An appreciative inquiry into the design of a conceptual model for a flexible undergraduate curriculum structure

[摘要] English: The aim of this study was to develop a conceptual model for a flexible undergraduate curriculum structure offered at a higher education institution, using the Appreciative Inquiry theoretical framework.Since 1994 the South African education sector has gone through significant changes. These changes have brought about many challenges in the sector. For instance, massification of higher education has caused higher education institutions to reform their curricula in order to accommodate previously disadvantaged students entering tertiary education. In this way, the South African government has been attempting to redress the social inequalities that had prevailed in the education sector during the apartheid era. One of its efforts has been widening access for a variety of groups in society, in order to increase their participation in the higher education sector. Widening of access should also lead to academic success; however, many students who enter higher education are academically underprepared, even though they meet the minimum admission requirements for higher education studies. They lack basic academic foundation in communication (oral, reading and writing), numeric and literacy skills. These inadequacies are mainly the result of admitting students from rural and economically disadvantaged backgrounds who are not being sufficiently prepared for studying at higher education level when they leave the secondary basic education and further education and training school system, resulting in the creation of a so-called 'articulation gap.An explorative case study was conducted at the Vaal University of Technology to respond to the study's research question, which was: How may a flexible curriculum structure for an undergraduate programme be designed in order to address the articulation gap between further education and training and higher education? Staff involved in an extended programme of the institution and students who either had gone through the extended programme or were currently in the programme, participated in individual interviews and focus group interviews, respectively.The investigation discovered that the first-year students in the extended programme had diverse needs. It became evident that many students were not only academically underprepared; they were also socially, culturally, emotionally and intellectuallyunderprepared to enter higher education. In this study the design of the proposed conceptual model was based on Tyler's model for curriculum design that has been used in education since 1947. The Tyler Model identifies and focuses on designing a curriculum that addresses the diverse needs of students. The increase of student numbers in higher education poses challenges to higher education institutions, and research should be conducted into preparing students at secondary school level for higher education demands. Further research is needed to establish how curricula for extended programmes could be reformed to enhance academic success of students, and how to increase the throughput in higher education.

[发布机构] University of the Free State