Noel M. Meyers & Duncan Nulty
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Paper presented at the Learning Communities and Assessment Cultures Conference organised by the EARLI Special Interest Group on Assessment and Evaluation, University of Northumbria, 28-30 August 2002

Noel Meyers is a Lecturer in the School of Natural Resource Sciences where he teaches a number of courses in ecology and plant biology. Within the Faculty of Science he is co-Director of the "Enhancing the Development of Information Literacy in Science", a member of the Teaching and Learning (T & L) Committee and T & L Innovation Forum. He has been appointed as a Teaching Fellow in the Queensland University of Technology's Teaching and Learning Support Service (TALSS) where he currently develops T & L strategies for large first year classes. His current research interests include developing teaching and learning environments to encourage student engagement with their learning. Correspondence: Queensland University of Technology, School of Natural Resource Sciences and Teaching and Learning Support Services, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Queensland, 4001, Australia. Tel: 61 7 3864 1395. Fax: 61 7 3864 1535. E-mail: nm.meyers@qut.edu.au

Duncan Nulty is the Higher Education Program Evaluator in the Queensland University of Technology's Teaching and Learning Support Service (TALSS). Duncan provides consultancy advice and support to all faculties and divisions in the areas of: the assessment of students' learning, and the design, conduct and evaluation of higher education programs (i.e. curriculum design and project management). This support is primarily provided in the following ways: Management of the University's Program Evaluation and Development Services; Project manager to the Faculty of Science Teaching and Learning Development project titled "Enhancing the Development of Information Literacy in Science"; Consultancy support to the Faculty of Law teaching and Learning Development project addressing quality assurance in assessment of students' learning, and; providing a range of seminars and workshops on educational issues. E-mail: d.nulty@qut.edu.au

Abstract In this paper we report on the use of five principles of curriculum design in a third year subject for environmental and ecological scientists (NRB572 "Terrestrial Ecosystems"). The teaching and learning strategy developed in NRB572 integrates the use of lectures, web based resources, practicals, a field trip and, most importantly, an integrated set of assessment tasks to develop a critical understanding of the processes through which ecosystems form and function. These principles, taken together, demonstrate how we use assessment to achieve constructive alignment between our aims and student learning outcomes. Our students expressed conspicuous levels of satisfaction, enjoyment, interest and engagement from their learning experience together with significantly enhanced learning outcomes (as evidenced by the quality of the students' work). We report the application of these principles so that others, irrespective of discipline, could use similar approaches.

J.F. Kennedy, 1963

We want our students to develop their world view based on a hierarchy of intellectual skills and understanding (Brookfield, 1995). An example of what we mean by this is the hierarchy that is represented by Bloom's (1956) taxonomy, or more recently in the SOLO taxonomy (Biggs and Collis, 1982). As students progress through their studies, their views become increasingly robust, through a process of guided trial and error, until an individual's conceptualisation provides common alignment with the perceptions of colleagues (Merriam and Caffarella, 1991; Laurillard, 1993) which we recognise as the minimum end-point for undergraduate knowledge in a discipline. But how do we achieve this ideal?

Our students should achieve "high quality" learning outcomes resulting from the interplay between their learning efforts, the curricula we design and our teaching methods (Bliss and Ogbourne, 1977; Laurillard, 1993; Roth, 1994; Leonard, 2000). We can observe these outcomes as improvements in the way students acquire, process and synthesise information (Marton and Booth, 1997) resulting in measurable improvements in their skills and thought processes. These sorts of outcomes occur when students adopt a deep, rather than a surface approach to their learning (Marton and Saljö, 1976; 1984). Students adopting a deep approach to learning characteristically exhibit: an explicit intent to develop their own understanding of material (Entwistle, 1995); knowledge generally characterised by a highly structured base (Biggs and Collis, 1987; Boulton-Lewis, 1998); an ability to apply one's own and other's ideas/concepts to new situations (Ramsden, 1992), and; a highly developed integration of knowledge (Biggs, 1999). These processes manifest themselves in student performance as:

1. enhanced understanding (Bodner, 1986), and comprehension (von Glasserfield, 1987; Leonard and Penick, 1993)

2. venturing their ideas more spontaneously (Chin and Brown, 2000); giving more elaborate explanations that describe mechanisms and cause-effect relationships (Entwistle, 1995) or refer to personal experiences (Brookfield, 1985); ask questions that focus on explanations and causes, predictions, or resolving discrepancies in knowledge; and engaged in ...... theorising (Chin and Brown, 2000).

