Responsive curriculum development for

professional education: Different

teams, different tales
Joyce Vreuls; Mieke Koeslag; Marcel van der Klink
et al.

2022

Structured summary

Snapshot

This study focuses on curriculum development initiatives at the

school level in a Dutch university of applied sciences

Key findings
 The study did not provide information on the limitations of the study.
 The study suggests that future research should focus on how to support curriculum
developers in developing responsive curricula and how to remove institutional barriers.
 The study's findings can inform the development of responsive curricula that address
the needs of rapidly changing professional fields.

Creating a Good Curriculum

Creating a good curriculum is important for students to learn and grow.

There are many ways to create a curriculum, but some ways are better than others.

Here are some things to think about when creating a curriculum:

This will help make sure the curriculum is relevant and useful.

This will help keep the curriculum up-to-date and relevant.

By thinking about these things, we can create a curriculum that helps students learn and
grow in the best way possible.

Creating a good curriculum is a complex and time-consuming process.

Teachers and curriculum developers have to work together to make sure the curriculum is
relevant and useful for students.

They need to consider many factors, such as the needs of the students, the resources
available, and the goals of the education system.

A good curriculum should be flexible and open to change, and it should involve students,
teachers, and professionals from the industry in the development process.

However, creating a good curriculum is not easy.

There are many challenges, such as lack of resources, lack of expertise, and conflicting
opinions.

Teachers and curriculum developers need to be creative and motivated to overcome these
challenges.

In addition, curriculum development should involve many stakeholders, including students,

teachers, professionals from the industry, and university experts.

This helps to ensure that the curriculum is well-rounded and relevant to the needs of the
students.

Overall, creating a good curriculum requires a lot of effort, creativity, and collaboration.

It is a complex and ongoing process that requires continuous improvement and adaptation.

How To Make a Good Curriculum

Making a good curriculum is hard because the people who make it don't always know how
to do it well.

They might not have the right skills or support to make a good curriculum.

Sometimes, they use their own ideas instead of thinking about what would be best for the
students.

This can lead to problems like not having enough time to think about what they're doing or
not being able to change things when they need to.

The people who make the curriculum need help and support to do it well.

They need to be able to work with others, like teachers and students, to make sure the
curriculum is good.

They also need to be able to change things when they need to, so the curriculum stays up-to-
date and relevant.

Some people think that a good curriculum should be flexible and open, so it can be changed
when needed.
It should also be based on real-life situations, so students can learn from them.

This way, students can learn in a more interactive and engaging way.

Making a good curriculum is important because it helps students learn and grow.

It also helps teachers to teach well and makes sure that everyone is working together to
achieve the same goals.

To make a good curriculum, many people need to work together.

This includes teachers, experts, and people from the community.

They all need to have the same goal and work together to make a curriculum that is good for
everyone.

The people making the curriculum need to be flexible and able to change things when
needed.

This can be hard because everyone has different ideas and opinions.

There are four big challenges when making a curriculum:

1. Dealing with different contexts: This means understanding the different situations and
rules that affect the curriculum.

2. Dealing with different roles and responsibilities: This means knowing who is in charge of
what and making sure everyone is working together.

3. Finding the right support: This means getting help from others when you need it.

4. Getting everyone involved: This means making sure all the right people are part of the
process and are working together.

To overcome these challenges, the people making the curriculum need to be able to work
together and be flexible.

Making a good curriculum is important for teaching students.

There are different ways to make a curriculum, and some are better than others.

One way is to make a curriculum that is flexible and open to change.

This means that teachers can make changes to the curriculum as they need to, and it is not
set in stone.

Another way is to make a curriculum that is made by a team of people, including teachers,
experts, and others.

Some people think that making a curriculum is hard because there are many challenges.
For example, teachers may not have enough time or resources to make a good curriculum.

They may also have different ideas about what should be in the curriculum.

But, if teachers work together and share their ideas, they can make a good curriculum that
helps students learn.

Analysis

Study subjects
29 participants

Open interviews were held with 29 curriculum developers to explore how they define and
give substance to developing curricula for new, changing or unpredictable professions.
These 29 participants were involved in seven curriculum development trajectories.
Four themes were detected: (1) curriculum developers are in favour of open, flexible and
authentic curricula; (2) the context in which the curriculum development takes place and
the different roles and responsibilities of curriculum developers are challenging; (3)
curriculum developers feel insufficiently equipped to carry out their tasks; and (4) involving
stakeholders is necessary but results in a “viscous” social–political process

Abstract
Abstract Due to fast and unpredictable developments, professional education is challenged
with being responsive, which demands a rethinking of conventional curriculum
development approaches. Yet, literature on curriculum development falls short in terms of
recognising how to react rapidly and adequately to these new developments. This study
focuses on curriculum development initiatives at the school level in a Dutch university of
applied sciences. Open interviews were held with 29 curriculum developers to explore how
they define and give substance to developing curricula for new, changing or unpredictable
professions. These 29 participants were involved in seven curriculum development
trajectories. Four themes were detected: (1) curriculum developers are in favour of open,
flexible and authentic curricula; (2) the context in which the curriculum development takes
place and the different roles and responsibilities of curriculum developers are challenging;
(3) curriculum developers feel insufficiently equipped to carry out their tasks; and (4)
involving stakeholders is necessary but results in a “viscous” social–political process.
Responsive curriculum development requires a great deal of flexibility and adaptability
from curriculum developers. Yet, in our study, “institutional concrete” is found to severely
hinder responsive curriculum development processes. To be responsive, such processes
need to be supported and institutional barriers need to be removed.
Bibliography
1. Vreuls, J., Koeslag, M., van der Klink, M., Nieuwenhuis, L., & Boshuizen, H. P. A.. (2022).
Responsive curriculum development for professional education: Different teams,
different tales. The Curriculum Journal, 33. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.155