Anaclate Josen
Basic Sciences Department, The Catholic University of Malawi
Commentary on the Workshop on Curriculum Innovation organized for the CUNIMA Academic
Members of Staff
Insanity is doing the same thing, over & over, and expecting different results. Quite a sweeping
statement it is, contestably believed to be a definition of madness given by Albert Einstein, one
of the greatest physicists of all time. Well, but doesn’t doing the same thing over and over lead to
perfection and thus a different result? That sounds convincing on one hand where all things are
kept constant, but on the other, the statement holds so much water with respect to the evolving
world we are in. A world where nothing is fixed. We observe changes around us: changes in
seasons, changes in our bodies; changes in our family and friends; in our community; in plants
and animals; and of course, changes in the educational landscape (Gary, 2013). So, change is
inevitable and of concern should therefore be our response to this change.
Recently, vicissitudes of life clothed in pandemics and endemics have gravely hampered on the
educational landscape. On the other hand, technological breakthroughs have been screaming to
our mindsets for adoption, promising solutions to our ever-increasing challenges in education. In
solidarity, the changes and the technological advancements have trampled on our traditional
methods which generally relegate the processes of teaching and learning to the confines of the
four walls of a physical classroom, with someone standing in front. As the aftermath, mother
education is desperate, gasping for survival. We surely cannot continue with business as usual
and expect to be effective unless we are insane!
The Catholic University of Malawi being the Centre of Excellence for Quality Holistic
Education is awake to the desperate calls by mother education. A response strategy named the
2022-2027 Strategic Plan of the Catholic University of Malawi was developed. Within the
strategic plan are focus areas, among which is Academic Portfolio Development. Among the
objectives under this focus area is the creation of new academic programmes, including short
courses.
To ensure successful execution of the objective above, Management on 26 th January 2024
organized an academic staff workshop on Curriculum Innovation to equip lecturers with the
knowledge, skills and attitudes required for developing new modules, courses and programmes.
More specifically, the workshop sought to deepen lecturers’ understanding of curriculum
innovation as a construct; articulate the process of curriculum innovation at a micro (modular),
meso (course) and macro (programme) levels, from needs assessment to post-implementation
evaluation; and to highlight the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for curriculum
innovation.
The University sought the services of Dr. Paxton Andrew Mwafiyanji Zozie, a man well versed
in the field of curriculum innovation. The message by Dr. Zozie was simple but cutting to the
core: the society has changed; the socioeconomic landscape has experienced shifts, and the
digital industry has revolutionized. This calls for a change, a change to adapt. The climate has
changed, and the nation was recently hit by COVID 19, cholera and cyclones during which
physical classes were affected. Change must happen, a change to adapt. We ought to change the
planned sequence of learner experiences that occur in the educational processes, not haphazardly
but with a cherry of innovation. These sentences are abridged to two words: Curriculum
Innovation.
Curriculum Innovation is a non-linear, multistage, and multilevel process of introducing new and
improved practices and methods into how students are taught. What is foundational in the whole
process is that the introduced curriculum structure, content, or process deviates from standard
practice, is relevant and pedagogical, and will work to the advantage of both those at the
receiving end of the change and the institution. Innovation can include, but not limited to, the
adoption of new teaching methods such as the digitization of education through e-learning
platforms (that can be zero-rated) like the Solar Powered Offline Technology, Kolibri, and
Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (MOODLE); the introduction of
ODeL programmes and the development of modules that can be in print or as e-copies deposited
in repositories.
Dr. Zozie further demonstrated that curriculum innovation is done in stages from planning to
implementation and involves a wide range of actors such as learners, teachers, guardians,
education experts and other stakeholders. The idea is to ensure that the curriculum developed is
relevant. As such, it is imperative to form a multistakeholder curriculum development team that
will initiate the curriculum innovation process by conducting a needs assessment, develop the
curriculum in response to the identified needs, test and revise the curriculum, train implementers,
and evaluate the new curriculum. He advised that the choice of which change to introduce or
which technology to adopt should always be informed by the characteristics of the students. A
mismatch in the two leads to a failed innovation.
This far, it appears as though curriculum innovation always involves an overhaul of the existing
curriculum leading to a new organization. As Dr Zozie illustrated that, this is just one of the
levels in curriculum innovation called the macro-level during which major changes are done and
may lead to the changes in content, structure, and delivery of the curriculum. Essentially, this
level sees the design and implementation of new programmes or policies at national level.
Curriculum innovation can also be done at meso-level, a comprehensive level that leads to the
design and implementation of curriculum that meets the needs of the institution and its students
and at the micro-level, the smallest unit of change in curriculum such as changes in a single
course, learning activity, mode of assessment, content and pedagogy or technology used during
instruction. At whatever level curriculum innovation is done, changes made should be within the
confines of the existing processes (from initiation to evaluation) and should give room for
feedback loops and revisions (non-linear process).
Dr. Zozie finished by technically backstopping members in the design of a programme or module
using the analogy of an aeroplane from its design, through its take-off, during flight and to its
landing. Exciting as it was because of the approach taken, the session successfully provided
members with a skeleton onto which new programmes or modules can be anchored.