The curriculum in higher education research: A review of the research literature

Tight, Malcolm

doi:10.1080/14703297.2023.2166560

Innovations in Education and Teaching International

2023

DOI: 10.1080/14703297.2023.2166560

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The curriculum in higher education research: A review of the research literature

Malcolm Tight

Abstract: The curriculum has been far less discussed in higher education than in school education. Indeed, analyses of the literature suggest that the curriculum has only really become a matter for sustained discussion and research in higher education in the present century. This article synthesizes the results of a review of the published research literature on the curriculum in higher education, outlining an agenda for future research.

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Cited by 3 publications

References 79 publications

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Creating the conditions for student success through curriculum reform: the impact of an active learning, immersive block model

Wilson,

Roche,

Goode

et al. 2024

High Educ

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Outcomes in higher education (HE) are influenced by the learning conditions created for students. The traditional model of HE, where students attend content-focused lectures over 12–15-week semesters, may not provide the conditions that best meet the learning needs of increasingly diverse HE cohorts. This study assessed the extent to which an immersive block model, a non-traditional form of HE delivery that employs active learning pedagogy and engages students in shorter, more focused periods of study, might enable higher student achievement and satisfaction compared to a traditional semester model. The study examined achievement (N = 27,528) and satisfaction (N = 7924) data from a public Australian university that has moved all coursework units into a 6-week immersive block model. Inferential statistical tests were used to compare results between the traditional semester and immersive block delivery over a 3-year period, as well as with results from control groups that stayed in the traditional model. Results demonstrate that immersive block learning underpinned by an active learning pedagogy has had a statistically significant positive impact on the academic success of various cohorts of undergraduate learners. Stronger improvements in student success were observed in first-year units compared to second and third-year units, suggesting that the immersive block model may be particularly beneficial for students transitioning into HE. Satisfaction was statistically lower relative to the traditional model, particularly in science and engineering, suggesting a need for further investigation into causes of lower satisfaction in these disciplines.

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Creating the conditions for student success through curriculum reform: the impact of an active learning, immersive block model

Wilson,

Roche,

Goode

et al. 2024

High Educ

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Towards more effective and equal L2 writing instruction and curriculum: A hidden curriculum agenda

Zhou,

2023

Innovations in Education and Teaching International

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Speculative futures for higher education

Bayne,

Ross

2024

Int J Educ Technol High Educ

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This paper uses speculative methods as a way of imagining futures for higher education in open, non-predictive ways. The complexity and ‘unknowability’ of the highly technologised, environmentally damaged and politically degraded futures we seem to be facing can mean that our conversations about the future of higher education have a tendency to spiral too quickly into dystopianism and hopelessness. Speculative methods can help open up new kinds of conversation capable of supporting active and fundamental hope. Working within a postqualitative framework, we argue that such approaches support the collaborative imagining of multiple alternatives, and represent a way of advocating for those that are preferable. The paper presents a series of speculative scenarios and microfictions focusing on worlds ruptured by climate change, artificial intelligence, revolution and the technological enhancement of humans, connecting each of these to current critical research focused on climate crisis, ‘big tech’, rising global injustice and ‘big pharma’. It emphasises the vital contribution and place of higher education within such futures, and advocates for speculative methods as an approach to maintaining hope.

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The curriculum in higher education research: A review of the research literature

Cited by 3 publications

References 79 publications

Creating the conditions for student success through curriculum reform: the impact of an active learning, immersive block model

Creating the conditions for student success through curriculum reform: the impact of an active learning, immersive block model

Towards more effective and equal L2 writing instruction and curriculum: A hidden curriculum agenda

Speculative futures for higher education

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