3. constructing more elaborate, well-differentiated knowledge structures (Pearsall et al., 1997).

As Educators we possess powerful tools to influence students' approaches to learning through manipulating: our curricula (Powell, 1982); the teaching methods we use (Kember, 1998; Marton and Booth, 1997); and the way we assess our students (Rowntree, 1987; Bolton-Lewis, 1998; Biggs, 1999). However, like the Red Queen of Lewis Carroll's 'Through the Looking Glass', no matter how quickly we change things, students adapt their own learning strategies to achieve 'success' in ways they believe will suffice to meet assessment requirements (Biggs, 1999). Therefore, to maximise the quality of student learning outcomes we must construct learning environments that ensure students' adaptive responses to our curriculum become congruent with our aims (Boud, 1982; Ramsden, 1992; Biggs, 1996), which Biggs (1999) labels "backwash." Through constructively aligning learning outcomes and authentic assessment tasks (Biggs, 1996), we can remove incentives for reproduction of material (what we might call "negative backwash", or a surface approach) while providing students with the opportunity to demonstrate deeper engagement with their learning.

In this paper we recognise and apply five principles of curriculum design which produce an environment that requires students to adopt a deep learning approach in order to meet the unit's assessment requirements. We illustrate these principles using the curriculum design strategies we employed in one subject: NRB 572 - Terrestrial Ecosystems.

In designing NRB572 we sought to develop an authentic learning experience. We chose to construct the unit around Lys (pronounced Leeh-se), a tropical island off the coast of Queensland, Australia (a brief introduction to the history of the Island appears in Appendix 1). We developed student learning resources from publications arising from our recent scientific expedition to Lys (see for example: Cooke et al., 2002 (Appendix 2); Rigby et al., 2002 (Appendix 3), and Meyers et al., 2002 (Appendix 4). Fortuitously, the distribution and abundance of the plants, animals and landforms provided an ideal model system in which to examine dynamic ecosystem processes.

To illustrate ecosystem processes to students, we organized NRB572 to comprise three modules, designed to be cumulative in their effect. To support student learning, each week we deliver two hours of lectures with an average of two hours of practical work per week (distributed between laboratory/tutorial and field work). We also provide:

• paper based learning resources (e.g. handouts)

• web-based study guides

• practical notes and materials, and

• on-line content (e.g., readings, links to Web sites, etc);

We designed the NRB572 curriculum to ensure students' developing knowledge resulted from them having to complete tasks that ensured they engaged with the learning materials and resources they identified. We used two practical exercises (with an entirely formative function), together with two written assignments (the second comprising parts A and B). For each assessment item, we framed the questions in a divergent fashion, allowing each student the opportunity to pursue and develop their own knowledge and understanding within the context of the unit's aims and goals. We also designed each practical and assignment to form the basis for, and provide the requisite knowledge required to begin studying the following assignment. The progression from assignment one to two relied on developing a critical knowledge framework (assignment 1), developing a focus on understanding the theoretical principles (assignment 2, part A) towards developing an application focus requiring students to test their understanding (Assignment 2, part B). We augmented this progression through a field trip, timed to occur after students had completed module 1 and submitted their first assignment. The field trip served to consolidate the student's ideas and knowledge gained from module 1 and to introduce them to key concepts we would consider in modules two and three.

