1. Connected Curriculum: Research-based education, programme design and
student transition.
Dr Dilly Fung Director, UCL Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching
@UCLConnectedC
@DevonDilly

2. 1. Higher education: values and purposes
Overview
1. Higher education: values and purposes
2. Programme Leaders’ Stories
3. The Connected Curriculum framework
4. Over to you

3. 1. Higher Education: values and purposes
What is higher education for? - Research - Education - Professional practice Separate endeavours – in competition? Or necessarily interdependent? Re-visiting education’s relationship with research, practice, and leadership can help the sector create parity of esteem and enrich all areas.

4. The ‘ecological’ university
1. Higher Education: values and purposes
The ‘ecological’ university
Recognising the true interconnectedness of our activities can help us to build a new ‘feasible utopia’ (Barnett, 2011)

5. 2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Research questions
How do university programme leaders conceive of the aims and ethos of the programmes for which they are responsible?
How are the programmes designed (for example, in terms of modularity, optionality and assessment strategies), and what do the leaders perceive to be the benefits and challenges of those design structures?
What do program leaders perceive to be the purposes, opportunities and challenges of the programme leader role itself?
How do programme leaders working within different national settings and in diverse subject disciplines conceptualize ‘good’ higher education curriculum?

6. Theoretical framing (1)
2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Theoretical framing (1)
Education defined as Bildung, from the field of philosophical hermeneutics (Gadamer, 2004):
‘self-formation’ through dialogue
the widening of horizons
The human mind needs to remain ‘unsatisfied with what it imagines it knows’ (Fairfield 2010, 3).

7. Theoretical framing (2)
2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Theoretical framing (2)
In William Pinar’s ‘curriculum’, teachers are ‘confirmed not as facilitators of learning but as individuated communicants in a complicated conversation that is informed by academic knowledge, subjectivity and the historical moment.’ (Pinar, 2012, 25-26)
‘Expressing one’s subjectivity through academic knowledge is how one links the lived curriculum to the planned one, how one demonstrates to students that scholarship can speak to them, how in fact scholarship can enable them to speak.’ (Pinar, 2012, 22)

8. 2. Programme Leaders’ Study22
Programme Leaders interviewed
In Australia, Bangladesh, Chile, China, France, New Zealand, Nigeria, Qatar, Republic of Ireland,
UK (England & NI), United States
Wide range of subjects: traditionally academic; professional; interdisciplinary.

9. Key findings are that curriculum is valued for being
2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Key findings are that curriculum is valued for being
Research connected
Students develop through gathering and interrogating evidence and through engaging with research and researchers.
Conceptually connected
Students build explicit conceptual connections, making critical and creative connections between apparently disparate elements of learning.
Personally
and socially connected
 Students build relationships with faculty and one another to develop their personal identity and voice, and develop their public identity through connecting with the workplace/wider community.

10. Research-connected 2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Leaders want students who ‘ask probing intelligent questions, play the devil’s advocate, hold people to account’ (George, Interdisciplinary, UK), and who can engage with ‘questions of evidence’ (Alastair, Interdisciplinary, UK).
Dislike expressed for curriculum where there is ‘an over-emphasis on the transmission of knowledge, and there is little emphasis on developing students’ abilities of identifying researchable questions’ (Hung, Sciences, China).

11. 2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Research-connected
Is ‘case-based’ and relevant to real-world complexity
(Susan, Sciences, Australia).
Does not make students wait until their final year to engage with research: ‘We’re probably weaker because they haven’t had that grounding over the first three years and we’re trying to cram it all in one year’.
(Simon, Humanities, NZ)

12. 2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Research and enquiry
Chinua (Sciences, Nigeria) speaks of how he has ‘a passion for research’, and has ‘always built in curriculum that will include research methodology, even at the undergraduate level’. Maya (Arts, Bangladesh): students apply to participate in funded research projects and do ‘senior research projects’ in final year, presenting at research conferences. Students can co-publish with faculty.

13. 2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Questions arising
What is ‘research’? The term is a complex signifier, constructed differently in different subject fields and even sometimes within the same field. It involves different objectives, methodologies and practices, and different kinds of outputs. What (or who) is research for? For whose benefit, in an unequal society? What might we mean by ‘research integrity’?

14. Conceptually connected
2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Conceptually connected
Program Leaders want student to make conceptual connections between apparently disparate elements of the curriculum. Modular system is criticised:
‘Too many students view it as, you take something, you learn it, you memorize it, you pass the exam and then it’s discarded. So from a pedagogical perspective, I don’t think it’s as optimal as it could be.’
(Leonardo, Sciences, NI)

15. Conceptually connected
2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Conceptually connected
Simon (Humanities, NZ) refers to his own curriculum as ’very much a smorgasbord in the first three years – you can pick and choose’.
He calls this a ‘pick and mix’ approach, which he regrets: ‘When I get them in their final year I can’t guarantee that any of them have done theory, or any of them have done practical applications’, and wants ‘much more scaffolding’.

16. 2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Building connections
Maria (Sciences, Northern Ireland) talks of a focus on
‘reinforcement of themes; we move from simple to complex. There’s integration across modules, and we hope that there’s a logical sequence. And we hope that it moves on to higher learning objectives … and the assessment very much mirrors this.’

17. Conceptually connected
2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Conceptually connected
Alastair (Interdisciplinary, UK) describes a ‘strand of activity’ that runs from the beginning to the end of his program, and connects into all other elements, which may otherwise appear disparate. His aim is ‘to constantly reinforce core values and concepts’.

18. But not just a single disciplinary connection?
2. Programme Leaders’ Study
But not just a single disciplinary connection?
Alastair (Interdisciplinary, UK) requires students to take ‘a rigorous, interdisciplinary approach’, having gone on ‘an intellectual raiding party for the best bits of different disciplines’, and thereby to develop ‘a coherent body of knowledge’.

