Institutions of higher education strive to be recognized for their commitment to providing effective, high quality educational programs, thus fostering academic excellence in both faculty and students. Students and their parents demand high quality programs and use quality as a metric in making the decision about which college to attend. Faculty want to be part of a program with established excellence, knowing that this will enhance their reputation and career development. The public also seeks measures of quality, whether real or imagined, and expects academic institutions to be of high quality. Since quality and excellence in education are important to all aspects of society, focus has been placed upon curricula and assessment strategies to assure that programs are accomplishing their missions. An overview is provided of selected aspects of these topics that are of particular interest and concern to pharmacy education, along with additional recommended readings. (Glasgow, 1997)
Curriculum development is integration and a philosophy of teaching in which content is drawn from several subject areas to focus on a particular topic or theme. Rather than studying math or social studies in isolation, for example, a class might study a unit called The Sea, using math to calculate pressure at certain depths and social studies to understand why coastal and inland populations have different livelihoods. Effective interdisciplinary studies include the following elements:
- A topic that lends itself to study from several points of view.
- Two to five valuable themes (or essential questions) the teacher wants the students to explore.
- An approach and activities to further students’ understanding more than is possible in a traditional, single-discipline unit.
Teachers must be empowered to more effectively design their own curriculum, and to move from the position of curriculum conveyer to that of curriculum designer. Much of the curriculum found in......
