investigate medical and dental students’ experiences of elective courses in undergraduate medical education in Croatia and to gather students’ recommendations for the improvement of elective courses.Methods  Medical and dental students studying under the Bologna curriculum were given a questionnaire in which they were asked for their opinions of elective courses and their suggestions as to how they might be improved. Data on elective courses were obtained from medical schools’ administrative offices.Results  The survey response rate was 92% (834/903). Medical students gave elective courses an average grade of 3.44 out of 5, whereas dental students gave a lower average of 3.15. Students’ suggestions for change included introducing more practical work and recognising international student exchanges and attendance at conferences as elective options. A third of students indicated that teachers should be given additional training in leading elective courses. Analysis of the curriculum showed that elective courses in Croatian medical schools are very heterogeneous in terms of their content and the number of credits and assessment methods they involve, and are very conservative in that only structured courses are offered. Students cannot design their own courses or take more elective courses than represent 10% of their total number of credits.Conclusions  Student opinion should be consulted when medical schools venture into the elective curriculum so that students can feel that they are really benefiting from these subjects. Students would welcome new and personally designed strands. Elective courses are a significant part of medical education and therefore their quality and purpose need to be assessed regularly in order to ensure that they meet students’ needs.

The term 'Faculty Development' encompasses all those activities which help faculty members enhance their academic competencies. It comprises three domains: personal development, professional development, and instructional and course development. The objectives of this study were to determine the proportion of medical colleges involved in faculty development activities, to assess the types of faculty development activities, and to identify the factors influencing such activities, along with formulating recommendations for faculty development. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the medical colleges (public and private) of Pakistan from September to December 2010. A questionnaire was designed through literature review, was pre-tested and then sent via mail to principals of the institutions outside Lahore. Questionnaires were self-administered to respondents within Lahore. Apart from describing the data, Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were applied to determine sta...

This article investigates the curriculum discourses circulating in a TESOL Masters Program for international students at a Canadian university. It focuses on issues around academic and professional identity constructions and language viewed through dialogical (Bakhtinian) and ecological perspectives. The article examines possibilities for agency for the students who accommodate, negotiate and resist identities, practices and program discourses inflected by broader neo-colonial and global/local tensions. The authors, two teacher educators in the program, interrogate their own practices in an attempt to denaturalize and historicize discourses available in the program and in current conditions of internationalization of higher education. The study illuminates the symbiotic relationship that develops between the discourses circulating in an educational setting and the internally persuasive discourses/identities that are available for uptake in this setting. The authors conclude that cer...

The present time brings a number of emergency and crisis situations, including floods, fires or Covid-19, the management of which requires the active involvement of citizens. Lower secondary education in the Czech Republic includes the subject of Health Education, in which this topic is addressed. Education of students in the area of lifestyle and health is included in Health Education and Home Economics, the latter being delivered in Slovenia. In terms of content, both courses are similar and can enrich each other by sharing valuable experience both in teaching students and in preparing future elementary school teachers. The objective of this paper is to present the concept of elementary education in human protection in emergency and crisis situations in the Czech Republic and the related concept of undergraduate teacher training. The research methods used were document review (of curricular documents and study plans) and questionnaire survey. The paper presents the results of an analysis of the curricular document governing elementary education in the Czech Republic (Framework Education Programme for Elementary Education), as well as the results of an analysis of a health education textbook focusing on the area of safety issues. The paper also presents the results of an analysis of the study plans of selected faculties of education in terms of human protection in emergency and crisis situations, as well as the results of a questionnaire survey focusing on the awareness of future teachers in the area of human protection in emergency situations. The results and main findings of the analysis of the curricular document suggest that the topics of the human protection in emergency situations should be strengthened in the context of Health Education (and throughout elementary education). The studies on teachers’ and future teachers’ awareness of human protection in emergency situations (including first aid) point to some shortcomings in undergraduate teacher training (for example, the optional course in first aid and human protection in emergency situations at the Faculty of Education, Masaryk University). Conclusions and recommendations for practice: the current revision of the Framework Education Programme for Elementary Education should allow the strengthening of emergency issues in Health Education. Based on the inquiry, the following is recommended: due attention should be paid to all emergency issues in the course of education; further teacher training in all emergency issues should be promoted; emergency issues in undergraduate teacher training should be integrated in the form of compulsory common base courses.

This article reports the findings of a study exploring the effects of using videoconferencing (VC) to deliver dance instruction to rural communities. The context of the study is a university community partnership run through blended live and VC instruction with elementary and middle school students in Eloy, Arizona. This research is part of a larger, ongoing study of iDance, aimed at defining instructional methods and creating dance curriculum to meet the needs of students in rural communities. VC presents unique opportunities for teaching students in rural settings. Considering the relative accessibility of VC centers makes it possible to educate rural students in a broad spectrum of dance contexts: composition, performance, technique, and analysis. Regardless of geographical limitations, community partnerships can flourish through VC technology. Addressing the literature on the use of VC in other disciplines, methods of data collection include interviews, short answer questionnair...