Having provided a description of the resources, we now illustrate how students progress and interact with each of the curriculum element and assessment tasks described above.

What follows traces the learning journey the students made through the materials and resources provided in this unit (Table 1). By doing this we illustrate the way these materials and resources cohere together and conspire to oblige the students to engage with their learning in a deep manner. We also illustrate the application of five principles of curriculum design which we advocate for application in others' teaching. These principles meet our expectations as teachiers and curriculum designers, but we recognise the importance of how our students perceived and interacted with the application of those principles. Therefore, following our perspective, we categorise student feedback into the corresponding principle to demonstrate the success, or otherwise of our curriculum design.

When students start their study of this (or any) unit of study, their initial question is essentially "What is this subject all about?" and inevitably "What do I have to do?" To explicitly answer this question, the Queensland University of Technology and Science Faculty require staff to provide to students a unit outline that specifically identifies the rationale, aims and learning objectives for each unit. For this unit, we provide the rationale for the unit that makes clear the real-world relevance of how the unit works. In this case, ecologists need to understand the origins of the Australian flora and fauna, and need to use this understanding to derive and apply ecological principles to a developing understanding of ecological processes. This is in turn needed if an ecologist is to do their job.

Student feedback: Principle 1 - Real world rationale

• [The subject] related well to real-world problems

• [In this subject] info isn't presented as "you need to know this for an exam" but as "this is practical real-world info and here are the skills you need to use it." This approach is used in the prac[tical]s and lectures.....

• I found it beneficial .... to apply our knowledge from lectures to a real-life based problem...

Kember (1998) recommends the use of vivid examples and contextual learning to facilitate student engagement with the material. This approach assists the students to build their learning atop a scaffold of academic/real-world/life experience. These approaches facilitate high quality engagement with the learning task, since: students find the material of greater interest; easier to understand, and associate their work with a sense of involvement, challenge, fulfilment, achievement, and satisfaction (Connell, 1967; Svenson, 1977; Brookfield, 1985; 1995). Consequently, students should spend more time on the task of learning (Biggs, 1999).

To support students in these endeavours, we developed a broad range of resources, virtual field trips and supporting information detailing the physical and ecological processes on Lys. Considered together, these resources allow us to ask many "what - if" type questions designed to guide the constructive development of critical thinking processes (Brookfield, 1985; Bodner, 1986; Halpern, 1998; 1999). Specifically, through the assessment tasks set, we are able to oblige the students to synthesise a broad range of information, identify useful resources, formulate and test hypotheses and, ultimately, to apply their developing understanding to novel problems. Thus, the cognitive tasks required to successfully complete the assessment items derive from an engagement between the students and the learning materials which is driven by those assessment tasks (Boud, 1980; Powell, 1982; Ramsden, 1992; Biggs, 1999).

Student Feedback: Principle 2 - challenging and interesting learning environment

• The Lys example is fantastic. It really encourages me to think about what we are learning in class and apply it to an unfamiliar situation (i.e. Lys).

• The whole Lys concept really provided the opportunity for exploration and novel thought.

• The Lys exercise ... involved thinking ... you are faced with a challenge [which] it would be very good to try to solve.

Through providing clear goals, in this case the unit's objectives (Appendix 5), we demonstrate the principles and introduce the ideas on which students will base and construct their hierarchy of knowledge (Bloom, 1956; Marsh, 1987; Ramsden, 1992). However, of itself, this approach is not sufficient.

We understand that students are strategic, purposeful adults - who recognise that to get a good grade requires them to complete assignments as well as possible (Ramsden, 1992; 1993; Tang, 1994). If we align the assignments' learning outcomes with the learning objectives, the students will strategically work towards exactly the learning and knowledge outcomes we have designed into the curriculum. In providing students with the assignment tasks in the first lecture, we ensure that students focus their study on accumulating appropriate resources and knowledge. Moreover, students begin thinking about how each fact/idea relates to their ability to complete the assignment. This creates an environment in which students try to relate the teaching and learning to the assignment tasks.

