Towards a Critical Analysis of Curricular Practices of Eight Higher Education Teachers

It has been argued that most curricular practices in higher education settings are still strongly based upon the so-called telling paradigm rather than some sort of interactive or socializing way to foster better teaching and better learning. Besides, assessment practices are quite often oriented to grade students instead of being a means to engage them in deeper and more meaningful learning. At the same time, it is generally acknowledged that there is a need for studies that are based on stronger empirical data, collected in real classroom settings. In fact, it has been stated that without studies such as those one cannot get thorough descriptions of how one teaches, assesses, and learns in higher education classrooms. Putting it in another way: one cannot come up with credible statements on higher education curricular practices. Research reported in this paper was aimed at describing, analysing, and interpreting eight higher education teachers’ curricular practices within undergraduate courses of four knowledge domains: Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Technologies, Health Sciences, and Social Sciences. In particular, the study dealt with issues such as: a) teaching planning and organization; b) feedback nature, frequency, and distribution; c) classroom dynamics; d) teacher and student roles; e) tasks, resources, and materials used in class; f) class structure and time management; g) nature and dynamics of assessment; and h) student participation. For the purposes of the investigation reported in this paper, data were collected through classroom observations of eight volunteer teachers (two for each knowledge domain), interviews with each one of these teachers and with eight groups students as well. The study makes a discussion of teachers’ curricular practices while teaching courses in each one of the four mentioned knowledge domains. As a result, some policy, practical, theoretical, and methodological issues that could be taken into account when one thinks about new and innovative approaches to curriculum studies and curriculum theory are presented and discussed