‘Discovery Learning’: An account of rapid curriculum change in response to accreditation

Abstract

Background/Aims: The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes and experiences of leaders responsible for making rapid changes to a medical school curriculum in response to an adverse accreditation report. The new curriculum was based on the principles of problem-based learning ('Discovery Learning'), with changes to the way that students were assessed. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with leaders responsible for education at the school two and a half years after the adoption of the new curriculum. We coded the resulting transcripts to identify major and minor themes expressed by participants. Results: Thirty-five senior leaders, administrators and course directors were invited for the interview; 14 (40%) were interviewed. Five main themes were noted in the data: (1) organization and control of the curriculum; (2) changes in the practices of teaching and learning; (3) effects on faculty members; (4) sources of resistance and (5) attitudes to curriculum change in general. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that major curriculum change can be achieved successfully in a short period of time. This study also illustrates some of the problems associated with making rapid changes to the medical school curriculum, and highlights the importance of attitudes to change amongst the leadership of a medical school.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Faculty Facilitation Training in Problem-Based Learning in a Medical School

“…It should be noted that there is evidence of level 4 change, reported in a separate paper examining the attitudes and experiences of leaders responsible for the move to PBL (White et al, 2013). However, based on the data reported here we must conclude that there is no strong evidence for a positive outcome at Kirkpatrick level 4 beyond the group of tutors to whom the program was delivered.…”

“…The faculty development program was successfully implemented, and the curriculum change was achieved as intended (for a detailed discussion of the faculty development program and outcomes see White et al, 2013). Two hundred and forty-four hours of faculty development were delivered.…”

“…In response to this decision, our school decided to adopt a new curriculum in the pre-clinical years based on problem-based learning (PBL). We have previously described the process by which this new curriculum (which we called "Discovery Learning") was successfully implemented (White et al, 2013) ten months after the decision to change was taken.…”

Resistance to Change of Academics towards Accreditation

“…(David & David, 2015). Wheelen and Hunger (2012) suggest that Balanced scorecard-combines financial measures that tell results of actions already taken with operational measures on customer satisfaction, internal processes and the corporation"s innovation and improvement activities, and thus could be divided into these four areas: Financial, Customer, Internal business perspective, and Innovation and learning. Thus, using the Balanced Scorecard, future research could examine four criteria to evaluate the performance of the university based on the impact of AACSB accreditation: 1) Internal Customers (Staff): Impact on academic staff, 2) Customer: Impact on students, 3) Financial: Impact on Financial and 4) Innovation and learning: Impact on activities such as research and publication.…”

Exploring science educators’ reproduction and subversion of gender stereotyping in a College of Education in Nigeria.

“…Is there any cordial relationship and respect between management, educators, and pre-service teachers? (Barthes, 2018;McLaren, 2017;White, 1983). For instance, Bodam, during interviews said "sometimes the curriculum is not clear on equality content, so we teach pre-service teachers based on what we understand about equality."…”