Over the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of helping more than 100 institutions consider, launch, and evolve their Curricular Approach. I’ve seen what helps teams succeed and what holds them back. Whether you are launching, building, or advancing your curricular approach, the journey can be challenging and full of opportunity. Here are some of the places folks get stuck and insights to help you stay unstuck.
Launching
If you are about to or in the midst of launching your curricular approach, these tips might help you avoid some common mistakes.
Assess Where You Are At
Moving to a curricular approach is a journey. Learning where you are can help you identify the next step in your process. You might consider where you are on the 6 stages of a curricular approach. Are you starting at the beginning? Are you restarting? Are you mid-way and ready to move forward?
Get Buy-in, Support, and Ownership
Many folks don’t even launch their curricular approach because they cannot generate support from key campus partners or buy-in and ownership from their team. These folks are often champions for a curricular approach and see the potential, but cannot get others to recognize it as well. Bringing a team to the institute and hosting a launch (virtual, in-person, or hybrid) can be pivotal in getting buy-in, support, and ownership. Clearly articulating the benefits of a curricular approach.
Don’t Get Stuck Refining Learning Aims Forever
The most common obstacle for folks who do launch is that they get stuck in the ideation, critique, and conceptual conversations about the learning aims (the educational priority, learning goals, and learning outcomes). These important components must be well thought out with meaningful discussion. However, many folks can get stuck in this conceptual conversation for months or years and never move to design or implementation. Perhaps the conceptual conversation feels safer or more comfortable than the next stage. Do your best thinking. Get some consensus, but don’t expect everyone to agree. Set your aims, begin designing your strategies, and sequence them so you can implement them. Assess, learn, and improve.
Building
If you have launched your curricular approach and are in your first year or two of building your approach, these suggestions might help you keep moving forward.
Create Organizational Learning Aims and Strategy-Level Learning Outcomes, but Not Mid-level Goals and Outcomes
If you are doing a divisional approach with divisional learning goals and outcomes, you don’t want each department and office to create their own version as well. This is unnecessary and obstructs the aligned benefits of a curricular approach. Instead, have each office or department narrow from the overall divisional learning outcomes and identify those they will focus on in their functional work. They will eventually create very detailed, measurable, and specific strategy-level learning outcomes for each workshop, video, event, etc. You want macro-level outcomes and micro-level outcomes. Mid-level outcomes get in the way and mess things up.
Don’t Stop at Learning Aims. Build Educational Plans
A curricular approach is (oversimplified) two parts: learning aims and educational plans. You must identify the learning aims first. This includes an archaeological dig and then creating an Ed Priority, Learning Goals, Narratives, Learning Outcomes, and Rubrics. Some folks get so excited about completing this portion that they stop here, think this is their Curricular Approach, and don’t create Educational Plans to design the student engagement to achieve this learning. This is the equivalent of creating a vision, mission, and values, but not having an implementation plan. It looks good on the website but that is about it. Without the Educational Plans, your learning aims are not a curricular approach but just a programming model with learning outcomes.
Design the Educational Plans before Jumping to Facilitation Guides
It can be tempting, particularly for the detailed and execution focused folks, to jump from Learning Aims to Facilitation Guides. However, if you don’t take time to design the overall education plan, you can miss the big picture regarding design, sequencing, and alignment. In our academic analogy, we design the course first (Ed Plan) and then design Wednesday’s class session (Facilitation Guide). Jumping to Facilitation Guides too soon can waste a lot of time and good work on Guides that may serve a completely different purpose or won’t be used at all.
Foster a Culture of Learning and Innovation
Organizations that launch a curricular approach that doesn’t last often do so because they don’t foster a culture of learning and innovation. They continue to operate in a mindset of trying to get it perfect rather than trying to do better. They do assessments to affirm their good thinking and hard work rather than to see what can be improved. They get stuck in perfection. They have a culture of fear and scarcity, which prevents creativity and innovation. Foster a culture of appreciative inquiry, a learning mindset, continuous improvement, and innovation. This cultural shift is not always easy, but it is critical.
This Is a New Lens, Not an Add-On
Another reason those who launch a curricular approach that doesn’t last is that they didn’t see this as a new lens to their work, but as an add-on. You are already too busy, overwhelmed, and struggling to find time; adding a learning approach on top of this won’t work. A curricular approach is a systemic way of thinking that helps prioritize, organize, and streamline our work with students and student learning at the center. When done well, a curricular approach helps you see what is important, what is less important, and what is not important at all. Higher education, particularly student affairs professionals, excels at being entrepreneurial and developing new ideas. We are often terrible at being editorial and deciding what to let go of to better serve students. A curricular approach can help us identify our priorities and provide something agreed upon to guide tough decisions.
