Effective strategies in new curricula development at Higher Education Institutions in South Africa

Abstract

Re-curriculation is currently the most talked about topic in Higher Education in South Africa because of the new Higher Education Qualification Sub-Framework alignment process required by all Higher Education Institutions. However, the lecturer in the classroom, especially new lecturers, are also faced with the task of designing the actual curricula of a subject once the new qualification is to be implemented, in terms of achieving the aims and objectives of the subject area. In other words, ensuring that the outcomes of the subject are achieved by the student. Ideally all lecturers at institutions of higher learning should develop strategies for their “own” curricula. Developing the aforementioned strategies might be challenging to first time lecturers. The methodologies of developing a new qualification and strategies for building curricula is discussed in this paper are different curriculum planning methods and strategies. The aforementioned strategies are focusing on students, mentoring, supportive tools such as software programmes, feedback and assessments. The findings of this paper are proper curricula development to enhance the ability to understand, recall and apply information. The main objective is to use proper curricula development to empower students with a diversity of cultures to understand the material presented by the lecturer. This paper concludes that curricula planning should allow students to be given space to grow and interact and ultimately attain deep life-long learning.