The evaluation of curricula
Curriculum evaluation can be undertaken from a
variety of perspectives and using a range of
methods, and under the influence of their statu-
tory bodies nurses and midwives in the UK have fo-
cused more than comparable disciplines (such as
medicine and social work) on measuring and justi-
fying their learning and teaching activity through
regular local evaluation and quality assurance pro-
cedures. Until the move into higher education
they have not, however, always published the
work with the same enthusiasm. An early focus
could be said to have been on outcomes, driven
by the then General Nursing Council’s fascination
with ‘behavioural objectives’ drawn from Bloom
et al.’s taxonomy of knowledge domains (Kra-
thwohl et al., 1964; Tomlinson and Birchenhall,
1981). In the 1990s the increase in acceptability
of qualitative approaches led to some studies
adopting Parlett and Hamilton’s (197 7) ‘illumina-
tive evaluation’ (Attree et al., 1994). This trend
continues with semi-structured interviews of
course members being predominant as a method
of choice, with approaches like observation (Long
and Johnson, 2005) and video recording much less
common. Focus on structure is similarly less
strong, particularly social structure, with power
relations and the views of relevant stakeholders
other than students being less prominent than
they probably should be in the future. Robson
(2006) notes also that a key aspect of sensible
evaluation is cost effectiveness, but economic as-
pects have been but rarely considered in nursing
education evaluation to date.