This chapter demonstrates how Decoding work can be used productively within a curriculum change process to help make design decisions based on a more nuanced understanding of student learning and the relationship of a professional program to the field.

In this chapter we describe the Decoding the Disciplines Faculty Learning Community at Mount Royal University and how Decoding has been used in new and multidisciplinary ways in the various teaching, curriculum, and research projects that are presented in detail in subsequent chapters.

A number of universities in the United Kingdom (UK) have launched institution-wide initiatives recently to embed inquiry and research more firmly into the student experience. Among these, the Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences (CILASS) led a five-year development program at The University of Sheffield (TUOS) between…

Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) has widespread appeal in higher education as a suite of teaching strategies that promotes learning through students' increasingly independent investigation of questions, problems, and issues using the methods of inquiry of the disciplines. Framed as especially appropriate for research universities, IGL has been…

The University of Gloucestershire, located in the southwest of the United Kingdom, is a small university with approximately 7,500 full-time students and 400 teaching staff. It has three faculties, all with a professional or applied focus: (1) Media, Art, and Technology; (2) Business, Education, and Professional Studies; and (3) Applied Sciences.…

Many factors, including reduced teaching resources, higher student-to-teacher ratios, evolving teaching technologies, and increased emphasis on success skills, have made it necessary for many teaching faculties to become more deliberate about continuous curriculum assessment and improvement. An example is the evolution of food science education…

In the fall of 2003, Teaching Support Services (TSS), a department at the University of Guelph, was approached by a faculty member in the department of food sciences. Professor Art Hill was interested in seeking support in systematically assessing the department's undergraduate curriculum and using that assessment to trigger further improvement of…

The focus of this paper is the curriculum development process that led to the intentional integration of knowledge, skills, and values in every course at a newly created institution, the University of Guelph-Humber (G-H). Among the many unique features of G-H, the integration of theory and practice in each course is one of the most important. The…

This chapter offers a case study of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa, where SI has acted as more than a student academic development program by also addressing faculty and curriculum development.

Academic reward systems are widely perceived to emphasize research over teaching, inhibiting instructional and curricular change. Despite much conversation about changing the reward system for faculty, there is reluctance to take action. Unless teaching is better rewarded, there is a danger that external agencies will introduce their own measures…

Two McMaster University (Canada) chemical engineering courses enrolling 30-50 students incorporate problem-based learning (PBL). Issues addressed in implementation included overcoming faculty and student resistance, integrating PBL methods within a predominantly conventional curriculum, developing PBL problems and objectives, and using tutorless…