Curriculum and Pedagogic Principles and Practices for Implementing Post-practicum Interventions

Abstract

Identifying principles and practices associated with curriculum and pedagogies to support effective post-practicum interventions is the focus of this chapter. It draws upon and synthesises the contributions and findings from the studies reported and discussed within this monograph. Explicitly, it seeks to identify and align particular educational purposes with specific curriculum and pedagogic practices, so that the provision of educative experiences can progress in an informed and focused way. Within all of this is a consideration of how students come to engage in these activities and for what purposes, as was identified in the survey reported in the second chapter. These are referred to here as students’ personal epistemologies that are central to how they come to engage in and learn through experiences in practicum settings, and also through university organised experiences, and also how they reconcile those two sets of experiences. Commencing with a consideration of the range of purposes identified in these contributions and from other sources, a review of the kinds of curriculum considerations (i.e. the sequencing, ordering and kinds of experiences) and also pedagogic practices (i.e. the means by which these experiences have been enriched) is then provided and aligned with the kinds of purposes identified initially. The overall concern here is to identify a set of principles and practices that can be utilised within higher education and across a range of disciplines to support the effective use of post-practicum experiences. In terms of these interventions, it is proposed that space considerations of the experienced curriculum (i.e. what students come to experience and learn) need to be considered within what is planned and enacted.