units

EDF4004

Faculty of Education

18 September 2017 22 December 2024
Monash University

Undergraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

LevelUndergraduate
FacultyFaculty of Education
OfferedClayton First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)Dr Stephen Keast

Synopsis

This unit builds upon students' existing knowledge of curriculum, through an exploration of recent developments in curriculum, assessment, evaluation and education policy in local and national contexts. Students critically engage with various theoretical views relating to curriculum and assessment and their relationship to policy. A key focus of this unit is investigating what makes particular curricula and assessment approaches have greater or lesser educative value and the impacts of policy in these areas. Consequently, the political and ethical dimensions inherent in all curricula are explored, as are the linkages between curricula, assessment, reporting, evaluation and the quality of student learning. This unit promotes the importance of developing the professional capacity of educators to make critical judgments in terms of curriculum planning, action and evaluation, and the development of assessment that promotes high quality student learning.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. understand the ways curriculum can be viewed from each of the system, school and classroom levels
  2. understand how local and national curricula link with policy documents and how these position teachers and teachers' work
  3. inquire into various curricula, assessment and reporting practices to determine their educative value
  4. appreciate the complexities and challenges of designing assessment that is valid, reliable and compatible with policies relating to teaching and learning
  5. identify and critically reflect on the values, ethics and political dimensions of all curricula and assessment practices
  6. articulate their developing beliefs about curriculum, policy and assessment and compare these with theories found in professional literature
  7. apply a range of methods to generate evidence of student learning, including innovative application of information and communication technologies (ICTs)
  8. appreciate the dilemmas and complexities in reporting to different audiences in ways that can support and enhance student learning.

Assessment

Discursive essay: critical analysis and reflection on curriculum and assessment (2000 words, 50%)
Problem-based assessment analysis (2000 words equivalent, 50%)

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload equals 144 hours per semester comprising:

(a.) Contact hours for on-campus students:

  • 24 contact hours over the semester

(b.) Additional requirements

  • independent study to make up the minimum required hours over the semester

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Stephen Keast

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Secondary education

Prohibitions

EDF3001
EDF5422