Let Go of Ego and Get Student-Centered
In student affairs, we often talk about being student-centered. In my experience, though, we often center ourselves individually and organizationally. We talk about being student-centered, but we let our ego get in the way, finding ourselves centered on “my session,” “my initiative,” “my building,” or, most troubling of all, “my students.” Other times, we focus on what our organization (unit, department, office, division, or institution) receives in terms of credit, affirmation, praise, and awards for its offerings. We don’t align resources to best fit the student experience; we align them to avoid criticism and ensure our organization gets the credit. To truly be student-centered is to be collectively clear about what we hope students will learn, align our strategies to foster that learning, and organize everything around students’ experiences, not my organization or me.
Go Slow and Imperfectly, and Learn
Sometimes, it is tempting to put a particular educational plan “on hold” until next year because it isn’t quite ready or not ready at all, perhaps due to a series of staff vacancies, a leadership change, or other uncertainties. Don’t fall into this trap. It is much better to go slow and imperfectly because then you can see what works and what doesn’t, and learn a great deal that can inform and fuel your next steps. When folks put things “on hold,” they usually end up 12 months later in the same spot. Go slow and imperfectly, learn, and move forward.
Lead through Resistance
Any significant change comes with resistance. It is a sign of progress. Many different kinds of resistance often manifest in the same way. Understanding the roots of this resistance can be key in leading with and through it. Too often, leaders ignore resistance, see it as a sign of failure, or overly cater to it. If you can get to the various roots of resistance, then you can better engage to move forward.
Learn from the Wilderness
At times, folks find themselves unable to carefully design the learning engagement for a particular outcome, engagement strategy, or similar goals. In this place, they often let each student staff member or others design what they think is best for a particular outcome. I call this the Wilderness. This is not a curricular approach, but it can be helpful if we learn from it, identify what works and what doesn’t, and start narrowing toward clear strategies. Perhaps this year, you will let the student staff do what they think will work best. Maybe next year, you suggest a menu of 7 of the best initiatives to choose from, and then the next year, you have folks use the best strategy according to staff feedback and assessment of student learning. The wilderness is not where you want to be, but if that is where you are, you can learn from it.
3 Levels of Leadership for Your Curricular Approach
Once you are past your launch, you’ll want to make sure you have symbolic (a champion), strategic (air traffic control), and functional leadership (department level) in place.
Advancing
If you are several years into your curricular approach, these recommendations can help you maintain momentum moving forward.
Clarify the Curricular Approach Products, Processes, and Mindsets
The various shifts, changes, and adjustments in a curricular approach can be overwhelming. It can be helpful to separate the mindsets, products, and processes of a curricular approach, particularly for those leading this for others. We often simplify the process for those getting started, but for savvy leaders of a curricular approach, these more complex ways of understanding might be helpful in navigating with clarity the nuance. This video is a good overview of these more advanced ways of thinking about a curricular approach.
Don’t Let Your Curriculum Get in the Way of Your Curricular Approach
One of the obstacles for folks who are many years into their curricular approach is that they become enamored with and attached to the educational plans (strategies, sequencing, facilitation guides) they have developed, which can hinder their ability to examine their work through a curricular approach lens. Continue to use your curricular approach to improve and evolve your curriculum to best serve all of your students.
Assess Where You Are At
Now that you are at a very different place with your curricular approach, reconsider where you are on your journey. Learning where you are can help you identify the next step in your process. You might consider where you are on the 6 stages of a curricular approach.
5 R’s for Maintaining Momentum
After launching your curricular approach, maintaining momentum year after year can be a challenge. As staff members transition and contexts shift within and beyond your organization, it can be difficult to maintain continuity, knowledge base, enthusiasm, and momentum. Here are 5 Rs to help you maintain momentum for your curricular approach.
Your Curricular Approach
No matter where you are in your Curricular Approach journey, considering, launching, or evolving, the goal is the same: creating intentional, clear, aligned, and integrated learning experiences that truly serve students. I’ve worked with over 100 campuses to launch their curricular approach and help many with ongoing coaching around their curricular approach. If your campus is ready to bring greater focus, alignment, and impact to student learning, I’d love to partner with you. Explore how I can help your team consider, launch, or evolve your Curricular Approach – and let’s connect.
