Developing an Applied Curriculum
Hamid Moradlou, Elias Tsoutsanis, Jen Waterhouse and Lisa Woolley
Sheffield Hallam University – Faculty of ACES (engineering) and Faculty of D&S (law)
| Strand | Student Outcomes |
| Type | Take a look at the original poster |
| Learning objective(s) | To develop understanding of the meaning of an applied curriculum, and the benefits/drawbacks thereof |
| As lecturers in Engineering and Law whose curriculum provides for practical applied modules, an applied curriculum seems a natural approach. Embedded into our offer to students is the provision of placements, ‘real-life’ work in our Clinics and hands-on use of cutting edge equipment within our laboratories. Add to that our Vice-Chancellor’s ambition that Sheffield Hallam University is to be “the world’s leading applied university”, we all believed the relevance would make our task that much easier.The purpose of the poster is to show a clear link between the applied learning agenda and our diverse areas of learning – the mechanical hand reaching out to the hand of reason. Although we believe that Sheffield Hallam is already leading the field, we quickly realised that there is still much work to be done. This is because our findings reveal that there is a wealth of information on ‘authentic learning’ and ‘situated cognition’ emanating from the United States, which is slightly disconcerting given that anecdotally many Universities are trying to forge a future of applied learning.
From our discussion and the literature, particularly Maranville, 2000, we can conclude that applied learning can generate passion and develop practical skills and employability (Graduate Outcomes); however we did not anticipate that there were also many barriers – for example “too much reality to soon” for students who are used to being taught purely for the exam at the end (Dearing Report 1997 and Consumer Rights Act 2015). We remain undeterred as practitioners and will continue with our applied learning curriculum, but cognisant that authentic learning should be across all years of study with an ethic of consistent practice, a striving for excellence by our colleagues and the University all linked to the ambition for Sheffield Hallam to BE the world’s leading applied University. |
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