Curriculum reform at the University of Natal Medical School : purging content and changing paradigm.
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Date
1999
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Abstract
This work discusses issues of curriculum in terms of a case study of curriculum reform at a
South African medical school, from the viewpoint of a clinical department of which teaching input
is predominantly postgraduate rather than undergraduate. Concepts of curriculum and content
are explored. A distinction is drawn between different uses of the term 'paradigm'. The context
underlying the current educational climate nationally and internationally is described, and the
course of medical education and teaching in anaesthesia traced historically. Results of a
questionnaire circulated amongst general practitioners in KwaZulu-Natal, and informal
interactions and semi-structured interviews with members of staff and students at the medical
school, are documented. The general practitioners were broadly in favour of the changes
contemplated by the Curriculum Development Task Force and indicated support for movement
towards newer modes of teaching and learning. Staff and students were more equivocal about
proposed change, conceding their conservatism and pointing out practical problems with
initiating change in the direction envisaged, but appearing willing to proceed. Anaesthetics staff
on the whole seemed more optimistic about change; they differed from the GPs, other staff and
students in advising against attempting to teach specific - as against generic - anaesthetic skills
to undergraduates. The responses of the different groups' opinions are discussed against the
national and international background in terms of curricular paradigm, educational strategies,
curriculum content and aspects of change. It is concluded that Medicine in general has operated
in the natural science paradigm and that a degree of inertia has resisted changes suggested for
at least the past century. The impetus for change from within medical schools, the profession
and society at large is now such that transition directly to a critical mode, strongly influenced by
postmodernism, is pending, the effect being that of a Kuhnian paradigm shift. The
interdependence of curriculum as a whole and of content - one of its elements - is noted. Local
teaching changes in Anaesthetics are compared with those of the faculty as a whole and the
interaction of the now fragmented elements of anaesthesia core teaching with the reform
process are sketched.
Description
Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 1999.
Keywords
Curriculum change--South Africa., Curriculum planning--South Africa., Education, higher--Curricula., Medical education., Theses--Education., University of Natal--Curricula.