Let's examine the requirements of assignment 1 to illustrate this principle:

• Using palynological records, explain changes in the flora and fauna over time

• Explain how the flora and fauna came to achieve their current distributions

Adopting their strategic approach to the unit, students ask themselves how they will achieve their grade in the unit. This point deserves further clarification, because we use the students' adaptive response to assessment to direct their learning. Through providing an assignment based assessment item, we provide a framework around which students construct increasingly complex knowledge that in turn helps formulate their answers to the assignment. Consequently, students must complete the learning tasks through engaging with the learning resources we provide before they can answer the assignment.

Following their examination of the unit outline, and specific details of the teaching and learning strategies of the unit made explicit in lectures, students recognise that elements of module 1 and practicals 1 and 2 provide the foundations necessary for them to complete assignment 1. Students comment "I'd better read some of the resources provided and do the exercises.

Student feedback: Principle 3 - assessment that obliges students to think

• [The assessment] encourages student participation, concentration and motivation to learn.

• The assessment methods were excellent.

• [The assessment] actually makes us think.

The first assignment requires students to discuss the dynamics of Lys' plant and animal communities and ecosystems over time. To complete assignment 1, students have to read, understand and apply the information contained in the handouts and practicals. To successfully complete the practicals, students must engage with and construct knowledge from the learning resources we provide. To illustrate the learning outcomes for students engaging in this process, let's examine the tasks associated with the NRB572 practicals.

The first practical involves students examining the pollen record to determine the plant species composition of Lys over a span of 20 000 years. In order to analyse this information, students must undertake a number of cognitive tasks - each of which produces a learning outcome (Table 1). Students recognise the importance of completing the tasks set in practicals 1 and 2 to develop the knowledge they require before they can complete assignment 1. Following their analysis, students learn about some of the ecological principles we expand on in Module 2. In addition, students discover that the pollen records do not match the current distribution of the plant communities on the island. Students begin to question the validity and assumptions associated with the collection and interpretation of such data. They realise that data of this kind is necessary, but not sufficient, to provide explanations of the current and past distribution of the island's flora and fauna. Students recognise that they require additional information.

Practical 2 requires students to investigate the animal fossil records from two localities on the island. The practical obliges students to undertake the cognitive tasks with consequent outcomes described in Table 2. Following their extended analysis, students derive further ecological principles (on which we expand in Module 2). Students realise that the animal fossil data can tell them that certain animals occurred during times when certain plants were abundant. However, students recognise that without specific ages of the animal fossils that they cannot determine when the overlap between plants and animals occurred. In combination, the outcomes of practicals and tutorials demonstrate to students that the fossil data augments the pollen data - thus allowing students to derive more sophisticated models of Lys's past.

Students recognise the importance of this information because it forms the basis of the knowledge/information they need to complete assignment 1. Assignment 2 builds on and similarly requires the understanding that students develop in assignment 1.

Student feedback: Principle 4 - assessment that is realistic, inter-linked and cumulative

• The assignments help to piece together all aspects of the unit.

• The assignments [were one of the best features of the unit] because this is the one way we can tie in all our knowledge and relate it all to further thinking.

• The assignments were real brain-ticklers, encouraging us to bring together knowledge from a whole bunch of areas.

Following the completion of module and assignment 1, students undertake a five day field trip to a nearby island. This learning experience affords students a first hand opportunity to consolidate their knowledge of ecological principles and successional processes.

Students recognise that the class-room learning really does have practical and significant real-world implications. Students comment that they are excited by being able to "apply what we have learned to something real." We argue that the reality of the field trip provides a bigger and more complex context for their learning which stimulates more questions in their minds and motivates them to find out more - if for no other reason than strategically accumulating thoughts and ideas to help them to complete assignment 2. Thus, students recognise the interconnectedness between the materials covered in lectures, practicals, tutorials and field trip all act to constructively assemble the knowledge and ideas necessary for them to complete the assessment tasks.

