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PMETB Standards for Curricula
IntroductionThis paper sets out the characteristics that curricula should display to be effective in guiding learning, teaching, and experience. The term ‘curriculum’ is here defined as:
The standards set here will ensure that the curriculum can be the basis of blueprinting for the assessment system[1]. Background rationale for both this definition and for the standards set out below are available in PMETB papers[2]. Standard 1: Rationale[a] The purpose of the curriculum must be stated, including its overall role in the relevant postgraduate training. [b] The curriculum must state how it was developed and validated. · How content and methods were chosen. · How the curriculum was agreed and by whom. · The role of teachers and trainees in curriculum development. [c] The appropriateness of the stated curriculum to the stage of learning and to the specialty in question must be described. [d] Linkages of the curriculum to previous and subsequent stages of the trainee’s training and education should be clarified. [e] The curriculum must be presented in relation to programmes and posts within those programmes. Standard 2: Content of learning[a] The curriculum must set out the general professional and specialty specific content to be mastered. · Knowledge, skills and expertise must be addressed. · Recommendations on the sequencing of learning and experience should be provided, if appropriate. · The general professional content should include a statement about how Good Medical Practice is to be addressed. [b] Content areas should be presented in terms of the intended outcomes of learning benchmarked to identifiable stages of training, where appropriate: · what the trainee will know, understand, describe, recognise, be aware of and be able to do at the end of the course[3]. [c] Content areas should be linked to guidance on recommended learning experiences. Standard 3: Model of learningThe curriculum must describe the model of learning appropriate to the specialty and stage of training. · General balance of work-based experiential learning, independent self-directed leaning and appropriate off-the-job education. · How learning for knowledge, competence, performance and independent action will be achieved[4] Standard 4: Learning experiences[a] Recommended learning experiences must be described which allow a diversity of methods covering, at a minimum: · Learning from practice · Opportunities for distributed and concentrated practice · Learning with peers · Learning in formal situations inside and outside the department · Personal study · Specific teacher inputs. [b] Educational strategies that are suited to work-based experiential learning and appropriate off-the-job education should be described. Standard 5: Supervision and feedback[a] Mechanisms for ensuring feedback on learning must be recommended and required[5]. [b] Mechanisms for ensuring supervision of practice and safety of doctor and patient must be defined[6]. Standard 6: Managing curriculum implementationIndication should be given of how curriculum implementation will be managed and assured locally and within programmes. · Intended use of the curriculum document by trainers and trainees. · Means of ensuring curriculum coverage. · Suggested roles of local faculty in curriculum implementation. · Responsibilities of trainees for curriculum implementation. · Curriculum management in posts and attachments within programmes. · Curriculum management across programmes as a whole. Standard 7: Curriculum review and updating[a] Plans for curriculum review, including curriculum evaluation and monitoring, must be set out. [b] The schedule for curriculum updating, with rationale, must be provided. [c] Mechanisms for involving trainees in [a] and [b] must be set out. Standard 8: Equality and diversityThe curriculum should describe its compliance with antidiscriminatory practice.
References[1] See the PMETB document: Principles for an Assessment System for Postgraduate Medical Training by Lesley Southgate [Chair of the Assessment Committee] and Janet Grant. [2] What is Curriculum? Standards for Curriculum Development: Background Paper [3] An accompanying paper will give examples of such curriculum statements
[4]
Based
on Miller’s pyramid which
runs from ‘knows’, to ‘knows how’, to ‘shows’, to ‘does’. [5] The assessment strategy will be defined separately and will include feedback on learning. [6] A separate paper will be made available on supervision prior to a statement of principles for supervision being developed.
30/09/2004 |
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