"By the end of this course you should be able to...": Towards Constructive Alignment in the SLP Curriculum

Abstract

This paper describes the way in which constructive alignment is being implemented in the Speech-language Pathology (SLP) programme at a South African university. We focus on one of the courses, Human Communication Development, that comprises the four year programme of study. A first year, first semester course that is attended by both SLP and Audiology students, it aims to introduce fundamentals of the communication process and its development at a pre-clinical level. We aim to show how theoretical principles from higher education can be implemented at a micro level in a course of the SLP Programme. The principles of constructive alignment are introduced and exemplified through description of the revision of this course. All academic and clinical staff involved in the programme contributed to the development of the course. A template for curriculum revision is presented which allows for the explicit alignment of intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and criterion referenced assessment. Staff participants recorded reflections on their own learning in personal reflection logs. Through this journaling process parallels are drawn between the 'teachers' voyage of discovery and that of the students.