An Introduction to Curriculum and Pedagogic Design at the Programme Level
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Introduction
This guide provides an introduction and overview of the framework for curriculum and
pedagogic design that has been developed for the University of Hull as part of the
Curriculum 2016+ change programme. It is designed to be read in conjunction with the
Curriculum Briefing Note series, with each briefing note providing a greater depth of
information and a series of reflective questions to support teams in curriculum and
pedagogic (re)design.
The Hull approach to curriculum and pedagogic design starts with the recognition that each
discipline, field of study and area of practice has at its very heart a core set of skills and a
body of knowledge that students need to learn. These are often partially or wholly set out in
Subject Benchmark Statements and/or Professional Body accreditation requirements.
However, while some of the attraction of studying at Hull doubtless rests on our assurance
that our curriculum and teaching and learning approaches are equivalent to those of other
UK higher education intuitions and meet sector body requirements, the Hull ‘offer’ can and
needs to go beyond these minimum benchmark requirement.
There are many unique things that contribute to curriculum and pedagogy at Hull: the
research interests and expertise of our academic teams; the unique physical, social and
economic environments in which the University sits; the life-wide experiences of the
students we recruit and the particular teaching interests and skills of our staff. Together
they help us to create the unique curricula and pedagogies that form our distinctive ‘offer’
to students.
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Why Hull?
Students who apply to University have largely already made up their minds about the
subjects they wish to study. Focusing wholly in our marketing materials on attracting
students to study our subject areas can be wasted effort. As important is helping students to
decide why Hull should be their first choice destination for studying English, Biology or
Sociology etc. In asking ‘why Hull?’, students (and in many cases their parents) are likely to
want to know:
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What kind of students the programme at Hull caters for and attracts
Why studying Subject X at Hull will be better than going to University X down the road
Why studying at Hull will help them to reach their full potential and get the best degree
result they can
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What aspects of the teaching and learning experience that they will encounter will make
them attractive to potential employers in the increasingly crowded graduate
employment market
What is ‘Higher’ about Higher Education?
In addition it is important to note that Hull is positioning itself strategically as a research-led
institution in the UK sector. The rise in the idea of the university as a place where research
and teaching intersect is often associated with Wilhelm von Humboldt who established a
new type of university in the early 19th Century in Berlin. Von Humboldt conceived of the
University as a community of learners (teachers and their students) working together in the
pursuit of knowledge. Thus, rather than the presentation of finished results to students in
the form of knowledge, this approach advocated student involvement in the construction of
knowledge and ideas. Indeed, teaching was viewed as being embedded in research and
undertaken through research – as such teaching and research were considered to be
‘inseparable’ (Robertson, 2007: 542). The development of inclusive scholarly ‘knowledgebuilding’ learning communities (of research and teaching, staff and students) has come to
the fore in recent years in the UK sector; particularly in research-intensive institutions. This
approach is now recognised as one of the key ways to ensure that the benefits of combining
research and teaching are understood and experienced by students and staff alike.
Of course, students do not come to University knowing all of this. It is therefore important
that we support students to understand what the ‘higher’ in higher education means: why
we undertake research at Universities; what the connections are between our research, our
teaching and their learning and what the benefits of this combined approach are. Making
this explicit both to ourselves and our students will go some way to help them to answer the
question ‘why Hull?’
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The Hull approach to Designing Curriculum and Pedagogy
The Hull approach to curricular and pedagogic design rests of four key assumptions:
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Thinking outside of the module-box: prioritising coherent programme-level curriculum
design over individual module developments;
Involving a range of stakeholders: engaging students, staff (from both relevant
academic areas and a range of service areas) employers and professional, statutory and
regulatory bodies in programme-level curriculum design;
Making the implicit explicit: developing a shared understanding amongst curriculum
creators and users - teachers and learners - about how and why the curriculum and
associated approaches to teaching, learning and assessment are actively designed to
promote student learning;
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Starting from the discipline1: understanding how the epistemic2 and cultural beliefs of
the discipline form an important starting point for curriculum and pedagogic design.
To ensure that our research and teaching are fundamentally and explicitly connected, and
to help students explicitly to understand the benefits of this approach to teaching, we are
asking programme teams to work together to undertake a series of tasks as they design and
plan their teaching and learning content and delivery and work towards programme
validation. Each of the six tasks outlined below are likely to be undertaken in parallel and
should not be viewed as discrete.
Task 1: Curriculum Design: making explicit the big ideas, concepts and/or skills that lie at
the heart of the programmes of study and are fundamental to the transformative
educational experience that studying subject X at Hull offers (for further information see
Curriculum 2016 Briefing Note A);
Task 2: Pedagogic Design: making explicit the disciplinary and practice-based approaches to
teaching and student learning that have been designed and adopted by the programme
team at Hull and why these are a fundamental part of the ‘higher’ education we offer (for
further information see Curriculum 2016 Briefing Note B);
Task 3: Assessment and Feedback: making explicit why the chosen assessment methods are
the most appropriate for assessing the big ideas and learning thresholds central to the
programme design, and how success in achieving these outcomes is measured through the
use of clear and explicit marking criteria (for further information see Curriculum 2016
Briefing Note C);
Task 4: Graduate Attributes and Employability: making explicit how, within the disciplinary
context, elements of our graduate attributes and associated employability skills are
embedded within the curriculum and are developed through the programme’s teaching,
learning and assessment approaches (for further information see Curriculum 2016 Briefing
Notes D);
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In this guidance document, discipline is used as shorthand to describe the subject areas or areas of practice
that are fundamental to each degree programme. We recognise that many degree programmes do not draw
on a discrete discipline per se, but reflect a field of study or area of practice which itself draws on a range of
disciplinary and practice-based knowledge and understandings.
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The term episteme is used to describe particular understandings and perceptions of what ‘knowledge’ is, how
it is created and how it is best communicated. We acknowledge that these understandings and perceptions
may differ across and even within each programme of study. However, it is expected that the core disciplines
and areas of practice that underpin each programme of study will play a key role in formulating each area’s
understanding of knowledge (its epistemic starting points).
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Task 5: Inclusivity and Internationalisation: actively considering ways of redesigning a
programme’s curriculum and approaches to teaching, learning and assessment in order that
the programmes resonate with a range of student groups and are inclusive for all (for
further information see Curriculum 2016 Briefing Notes E and F);
Task 6: Embedding Technology: actively considering the ways in which learning
technologies can be meaningfully and authentically integrated into learning and teaching
approaches to support the development of our students’ digital literacies (for further
information see Curriculum 2016 Briefing Note G).
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Some Personal Benefits
The approach to programme (re)development and (re)design outlined in this guide, and
other documents in the series, has been developed to support academic staff claims to have
met the Standard Descriptors (at the appropriate descriptor level for the role and activities
undertaken) of the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting
Learning in Higher Education (UKPSF). In actively taking part in this process, you will gain
useful evidence to support your claim for Fellowship of the HEA and, where relevant, to
support applications for promotion.
References:
Robertson, J. (2007) ‘Beyond the “research/teaching nexus”: exploring the complexity of
academic experience’, Studies in Higher Education, 32(5), 541–56.
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