Abstract:

This paper addresses several key considerations when designing a multidisciplinary curriculum. The considerations are anchored around theories of transformational leadership and constructive alignment that constitute a comprehensive approach to curriculum design. The context in which the curriculum design approach is developed involves clinical and translational research.

The central argument of the proposed approach is the need to align program outcomes, learning objectives, content, activities, and graded assignments. This alignment has been demonstrated to be a key success factor for unidisciplinary curriculum design. In the case of multidisciplinary curriculum design, such alignment plays an even more important role, since content is imported and integrated from several different domains by experts specializing in these respective fields.

When viewed from that perspective, leadership becomes a focal point of curriculum design efforts. Instead of employing a transactional leadership model, whereby individual experts governed by a single leader each create their own content, structure, and flow, the proposed approach utilizes a team model, guided by transformational leadership outcomes. The approach encourages the vision, mission, objectives, and ultimately accountability to be shared amongst members involved in the development of the multidisciplinary curriculum. By adopting this approach, individuals engaged in curriculum design feel responsible for not only representing (and for being accountable for) their own domains of expertise, but for elevating the overall status of the entire program of which they are part, through the improvement of the learning experience they create for their students.

Keywords:

Multidisciplinary, curriculum design, leadership.