Implementing curriculum evaluation: case study of a generic undergraduate degree in health sciences

This case study presents a longitudinal, evidence‐based approach to health science curriculum reform and evaluation. Curriculum in higher education must meet the needs of diverse stakeholders and must respond to dynamic local, national and international contexts, and this creates challenges for evaluation. The long lead time prior to the introduction of new or revised university curriculum (at least two years), the length of degree programmes (three to five years) and the lag time in the availability of objective indicators of degree outcomes (at least one year post‐graduation) mean that findings may be obsolete before an evaluation can be completed. Few would argue that evaluation is important and methods and approaches for conducting curriculum evaluation are proposed in the literature, although few published reports of the outcomes of comprehensive evaluations are evident. This paper discusses potential for evaluation to establish responsive communication between students, teaching staff and programme administrators, ensuring a match between the intended, implemented and attained curriculum.     

Speaking of books

Disadvantaged Child, Vol. I. Jerome Hellmuth, editor. Seattle, Washington: Special Child Publications, 1967. Pp. 499. $10.00.

Federal Aid for Schools. Howard S. Rowland and Richard L. Wing. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967. Pp. 396.

Psychology of Human Adjustment. Lester D. Crow. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967. xv, 613 pp. $7.95.

School Children in the Urban Slum. Joan I. Roberts, editor. New York: The Free Press, 1967. xiii and 626 pp. $7.50.

Speech Handicapped School Children, Wendell Johnson and Dorothy Moeller, editors. Harper & Row, New York, 1967. Pp. 562. $7.50.

Edward Hitchcock, M.D., Founder of Physical Education in the College Curriculum. J. Edmund Welch. East Carolina College, Greenville, North Carolina, J. Edmund Welch, 1966. 315 pp. $5.00.     

Cognitive Skills in the Charitable Giving Decisions of the Elderly

Charitable giving is a common, and easily measurable, form of prosocial behavior. It may also provide a unique cognitive challenge in that it often requires identifying with the needs of distant others. Using a sample of 331 cognitively normal seniors (mean age of 76), this study examined the relationship between charitable giving and scores on 18 different narrowly-focused cognitive tests. Only those cognitive tests involving spatial memory and drawing tasks were statistically significant in predicting the presence of charitable giving. This finding corresponds with neuroscience studies suggesting that spatial memory and social-emotional functions may involve related brain areas.     

Later Life: A Time To Learn

In this article, an emerging framework for investigating and interpreting the experiences of learning in later life is presented. This framework is contextualized by a study in which the lived experiences of later-life computer learners were investigated. Significant ontological and existential interpretations from the study provided insights into the meaning of time in later life. Time for the omega generation is particularly important because people look to the past and the present for both meaning and integrity. They then use this knowledge to look to the future for a time when they will no longer be living. The period of older adulthood is also unique in the life course as an opportunity to learn. With no time constraints, people in later life are able to devote time to learning in a way not previously experienced. Interpretations from the research project provide a link between learning in later life and the ontological and existential search for meaning. These three related constructs (i.e., time, later life, and learning) are explored in this article.     

The Good,the Bad,and the Ugly of Pedagogy in Harry Potter: An Inquiry Into the Personal Practical Knowledge of Remus Lupin,Rubeus Hagrid,and Severus Snape

On the 20th anniversary of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, we examine the narratives of pedagogical practice of three teachers at “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry”. By drawing on these characters’ stories of teaching as presented in Rowling’s novels, we foreground their personal practical knowledge and the relationship of this knowledge to their curriculum-making. We do this in order to highlight the importance of narrative perspective and context in the assessment and evaluation of teachers’ pedagogical practice.