33 Evaluating the curriculum
The importance of evaluation
• With the current emphasis on quality assurance it is important to ascertain whether the curriculum and the teaching are fit for purpose.
• Curriculum development is an ongoing iterative process, which requires to be informed by an evaluation of current practice and with feedback as to problems identified.
• There is a move to recognise excellence in education in medical schools as well as excellence in research.
Levels of evaluation
An evaluation of the education programme can be conceptualised at different levels:
• At the macro level the mission of the medical school and the extent to which the school is achieving its overall aims should be examined.
• At the micro level the elements of the curriculum should be evaluated. These include the learning outcomes, the teaching, learning and assessment methods, the educational strategies, the education environment, the management of the curriculum and the engagement with students and staff.
The mission of the school
An aspect of the mission of a medical school that has attracted attention is the social responsibility and accountability of the school. A school should not be an ivory tower but should be regarded as excellent only if significant attention is paid to its social accountability and how it relates to the community that it serves. Boelen and Woollard (2009) have argued that for a school to be socially responsible it needs to have a commitment to respond to the priority health needs of citizens and society. The impact of the educational institution on society and the public good should be part of the assessment of its success. It has been shown that the most research-active medical schools demonstrate the least social responsibility. Some schools see as their mission the development of future leaders or researchers.
Curriculum evaluation
Definition
Curriculum evaluation can be defined as ‘a deliberate act of enquiry which sets out with the intention of allowing people concerned with an educational event to make rigorous, informed judgements and decisions about it so that appropriate development may be facilitated’ (Coles and Grant 1985).
Aims of curriculum evaluation
The evaluation of a curriculum can have different purposes:
• Demonstration of the achievement of the minimum standards expected by an accrediting body such as the General Medical Council in the UK, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) in the USA or the Australian Medical Council (AMC) in Australia. The World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) has set out minimum standards for educational programmes at undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education levels.
• Establishing that the programme as set out (‘the planned curriculum’) is in fact happening (‘the received curriculum’). There is often a gap between what is set out on paper and what happens in practice.
• As an essential requirement for curriculum development. Without an evaluation of the curriculum there can be no informed curriculum development. Curriculum evaluation should be concerned not simply with a measurement of the success or failure of a curricular initiative but be a more complex assessment that provides a fuller understanding of the education process. Parlett and Hamilton (1975) described this as ‘illuminative evaluation’.
• The assessment of a curriculum change. A better understanding of a change made to the curriculum can be sought and the extent to which it has been effective measured. The difference between curriculum evaluation and research is sometimes questioned. As argued by Kelly (2004), curriculum evaluation becomes part of curriculum research. In the context of research, the findings of the evaluation must be examined from a generalisable perspective. Curriculum planning and evaluation can be seen as hypothesis to be tested.
Related posts:
What is a good teacher?
Ten questions to ask when planning a curriculum
Building learning around problems and clinical presentations
Assessment for admission to medicine and postgraduate training
Simulation of the clinical experience
Making the apprenticeship model and work-based learning more effective