Student feedback: Principle 5 - all elements have constructive alignment

• [The course structure] encourages us to be creative and thoughtful as opposed to the usual method in which we regurgitate information.

• [The subject] ... is well structured, and the progression of lectures/ tutes/ pracs/ field work and assessment items, follow a clear path to the end of the unit objectives.

• [The study guides] ... assist the thinking process and [provide] a continuation from the assignment thought processes.

In this paper, we have illustrated five principles and students reactions to them. However, what is more important than the details of what we did is that you can:

• understand the "principles"

• see that we did relates to the principles we've described, and

• apply the principles to your own contexts.

In this paper we have argued that assessment can and should take the central role in curriculum design because it's one of the first things students look at and defines the curriculum for them. Consequently, assessment drives activities that students engage in. These activities underpin their learning, so careful choice of an appropriate assessment strategy (not items) can ensure that the students engage:

• with the learning resources that have been provided and

• in learning activities which lead to achievement of the desired learning outcomes.

The students suggested one area to improve the unit in successive offerings of this unit. They wanted a field trip to Lys, rather than to nearby Fraser Island. We explained the two major challenges in organising a trip to Lys:

1) As we had explained in class and in our published papers, Lys' position 626 km off the coast of Queensland would have precluded easy access, and

2) Lys is entirely fictitious - it does not exist anywhere, except in our imaginations.

We constructed the island, because it serves to illustrate the concepts and skills we want our students to master. We designed the island as a completely fictitious, yet authentic learning environment with which students could engage. We emphasise that although we contrived the island to provide a learning environment to facilitate student learning, this is not the primary message to take from this paper. Instead, the principles that we apply lead to the students achieving high quality learning outcomes and engagement with all, rather than some or none, of the learning materials we design. We contend that the careful application of the principles of curriculum design described here to the creation of either fictitious, or "real-world", learning experiences will produce superior learning outcomes by requiring students to adopt deep learning approaches in order to complete the assessment tasks.

We suggest most educators could implement the five principles to achieve a similar or superior learning environment within their own discipline. To paraphrase and contextualise Kennedy's script writer, quoted above: you have the tools, the only limit is your imagination - and perhaps your student's gullibility!

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the QUT Teaching and Learning Large Grant for 2000 - 2002 entitled "Assessment and Critical Thinking Skills (ACTS). We thank John Rigby and Bernard Cooke for their contribution to and participation in the Lys scientific expedition (2002).

We would like to express our gratitude and thanks to Al Grenfell, Director of Academic Programs, QUT Faculty of Science, for his unstinting support, good humour and sage advice.

NM would like to thank Yoni Ryan and Pat Kelly (Staff Developers) for encouraging him to think differently about University Teaching. Yoni also earns our gratitude for commenting on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Thanks also to John Wilson and Ian Williamson (fellow ecologists) for their expertise, advice and nearly always constructive comments. For everyone, words don't do justice to the debt I owe.

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Table 1. A description and timetable for the delivery of curriculum items, that taken together are designed to elicit deep learning outcomes in students studying NRB572 - Terrestrial Ecosystems. The heavy line represents students' interactions with the learning resources we designed.

Table 2. The cognitive tasks required of students to enable them to achieve the goals and necessary learning to complete the practicals and tutorials in module 1 of NRB572 - Terrestrial Ecosystems.

Appendix 1. Introduction to the Island of Lys, reprinted with permission from Rigby et al., 2002 (Abstract appears in Appendix 2).

Additional information drawn from Meyers et al. 2002 (See appendix 2 for full abstract)

Appendix 2. Abstract of Faunal description arising from the from the 2002 QUT Lys expedition.

Cooke BN, Meyers NM &. Rigby JF 2002. The Fauna of Lys, I: Mammalia. International Journal of Coral Sea Research, vol. 102, pages 392 -396.

Appendix 3. Abstract of Geological paper arising from the 2002 QUT Lys expedition.