19. Possible ‘programme design’ solutions?
2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Possible ‘programme design’ solutions?
A chronological sequence of compulsory modules, or a single vertical module, through which the learning narrative can be anchored. Here students can explicitly interrogate their own approaches and skills as researchers and learners.
‘Wisdom of the phases’: setting up cross-cohort mentoring

20. Personally and socially connected
2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Personally and socially connected
Programme Leaders value:
peer assisted learning and peer mentoring schemes
peer study groups
extra-curricular journal clubs
research conferences (even for undergraduates)
collaborative assessments

21. 2. Programme Leaders’ Study
Learning together
Collaborative activities are seen as a means of ‘structuring students’ thinking about what multiple perspectives mean, and how they can be valuable’
(Diane, Humanities, UK)

22. Questions arising
What power relations are at work in our curriculum design and delivery? And do we challenges students to consider this? Alison (Sciences, France) speaks of a kind of a holdover from the era of the all-powerful professor who decides who’s going to do what and everyone says, ‘Yes sir, that’s what we’ll do’.

23. Key findings, then, are that curriculum needs to be:
2. Programme Leaders’ Study: review
Key findings, then, are that curriculum needs to be:
Research connected
Conceptually connected
Personally
and socially connected

24. 2. Programme Leaders’ Study: conclusions
‘Good’ curriculum enables all students to develop, through research and critical enquiry, deep conceptual connections.
Through these activities they develop not only new understandings and skills, but also dispositions for openness to critique and wider horizons. This in turn can develop confidence and ‘voice’.
These attributes are needed for a complex, digitally mediated, divided, rapidly changing world.

25. UCL’s Connected Curriculum initiative
3. The Connected Curriculum framework
UCL’s Connected Curriculum initiative
‘At University College London, our top strategic priority for the next 20 years is to close the divide between teaching and research.
We want to integrate research into every stage of an undergraduate degree, moving from research-led to research-based teaching.’
UCL President and Provost, Professor Michael Arthur

26. The Connected Curriculum Framework
The Connected Curriculum Framework
(Fung, 2015)
CENTRE - Every year of study, every programme
Inspire program teams to enhance connections across years of study, between staff and students, and between disciplines
Think about nature of ‘research’ in and beyond one’s own discipline
Framework for good curriculum design: Diversity & Department-specific
01 - Students make connections & conversations
‘Meet your researcher’
Revisiting personal tutor’s role
02 -Sequence of research learning
Engaging in research process and thinking at every stage
‘capstone’ research opportunity
‘Vertical’ modules
03 - Clear opportunities to connect subject learning with other disciplines
Linking out to the wider world, global citizenship
04 - Opportunities to connect with wider learning and skills
Teamwork, project mgmt, creativity, leadership
Ability to articulate relevance of learning and skills to future career
05 - Assessment as research ‘output’
Articles, blogs, exhibitions, presentations, videos
Impact beyond university
Relevance to career
06 - Sense of belonging, being part of a community
Connecting with each other
Group projects
Peer mentoring
@UCLConnectedC

27. Student transitions (1) Roll out of a research-based induction activity:
‘Meet Your Researcher’

28. Student transitions (2) – in development, including:
Cross-phase activities resulting from ‘assessments as research outputs’ approach, for example 3rd years inspiring 2nd years with research presentations, and Masters students engaging with PhD research conferences
‘Year abroad’ students presenting to students preparing to study overseas
Peer mentoring – across phases
Bringing in alumni to inform and inspire

29. The Connected Curriculum Framework
The Connected Curriculum Framework
(Fung, 2015)
CENTRE - Every year of study, every programme
Inspire program teams to enhance connections across years of study, between staff and students, and between disciplines
Think about nature of ‘research’ in and beyond one’s own discipline
Framework for good curriculum design: Diversity & Department-specific
01 - Students make connections & conversations
‘Meet your researcher’
Revisiting personal tutor’s role
02 -Sequence of research learning
Engaging in research process and thinking at every stage
‘capstone’ research opportunity
‘Vertical’ modules
03 - Clear opportunities to connect subject learning with other disciplines
Linking out to the wider world, global citizenship
04 - Opportunities to connect with wider learning and skills
Teamwork, project mgmt, creativity, leadership
Ability to articulate relevance of learning and skills to future career
05 - Assessment as research ‘output’
Articles, blogs, exhibitions, presentations, videos
Impact beyond university
Relevance to career
06 - Sense of belonging, being part of a community
Connecting with each other
Group projects
Peer mentoring
@UCLConnectedC

30. For each dimension (1-6) of the CC Framework, discuss:
Group discussions
For each dimension (1-6) of the CC Framework, discuss:
Examples of good practice in this area you know of already, and/or creative possibilities for the future, which would suit your subject discipline
Its relation to student transition (into the programme; across years/phases; and from the programme into further study or employment).

31. ‘Rare are those who dare even to dream utopian dreams about possible alternatives.’
(Zizek, 2009)
Stay in touch:
@UCLConnectedC

32. References
Barnett, R. (2011) Being a University Routledge, Oxford and New York
Fairfield, P. ed. (2011). Education, Dialogue and Hermeneutics. London: Continuum.
Fung, D (2014) Connected Curriculum: Accessed 01 Feb 2015
Gadamer, H.-G. (2004). Truth and Method (Second, Revised ed.). (J. W. Marshall, Trans.) London and New York: Continuum.
Pinar, W. F. (2012). What is Curriculum Theory? (Second ed.). New York, US: Routledge.
Zizek, S (2009) First as Tragedy, Then as Farce (p.77), cited in Barnett’s Being a University (2011, p.16)