Challenges of Curriculum Planning for Adult Learners

CURRICULUM PLANNING1

Challenges of Curriculum Planning for Adult Learners

XXXXXXX

EDU 705

Central Michigan University

Challenges of Curriculum Planning for Adult Learners

Curriculum design includes needs assessment of the learner population, selection of teaching methods and learning activities, learner assessment methods and course evaluation strategies. Even though the different components of curricular development are well known by educators, each course design or curriculum development presents educators with unique challenges. In the adult learning population, the social context of the learning, past experiences and skills of the learners, their goals for participating in the course as well as the socio-economic status of the learners may contribute to the complexities associated with curriculum development for this population. The experiences of curriculum design and development in adult education provide educators with an opportunity to identify unique challenges associated with the process and to develop new perspectives regarding curriculum design. The purpose of this paper is to present a critical analysis of an interview with an educator regarding the planning of anevidence-based practice course for adults.

Background

Curriculum development includes assessing the needs of the learners, developing the course objectives and goals, determining the course content, organizing the course content, selecting learning activities, organizing the learning activities and identifying an evaluation strategy (Phillion,Connelly He, 2007).The curriculum development of adult learning programs differs from other programs because of the uniqueness of the adult learner. Adult learners face multiple challenges ineducation and training programs that the young learner may not encounter. In a study conducted byZacharakis, Steichen, de Sabates and Glass (2011) to explore the experiences of adult learners, the participants reported that their educational endeavors were hindered by language difficulties, life circumstances, inadequate support from their families, fear and poor health. Female adult learners face additional barriers associated with domestic and child-care responsibilities. Women in adult learning environments can become overwhelmed when they try to combine their household responsibilities with the academic demands of the education program (Willans & Seary, 2011). The unique characteristic of the adult learners have been presented in Knowles’ adult learning theory. According to Knowles adult learning theory adult learners are responsible, experienced, eager to learn, motivated to achieve their learning goals and dislike information forced on them (Kenner & Weinerman, 2011). The challenge in adult curriculum development is to incorporate the unique characteristics of adult learners into all the different component of the curriculum development process.

Adult learners are not a homogenous population. The adult population consists of different generations including generation X, millennial adult learners and baby boomers with different learning characteristics. The findings from a study byHolyoke and Larson (2009) showed that readiness to learn differed among the three generations of learners included in the adult learning population. The findings from this study showed that the millenniallearnersmade connections with hands on experiences; Generation Xers were engaged when personal connections and Baby Boomers demonstrated readiness when the learning was related to life experiences. The differences in characteristics of adult learners can be incorporated into the learning activity selection to ensure that the learning activities promote readiness to learn in the learners. This paper is presentation of the findings from an interview with a nurse educator in a curriculum development team. The results of the interview are analyzed with literature findings.

Method

An interview was conducted with R.C., a nurse educator at a university nursing program with 400 undergraduate students and 60 graduate students. R.C. participated in the design of an evidence-based practice course for the undergraduate nursing program. R.C. worked with a course development team consisting of the dean of academic affairs at the nursing program, the director of research, the undergraduate nursing program coordinator, a clinical nurse educator and the director of library services. The interview data was collected during an hour-long interview in the R.C.’s office.

Interview Results

Interviewer: Choose a curriculum that you have recently developed or revised as part of a group or on your own.

R.C.: I recently worked on team to develop an evidence-based practice course for an undergraduate nursing program.
Interviewer: Briefly describe the context of the course and the program.

R.C.: The purpose of the evidence-based practice (EBP) course at the nursing program was to enhance the ability of the nurses to participate in evidence-based nursing practice. Even though there were other courses in the program such as nursing research coursesthat provided nurses with education on the concepts of EBP there was no EBP coursein the bachelor’s nursing program. An EBP course was needed to provide a coherent presentation of the EBP concepts and to provide the students with opportunities to develop EBP skills.
There was a need to develop an EBP course because nursing students in the program demonstrated difficulties in evidence-based nursingpractice during their clinical rotations. Additional reasons for developing this course include the attraction of the course to potential applicants, congruence with the current trend towards evidence-based practice in healthcare and improved competence of the graduates from the program.
The nursing students in the bachelor’s program include individuals who have prior work experience and are returning to school after years of being in the work force as well as individuals who have no prior work experience. All the learners in the course are older than 18 years and the learner population includes young adults and middle-aged adults. The learner population includes students with different healthcare experiences and different levels of English comprehension. The nursing program is located in a community with a diverse population and the diversity in the local population is often reflected in the student population.Some of the residents in the community have limited English proficiency because of their cultural background. The course is developed in collaboration with the library services of the nursing program, the office of research development and the clinical education program.

