ABSTRACT
There is considerable rhetoric internationally around the need for national curricula to reflect the changes that are taking place in the world outside school. This raises questions about what a quality curriculum in a technological era should look like, and equally challenging issues about how to achieve the necessary changes in schooling in order for such a curriculum to be realised. This paper summarises the views of 11 experts from seven countries. It introduces a sociocultural framework that highlights the complexity of achieving alignment between policies and practice spanning the national to local school to classroom levels. Three key issues that underpin alignment are then explored, each of which link with the issue of trust:stakeholders engagement;teacher professionalism;summative assessment. By exploring and exemplifying these three issues the paper indicates potential ways of addressing them and provides 'tools to think with' to enhance future curriculum development initiatives.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The safe administration of drugs is a focus of attention in healthcare. It is regarded as acceptable that a formula card or mnemonic can be used to find the correct dose and fill a prescription even though this removes any requirement for performing the underlying computation. Feedback and discussion in class reveal that confidence in arithmetic skills can be low even when students are able to pass the end of semester drug calculation exam. OBJECTIVE: To see if confidence in the understanding and performance of arithmetic for drug calculations can be increased by emphasising student's innate powers of logical reasoning after reflection. DESIGN: Remedial classes offered for students who have declared a dislike or lack of confidence in arithmetic have been developed from student feedback adopting a reasoning by logical step methodology. Students who gave up two hours of their free learning time were observed to engage seriously with the learning methods, focussing on the innate ability to perform logical reasoning necessary for drug calculation problems. Working in small groups allowed some discussion of the route to the answer and this was followed by class discussion and reflection. RESULTS: The results were recorded as weekly self-assessment scores for confidence in calculation. A self-selecting group who successfully completed the end of semester drug calculation exam reported low to moderate confidence in arithmetic. After four weeks focussing on logical skills a significant increase in self-belief was measured. This continued to rise in students who remained in the classes. CONCLUSION: Many students hold a negative belief regarding their own mathematical abilities. This restricts the learning of arithmetic skills making alternate routes using mnemonics and memorised steps an attractive alternative. Practising stepwise logical reasoning skills consolidated by personal reflection has been effective in developing student's confidence and awareness of their innate powers of deduction supporting an increase in competence in drug administration.