Rigby JF, Cooke BN & Meyers NM, 2002. The Preliminary Geology of the Island of Lys, Northern Queensland. International Journal of Coral Sea Research, vol. 102, pages 397 - 400.

Lys occupies a microcontinental plate near the oceanic margin of the continental shelf along the north east coast of Queensland offshore from Ingham. The marine Jurassic Promethean Formation has been intruded by the Icarus Granite, both outcropping to the west of the north west trending Lys Fault. All Cretaceous rocks lie to the east of Lys Fault. The marine Aurora Limestone Member forms the base of the marine to non-marine Pandora Formation. Major faulting occurred along three parallel fault lines with some of the movement occurring during the Miocene. Extrusion of the andesitic Olympus Volcanics commenced in the Miocene and continues at the present having given rise to the stratiform Mount Olympus, subsidiary volcanoes and dyke systems. Two major rock slides occurred in 1997. There are two small glaciers near the summit of Mount Olympus.

Appendix 4. Abstract of Vegetation report arising from the from the 2002 QUT Lys expedition.

Lys occupies a micro continental plate near the oceanic margin of the continental shelf along the

north east coast of Queensland offshore from Ingham. Rigby et al. (2002) note the unusual geological and geographic properties of the island (altitudes vary between sea level and 6660 m on an island comprising 182 km². Using a combination of multi-spectral satellite imagery and aerial photographic analysis we established the boundaries of different vegetation communities based on differences in the spectral signatures of the dominant vegetation in each community. We have divided the vegetation into three biogeographic zones: Rainforest; woodland, and; grass/heath land. Each zone comprises roughly one third of the island. In each of these zones we randomly located 5 x 0.25 ha plots in which we identified all vascular plants. From these measurements we derived estimates of the total numbers of plant species for Lys. We conclude that Lys carries disproportionately more species than theories of Island Biogeography would predict.

We ascribe the discrepancies to the numerous niches and consequent species packing resulting from the diverse array of environmental conditions produced by the island's substantial topographic relief. The co-occurrence of many species on Lys, that on mainland Australia exist in isolated fragments adds weight to the argument of Webb and Tracey (1981) and Truswell et al. (1986) that Australia was formerly covered by rainforests which subsequently retreated into refugia, such as Lys. However, the information collected by our expedition recognises the possibility that Lys, through its vertical elevation and consequent variety of environments leads to the preservation of species. We also observed that Lys represents a hotspot of speciation - surpassing that of other "biodiversity hotspots" throughout the world. Either refugial or speciation mechanisms could explain the high levels of plant species diversity, including 143 previously undescribed species, 5 species which we propose represent monospecific families and one species that representing a mono-specific order! While overall the island's diversity is high, both heath/grass land diversity and woodland diversity remain relatively low, representing less than 25% that of their Western Australian counterparts. We interpret this pattern to represent a combination of plant dispersal and potential ecological constraints.

Appendix 5. Course aims and objectives for NRB572 - Terrestrial Ecosystems.

This unit is intended to:

1. facilitate student's formulation of a contextual framework for their continuing ecological/biological/geological studies and professional work within Australia.

2. develop in students an understanding of the unique geological, climatic and historical process which have shaped the evolution and ecology of Australia's terrestrial ecosystems;

3. assist students, through field, laboratory and assignment work, to develop their information literacy and laboratory research skills, gain new field techniques and apply knowledge obtained in previous units to aspects pertaining to the specific functioning of Australian terrestrial ecosystems.

On completion of this unit students should be able to

1. Discuss the significant evolutionary phases and environmental adaptations of the Australian flora and fauna and how these factors influence current biogeographical distributions

2. Integrate knowledge from biological, physical and ecological disciplines to discuss the processes influencing Australian terrestrial ecosystems, and

3. Understand the ecological properties of terrestrial systems to facilitate the development of key management and restoration strategies

This document was added to the Education-line database on 21 October 2002