Interviewer: What are the steps that were involved in the curriculum development process?

R.C.: The steps and major decisions that had to be made included identification and selection of the major stakeholders involved in the course development, forming the course development team, performing a needs assessment, identifying goals and objectives of the course, determining the course schedule, selecting the course content, teaching methods, learner assessment strategies and the evaluation strategies for the course.The first step in planning the EBP course involved identification of key stakeholders and selection of stakeholders that will be included in the course development.
Key stakeholders such as the director of education for the nursing program,the undergraduate nursing program course coordinator, the dean for academic affairs and the director of library services were included in the course development team. The team met weekly to discuss work on the course development. The program coordinator assisted the team in identifying the appropriate time slot for the course and developed the course schedule. The director of education obtained the necessary infrastructural and financial resources for developing and implementing the course.
The learners in the course participated in the course planning through the needs assessmentto identify the learning needs of the students regarding EBP and to assess the background knowledge of the students on EBP.Focus groups and questionnaires were used to conduct the needs assessment. The findings of the needs assessment were used to develop the goals and objectives of the course. The data from the assessment revealed that the learners consisted of an adult population and there was a need to enhance EBP knowledge.
The goal of the new course was to enhance student knowledge on EBP.
The Knowles’ adult learning theory was used as a guide to select the teaching strategies, learning activities and learner assessment methods for the course. The next step was to develop the course content and the program evaluation methods. A literature review was conducted to identify the appropriate course content and the evaluation strategies for the course. The course content was aligned with the goals of the course. The entire process was documented and reviewed by the team before implementation of the course began.

Interviewer: Important Decisions

R.C.: The most important decision in planning the curriculum development was identifying a leader for the process. The leader was important because the leader developed the time-line for the project. The leader was our contact person who conducted all the negotiations with the dean of the nursing school. Another important decision made during the curriculum planning was determining the timeframe of the curriculum. This decision was important because we had to create the new course in the least possible time since the course was necessary to improve the quality of education of the students andimprove their ability to perform optimally in the clinical rotations.Other important decisions made in the course development were selection of learning activities and student assessment strategies. Learning activities and learner assessment strategies for an adult learning population were included in the course.R.C. stated that the teaching strategies selected enable the educators to incorporate adult learning strategies into the course. Learning activities selected for this course included group discussions where the adult learners will be able to discuss their experience and views on the concepts in the course, case studies, collaborative learning and problem-based learning. Assessment strategies for the course included essays, case-presentations as well as observations during small group discussions and presentations.

The time commitment of the participants was important because most of the students were participating in other courses and as adult learners, they have other obligation to their families. A course schedule that requires excessive time commitment may result in poor attendance and the challenge was to create a schedule that accommodated the lifestyle of the learners.
Interviewer: Do You Think You Think You Followed a Plan or Sequence
R.C.: We followed a plan for the course design developed and documented by the team. The plan included a needs assessment, development of goals and objectives, selection of the different components of the course such as the teaching methods, learning activities, course content, learner assessment and evaluation methods. The entire process was guided by Knowles’ adult learning theory. Throughout the development, the different steps were guided by Knowles’ theory. Knowles’ theory was used as a guide to ensure that the selected teaching methods, learning activities and assessment methods were appropriate for an adult learning population.

Interviewer: What would you do differently in the future and why?
R.C.:If I had to do it again I would include a student on the course development team. It would have been great to have the perspective of all of the stakeholders including students on the team. The academic demands of the student schedule made it difficult to include a student in the curriculum development team.
In the future, I would like to have a longer timeframe to design the course. A lengthy period would allow the team to revise the course several times instead of revising the course during the implementation phase.
Interviewer: If you had to describe yourself using metaphor, what would it be?

