1. Changing our models of
curriculum design:
personalised curriculum creation
through coaching
Janet Finlay, Dawn Wood, Margaret
Christian, John Gray, Tam Mason

2. Motivation
• Flexible curriculum for part-time work-
based learners (Leitch, 2007)
• Responsive to employer requirements
• Address coherence issues
• Initially: Leadership for prospective
head teachers

3. PC3: Personalised Curriculum
Creation through Coaching
Funded through JISC Curriculum Design
programme

4. Coaching:
non-directive, learner-focused, personal
support process
enables learners to assess their own
learning needs and identify their own
solutions.

5. Personal vision:
Where I wish to
go
Learning, My real self:
development and Coaching developmental
achievement In PC3 opportunities
Personalised
curriculum
development
Based on Intentional Change model (Boyatzis and McKee, 2006)

6. Coaching vs mentoring
“A mentor has experience in a particular field and
imparts specific knowledge, acting as
adviser, counsellor, guide, tutor, or teacher.
In contrast, the coach’s role is not to advise but to assist
coachees in uncovering their own knowledge and
skills and to facilitate coachees in becoming their own
advisers.”
Jonathan Passmore, 2006
6

7. The PC3 approach
• Use coaching to facilitate personalised
curriculum creation
• Learners work with a personal coach to
– assess their learning needs
– select appropriate provision or construct awards (or
module sets)
– access resources and learning support
– negotiate assessment
– review progress and adjust plans
• Do this through a specific module
7

10. What we did
• Pilot PLC module
– M level school leaders
– 10 students
• Promoted coaching for learning
– Coaching forum
– Staff development

11. Outcomes - pilot
• Ongoing (now ending November)
• Observations
– Digital literacy issue – access level (Beetham)
– Coaching is a 3- or 4-way relationship
– Coaching cannot be entirely learner-led
– Clear contracting vital
• Developing framework for short “critical point”
coaching sessions

12. Outcomes – promoting coaching
• Conflict between employer demand and
characteristics of coaching
– Flexibility not always wanted by employers
• Demand within PDP & CPD
• From September
– Including coaching in PDP for L1 Sport Science
– Developing CPD programme for Mental Health
nurses around coaching model

13. Questions raised
• What is “curriculum design” anyway?
– Changing models of curriculum – does it
need to be “fixed” at validation?
• Can we link PDP to curriculum design?
• Can coaching be used to enable
flexibility?

14. References
• HM Government. 2007. World Class Skills: Implementing the
Leitch Review of Skills in England.
• Passmore, J. ed. (2006) Excellence in Coaching, Kogan Page
• Boyatzis, R. and McKee, A. (2006) Intentional Change, Journal
of Organisational Excellence, Summer 2006, 49-60