Academic Plan

Academic Plan

1. Purpose

   • Knowledge, skills, attitudes to be learned
   • Leadership and Roles
     • Mentor/ Facilitator
       • shared responsibility / experiment freely/open communication/high expectations
     • Producer/ Director
       • choosing faculty / stress learners as centrality/ promote goals
     • coordinator
       • education/ program links/ articulation/ examining functions, structures, policies, processes
     • Broker/ Innovator
       • facilitating instructional choices/ providing resources, services, facilities
         • both roles administer and lead curriculum change
     • Monitor
       • establish expectations/ develop skills/ maintain standards/ evaluation internally and externally

2. Content

   • subject matter/ what is going to be taught
     • instructor's belief on purpose of education affects content
       • other things that affect content are assumptions, experiences, and reasonings

3. Sequence

   • curricular arrangement/ what topics to start with, what to end with

4. Learners

   • Student characteristics/ who are the students/what are their needs
     • background
     • preparations and ability
       • participation and identity development
     • goals
     • effort and involvement
       • Motivation
       • interest
       • engagement
   • perspectives of learning
     • behavioral perspective
     • cognitive perspective
     • sociocultural perspective
     • devloping competence
   • learning process
     • learning styles/strategies
       • shadowing, paraphrasing, outlining
   • metcognition
   • domain learning

5. Instructional Processes

   • learning activities/ lectures, online discussion board, etc.
     • teaching styles
       • Capitalize on student goals
       • establish classroom environment
       • help student learn how to learn
       • encourage students
       • change instructor lead lectures
     • interactive processes
       • disscussions
       • case study, role plays
       • group projects
       • peer teaching
     • link to life
       • service learning
       • international study
       • experiential classroom learning
     • addressing diversity
       • providing options
       • varying paces of learning
       • culturally responsive
   • establishing expectations
     • syllabus
     • program guide
   • intentional learning
     • questioning
       • critical thinking/ problem solving
     • organizing
     • connecting
     • reflecting
     • adapting

6. Instructional Resources

   • materials and settings/ classroom, notebooks, desks, etc.
     • computer
     • textbook
     • pencils/pens

7. Evaluation

   • Assessing plans and outcomes/ exit surveys, course evaluations
     • informal evaluation
     • student centered evaluation
     • goal free evaluation
     • assessment
     • self-study
     • external reviews
   • professional judgement
   • student opinion
   • student achievement
   • colleague opinion
   • can be done at course level or program level

8. Adjustment

   • Improving plans/ changing lecture to hybrid
     • classroom research
     • measuring student learning
     • use peer interaction
     • program accreditation
     • assess outcomes

9. Yale Report

   • document written by the faculty of Yale College in staunch defense of the classical curriculum. .
     • Part I presents the plan for education at Yale and defends the classical curriculum
     • Part II considers the importance of the classical languages to the curriculum.

10. internal influences

    • unit level influences
      • faculty
        • Not-for-profit
          • revise courses/programs to incorporate advancements and employer needs
        • for-profit
          • stress importance in student satisfaction, student is the customer
      • discipline
        • instructors in the same field tend to choose similar goals & teaching methods
      • student characteristics
        • increasing diversity
        • technology dependent
        • academic prep & attitudes
    • institutional influences
      • college mission
        • institutional type
          • Baccalaureate
          • Master's
          • Doctorate
          • Special-focus
          • associate's
          • Tribal
        • mission - statement used to identify identity/vision
        • control - public or independent/
      • Resources & cost
        • tuition & fees
        • contracts
        • donations
        • financial aid
        • state appropriations
      • governance
        • faculty & staff
          • establishing a role: mentor / facilitator
        • administration
          • establishing a role: producer / director
        • President & Board of Trustees
          • establishing a role: coordinator, broker, innovator, monitor
    • Emerging influences
      • changing faculty roles
      • budget constraints
      • pressure for evaluation
    • Dressel and Marcus 5 Components of academic disciplines
      • symbolic structures
      • syntactical structures
      • value structures
      • substantive structures
      • organizational structures
    • academic fields
      • Seeking community
        • finding common ground
          • Holland Personality Type
      • promoting linkage

11. external influences

    • market forces, government, accrediting agencies, disciplinary associations
      • causing diversity in missions of schools
      • debate between general education & specialization
      • Possible issues involving learners: emphasis on access to learners allowing increased opportunity , improved preparations allows growth, disappearance of normal student, new institution creations, keeping up with the 21st century
      • Content; should it be decided upon by the college or the students ? Students want relevance and freedom in education
      • advances in technology have advanced causing a change in the presentation/instruction of the material
      • need for evaluation is pushed due to the effect it could cause to government funding, student preparation

12. other influences on course planning

    • pragmatic factors
    • program and college goals
    • advice available on campus
    • literature on teachings
    • facilities, opportunities, assistance

13. Context

    • affected most by internal unit- level influences and institutional influences outside the program,but within the college

14. Form

    • includes the various decisions made while planning
    • translates connection between content and context

15. College wide planning

    • Course design
      • Fink's Taxonomy of Learning
        • 1. learning how to learn, 2. foundational knowledge, 3. applications, 4. integrations, 5. human dimension, 6. caring
    • Program design
      • Answering question such as learning objectives, best sequence of classes, what is the relationship between classes
    • College Wide design
      • general education - commonality and temporality

16. Curriculum change

    • diffusion theory
      • awareness, adaptation, adoption
    • planned change model
      • R&D and Problem solving
    • organizational development & continuous improvement
    • political models
    • social cognition model
    • it is possible to use multiple strategies of change, just be learn how to change, maintain the change