R.C.: If I had to use a metaphor to describe myself, it would be an architect. The architect creates the blueprint for the building. The documented course design is the blueprint for the course. The design is also the documented representation of the different components of the course. The architect metaphor is appropriate because I believe my role was to make sure that the appropriate building blocks were selected to ensure the success of the final product.

Interviewer: How did you learn about developing course for adult learners?
R.C.: I learned about developing adult learning course through adult learning principles such as Knowles’ adult learning theories, curriculum development descriptions in the literature and personal experience in the other curriculum development projects in that I participated in several years ago. The education courses I took as a graduate nurse student prepared me for curriculum development. Graduate nurse education courses included adult learning theories as well as concepts in curriculum development.

Discussion

The process used by R.C. in the curriculum design process was similar to the process described in the literature. The process of curriculum development delineated by Iwasiw,Goldenberg and Andrusyszyn (2005) is a reiterative process that includes identifying the need for the curriculum change, obtaining support, preparing for curriculum change, collecting contextual data, formulating goals and objectives, designing the curriculum, planning evaluation and implementation, designing the courses, planning evaluation and implementation, refining the curriculum and evaluating the curriculum. The process describes by R.C. included the needs assessment, course design and evaluation because it involved development of a single course and not the development of an entire curriculum. Components of the course design described by Iwasiwet al. (2005) including goals, teaching methods, content, learning activities and evaluation were included in the process described by R.C.
The main challenges identified through the interview were selecting the team leader, developing an appropriate timeline and selecting the appropriate learner activities and assessment strategies. According to R.C., Knowles’ adult learning theory was an appropriate framework to guide the learner activity and learner assessment strategies. This theory is an appropriate framework because the characteristics of adult learners are delineated in the theory. R.C. did not mention the use of a curriculum development framework even though he followed a sequence when developing the course. Adult learning curriculum development can be guided by using Knowles’ theory and a curriculum development theory such as the Tyler Rationale. This framework includes four questions that guide the planning and development of the curriculum. Questions included in the Tyler Rationale address the goals and rationale for the program, activities for meeting the objectives, organization of activities and evaluation of the effectiveness of the learning (Grier, 2005).
Iwasiwet al. (2005) state that the availability of support staff for curriculum development and time needed to address resistance contributes to lengthy curriculum development. An increase in the number of individuals on the course development team will enable the team to complete the course design within a reasonable timeframe and perform revisions prior to implementation. Effective leadership will reduce the amount of resistance since the leader can influence the staff and reduce resistance to the curriculum changes.

R.C. stated that he would like to include students in a future curriculum development. Iwasiwet al. (2005) assert that it is important to include students in the curriculum development process because of the influence of their experiences, viewpoint, goals and demands. Iwasiw et al. further assert that collaboration from faculty from other disciplines, leaders in the community, graduates from the program and members of professional organizations should be involved in curriculum development assure that the standards are maintained. R.C. described collaboration between the library services, office of research department and the clinical education program during the curriculum development program. Collaboration between the different departments of the program was beneficial to the curriculum development process because of shared social capital, shared expertise, informal sharing and shared ownership of the curriculum to achieve curriculum improvements (Briggs, 2007). R.C. did not include members of professional nursing organizations and faculty members from other healthcare disciplines in the course design. Collaboration from experts outside the program would have been more appropriate in an entire curriculum redesign or development.
The learning activities selected for the course were appropriate for an adult population. Activity based learning activities selected for the course such as collaborative learning and problem based learning are suitable for the characteristics of adult learners. Activity based learning activities provide opportunities for learners to discuss their experiences and provides the learners with a choice during the activities. According to Knowles’ theory, adult learners are experienced and dislike lack of choice during learning activities (Kenner & Weinerman, 2011). The selection of collaborative learning is appropriate for a group of adult learners because collaborative learning includes social interactions between the learners and the learners with experience can discuss their experiences with learners who are more knowledgeable and develop new perspectives.
Questionnaires and focus group discussions were used to collect data for the needs assessment of the curriculum development. Research evidence supports the use of questionnaires in data collection for needs assessment and the development of objectives and goals. In a study conducted byGrier (2005) to develop a curriculum for a photonics program, the program objectives were identified using questionnaires, observations and interviews. The benefits of focus group discussions include provision of rich in-depth information from several participants at the same time and the opportunity to learn about group behavior during the discussions (Hughes, 2009).