Twelve tips for curriculum renewal

Abstract

Background: Curriculum development in the health sciences usually entails a lengthy, in-depth review of most or all aspects of the curriculum. The review usually leads to the generation of a detailed report that is submitted to the Dean or executive committee of the faculty. Much has been written about the process of curriculum development but very little has been written about the important processes of curriculum renewal and revision.

Aims: Health sciences curricula, including those that are newly developed, will benefit from timely periodic revision. The revision process with subsequent diligent curriculum monitoring is called curriculum renewal. In this article, we articulate twelve tips on how to assure dynamic, ongoing curriculum renewal. The overall goal of the renewal should be to assure timely, evidence-based curriculum responsiveness to changes in practice, health care, student needs and educational approaches based on quality research.

Methods: We searched the health care education literature for articles related to curriculum development, seeking credible evidence on, and recommendations for, best practices for ongoing renewal of developed curricula.

Results and conclusions: The health sciences literature is replete with recommendations to guide suggestions for curriculum development; however, there are few credible research-based guidelines to inform dynamic curriculum renewal. Given the rapid development of research-based knowledge in health sciences education practices, there is a need to diligently monitor the ongoing successes and failures of a developed curriculum with a view to instituting large or small timely changes to assure timely curriculum renewal.