Introduction: In medical education, much attention has been paid to curriculum development. Emphasis has been placed on educational strategies such as student-centred learning, problem-based learning, integrated teaching and community-based teaching. The use of new learning technologies and new approaches to assessment have also attracted interest. Changes have been made too in the content areas to be studied and new subjects have been added to the educational programme with less emphasis placed on some traditional areas of study.
In contrast, an aspect of curriculum development which has been relatively neglected is communication about the curriculum. How do teachers and students know what is covered in the curriculum and where it is addressed? How do students know what learning opportunities are available to assist them to master each of the expected learning outcomes?How does assessment relate to the teaching programme? Curriculum mapping helps to provide answers to these and other related questions. Curriculum mapping is concerned with what is taught., how it is taught, when it is taught, and the measures used to determine whether the student has achieved the expected learning outcomes.
Curriculum mapping is about representing spatially the different components of the curriculum so that the whole picture and the relationships and connections between the parts of the map are easily seen. A curriculum is a programme of study where the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. The curriculum map supports this through assembling the different pieces of the curriculum jigsaw together. This complete picture is more meaningful to the teacher, the student or the manager than the picture presented by the random collection of pieces which is often what they have.
Why a curriculum map?
Curriculum maps, like road maps, serve two key functions.
- The curriculum map makes the curriculum more transparent to all the stakeholders: the teacher, the student, the curriculum developers, the manager, the profession and the public.
- The curriculum map demonstrates the links between the different elements of the curriculum, e.g. between learning outcomes and learning opportunities and between the parts within one element, e.g. between different learning outcomes.
This is the declared curriculum- what it is assumed the student is learning. This may differ from the real or taught curriculum- that is, the curriculum as it is delivered to the student. It may also be different from the tested curriculum- what students actually learn. The curriculum map makes explicit the implicit curriculum and helps to ensure that what is assessed is in line with the declared curriculum.
The curriculum map, by making what is covered explicit, helps the curriculum developer and teacher to ensure that there are no gaps in the curriculum and that the same area is not unwittingly visited twice with unnecessary repetition. Students and teachers can use the map to discuss which areas should be visited as part of the students' programme of studies and also the depth to which each area should be explored at the different stages of the curriculum.
Relationship and links in the curriculum
The user of a road map can see how near or far a part towns are situated from each other and weather they are connected directly by road or whether water, hills or other obstacles intervene. The curriculum map, like a road map, shows the different aspects of the curriculum and the relationships and the nature of the user can look at hoe the different content areas relate to each other and how the course content relates to the learning opportunities available, the learning outcomes, and the assessment.
The curriculum map encourages a holistic approach to medical care by demonstrating the relationships and links between different learning outcomes- appropriate attitudes as well as technical proficiency, health promotion as well as disease management, and communication skills as well as skills in physical examination. The map also encourages the application of theory to practice by relating an understanding of basic medical sciences to the mastery of clinical skills, thus emphasizing the relationship between knowing and doing.
The different windows of the curriculum map
A curriculum map can be viewed as a diagrammatic representation of the curriculum displaying the different elements of the curriculum and the interrelationships between different elements.
The windows and nodes in a curriculum map
A more extensive map is illustrated in figure 4. In this paper representation of the map, students are displayed in the map.
Window 1: The expected learning outcomes. The expected learning outcomes that the students will achieve in the course or curriculum represent an important window in the curriculum map.
Window 2: Curriculum content or areas of expertise covered. Curriculum content can be define in terms of areas of expertise to be mastered. Each areas expertise is made up of a series of nodes -unit of expertise- as illustrated in figure 5.
Window 3: Assessment. Student assessment is a key factor in curriculum development -it influences what students learn and what teachers teach.
Window 4: Learning opportunities. An important area of the map represent the learning opportunities available to the students.
Window 5: Learning locations. This window includes all sites where learning may take place.
Window 6: Learning resources. Catalogue can be kept of all learning resources available to support the students learning and these are recorded in the learning resource window.
Window 7: Timetable. The curriculum is an important and traditional view of the curriculum. Time table window shows chronologically scheduling of the learning opportunities in each phase of the curriculum.
Window 8: Staff . The staff window identifies the professional, technical and administrative staff responsible for the curriculum.
Window 9: Curriculum management. A useful window to the curriculum relates to the management to the curriculum. This includes the staff who serve on the curriculum committees.
Window 10 : Student information recorded about students may includes personal details.
Links between and within windows.
Reference has been made to the two components of the curriculum map. The first is the windows and the content or nodes within a window. The second is the links between the nodes within a window and between the nodes in different windows. These relationships or links, while difficult to represent on a paper version of a curriculum map in a form that allows the nodes with their associated link to be identified, can be displayed on a computer version of the map. The links show for the unit of expertise'goitre':
(a) the learning resource available, e.g. a videotape demonstration of how to examine the neck;
(b) the assessment of the students' competence in the area--a station in an OSCE designed to assess the students' mastery of examination of the neck;
(c) the relevance of health promotion, e.g. dietary iodide supplementation to prevent iodine deficiency goitre, one of the commonest diseases worldwide;
(d) the available learning opportunities in the curriculum, e.g. the subject of goitre and its management covered in a lecture on the topic in week three of the endocrine system course in phase 2 of the curriculum.
(e) the sites where students can acquire experience in the area, e.g. the endocrine clinic in one of the hospitals where they may get the opportunity to examine a patient with a goitre;
(f) the learning outcomes relevant to the topic 'goitre' e.g. students should know when to order biochemical tests of thyroid function as part of the investigation of a patient with goitre.
Different perspectives of the curriculum map
The curriculum map offers a number of facilities.
* It can provide a day-by-day account of student activities(the course timetable covering the organization of content and the learning opportunities available).
* It can communicate what is expected of students--(the learning outcomes).
* It can provide a clear picture of what is covered by students in each phase of the curriculum or stage of study (the course content).
Preparing a curriculum map
- Assess needs
- Scope the task
- Establish the links
- Populate the windows
- Decide the format the map
- Static or dynamic.
- Think of the past, present and future
- Decide on access to the map
- Familiarize staff and students with the map
- Plan to evaluate and update the map as necessary
- Allocate responsibility for the map
Using a curriculum map
The curriculum map is an essential tool for curriculum planners or developers. It helps them to plan changes based on a full understanding of the present position, and helps them to study the possible implications of any changes made.
The curriculum mapping offers the potential of applying an artificial intelligence approach where the curriculum mapping process itself identifies further possible changes in the curriculum.
- Teachers
- The student
- Examiners
- Administrators
- Accrediting bodies
- Potential students and public
- Educational researchers
Conclusion : The key to an effective curriculum is to get teachers to exchange information about what is being taught and to coordinate this so that it reflects the overall goals of the school. Curriculum mapping can help to improve communication about the curriculum. Indeed, one could argue that curriculum mapping is an essential tool for the implementation and development of a curriculum in postgraduate as well as undergraduate education.
The curriculum mapping initiative must have full institutional support and must be recognized as a mainstream curriculum planning and implementation activity. The curriculum map helps to manage the learning process by making the roles of the student and of the teacher more explicit.
