Conceptualising an epistemically diverse curriculum for a course for academic developers

Abstract

In this conceptual article we use Luckett's model for an epistemically diverse curriculum, Kitchener's levels of cognition and Maton's concepts of knowledge and knowers to analyse a curriculum of a postgraduate diploma in higher education specifically for academic developers. We describe three meta-level frameworks which we offer to our participants to make explicit the pedagogy of the course. Our main argument is that a course which prepares participants to practise in the complex contemporary higher education context requires them to engage with specific kinds of knowledge, ways of thinking and ways of being so that they can contribute towards addressing the numerous and vexing teaching and learning challenges in their institutional contexts. We argue that analyses such as these help to make explicit the organising principles of a curriculum to the curriculum designers themselves who are then able to use the insights to strengthen the design, pedagogy and assessment of their courses.

Creating an Epistemically Diverse Undergraduate Linguistics Curriculum

“…Luckett's model is represented in Figure 2 below. The first quadrant deals with propositional knowledge: the knowing of specific disciplinary knowledge, traditional first-level cognitive learning (Quinn & Vorster, 2016). This includes everyday learning in lectures, reading in the library, note taking, and so forth.…”

“…Quadrant 2, practical knowledge (Luckett, 2001), deals with practical, embodied knowledge. This refers to "knowing how" and involves the application of disciplinary knowledge acquired in the first quadrant (Quinn & Vorster, 2016). The development of practical competency requires learning to take place through apprenticeship and by doing within controlled, delimited, decontextualised environments (Quinn & Vorster, 2016) under the guidance of the teacher in the classroom, in tutorials, or in the laboratory.…”

“…According to Luckett (2001, p. 56), "experiential learning is one of the best ways to get learners to engage with and commit themselves to their studies and future careers, but also because this entails critical epistemic shifts." Students learn by thinking reflexively and meta-cognitively and thus learn about themselves and their own thinking processes (Quinn & Vorster, 2016). Quadrant 3 learning also allows students to be exposed to others (Luckett, 2001), forcing them to evaluate their own subjectivities and knowledge in the light of other ways of knowing and being in the world.…”

Conceptualising the knower for a new engineering technology curriculum

“…The model of an epistemically diverse curriculum proposed by Luckett captures four ways of knowing that would be present in any curriculum. The emphasis and combinations of these four ways of knowing are different depending on the context and nature of the qualification (Quinn and Vorster, 2016). In addition, Luckett (2001) points out that the model needs to be used in conjunction with the appropriate learning and teaching theory for its implementation.…”

“…In addition, Luckett (2001) points out that the model needs to be used in conjunction with the appropriate learning and teaching theory for its implementation. This is because the model alone cannot be used to discern how a particular kind of knowledge should be introduced to a student (Quinn and Vorster, 2016). It is for this reason that Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson et al, 2001) is used together with Luckett's model.…”