Gilles Klein

Curriculum Development Strategies in Sport Education: From the “Six-Step Model” to the “Five Processes Framework”

Introduction

Inspired by the Bologna Declaration and the subsequent process, the AEHESIS Thematic Network Project has paid particular attention to the methodologies and results of the Tuning Project. The AEHESIS Project aimed to formulate innovative sport sector-specific guidelines for the development of curricula, quality assurance systems for study programmes combining the academic quality and the European dimension in relation to the labour market.

Target groups were primarily sports science students and teachers and policy-makers at universities and institutions dealing with the four main areas of sport education: Sport Coaching (CO), Health and Fitness (HF), Physical Education (PE), Sport Management (SM). This approach was consistent with the DGEAC 2007-2013 Lifelong Learning Programme, the objectives of which are to match supply and demand in Higher Education more effectively and to enhance the relationship with employment. Thus, the AEHESIS Project formed a European strategy adapted to the sport education sector and its relationship with the labour market in the sport sector.

During the Project’s first year, the four areas of the sport sector completed a comparison of existing programmes more in the spirit of ‘Tuning’ rather than harmonisation strategy. The main challenge of the second year was to establish a curriculum model taking into account the definitions of professional learning outcomes and competencies in accordance with the Tuning methodology.

In order to develop the process, one of the AEHESIS key tools was the Six-Step Model (6SM) used to collect information to build a curriculum structure model for each area, including examples of good practices. Each area followed the Six-Step Model common approach guideline: definition of professional area, standard occupations, activities, competencies, learning outcomes, and the provision of a curriculum model. However, in order to match training and employment more effectively and to take into account the specific nature of each area, the four area research groups introduced several 6SM improvements.

Drawing from these proposed improvements, the Project’s 3rd Year Report described how progress was made from the Six-Step Model to the process (specific areas’ approaches) and then identified the convergences and divergences between the four areas on the one hand, and the strengths and weaknesses of the Six-Step Model on the other.

The challenge of the fourth year was to disseminate the tools and products of the AEHESIS project. This process is closely related to the strategy adopted by the Directorate-General for Education and Culture. In summary, the strategy endeavours to optimise investment rather than to reinvent the wheel for every conceivable follow-up European project in the training sector. Every project has to take into account three processes:

• Promotion: to inform the whole community involved in the project
• Dissemination: to widely publicise the tools elaborated during the project
• Exploitation or capitalisation: to transfer the tools to other contexts, to other partners, targets groups and end users.

In this way of promotion-dissemination-exploitation/capitalisation of the project’s results, this final AEHESIS Report tries to identify the processes that are helpful for curriculum development in the sport education sector. The framework of four processes including guidelines is built on the basis of a follow-up to the Six-Step Model.

Here, the Six-Step Model is used as a matrix generating data. This data facilitates a better understanding of the processes in curriculum development in the sport education sector, and matches supply and demand in the sport sector more effectively. After providing a brief reminder of the “old Six-Step Model” and briefly presenting a “new 5 processes framework (5PF)”, this communication analyses the five processes of curriculum development in sport education (including 40 guidelines): curriculum context design, curriculum area mapping, Defining curriculum objectives, Defining curriculum content, monitoring curriculum outcomes.

From the “Six-Step Model” to the “Five Processes Framework”

a) The “Six-Step Model” (6SM)

In order to collect data in the four sport education areas that is relevant for the relationship between employment and training, the Six-Step Model proposed the following matrix:

Figure 1 – The AEHESIS Six Steps Model (A6SM)

Step I – Identify the professional area

A professional area is considered to be a range of activities corresponding to the production of specific services or goods, commonly referred to as ‘industry’ in the private sector. A professional area is defined by a definite set of tasks and functions that can be presented as a “functional map” for each area. One of the questions raised is to define as clearly as possible the core part and the limits of the ‘industry’ considered.

Step II – Define standard occupations

A standard occupation is defined according to the concept of the kind of work performed or job. Job is defined as a set of tasks and duties executed, or meant to be executed by one person. The standard occupation corresponds to a category of occupations that could be found in a comparative setting of different countries. A set of jobs whose main tasks and duties are characterised by a high degree of similarity constitutes an occupation (ISCO-88 and NEORS, 1998).

Step III – Activities

Activities are defined as the set of the tasks and duties corresponding to a specific standard occupation.

Step IV – Competencies

Competence is defined as an ability to apply knowledge, know-how and skills in a habitual and/or changing situation (Tissot 2003).

Step V – Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are defined as the set of knowledge, skills and/or competencies an individual acquired and/or is able to demonstrate after completing a learning process (Tissot 2003).

Step VI – Curriculum model

A curriculum is defined as a set of actions followed when setting up a training course: it includes training goals, content, methods, assessment, and material, as well arrangements for training teachers and trainers (Cedefop/De Landsheere).

b) The “Five Processes Framework” (5PF)

The Six-Step Model used by the four area research groups as a matrix to generate data on sport education leads to a new model of curriculum development in sport education, which is summarised in Figure 2.

Figure 2 – The AEHESIS Five Processes Framework (A5PF)

From the beginning of the project, the Six-Step Model was considered more of a matrix than a model and as such was used as a framework by the four sport education areas. The new framework consists of the following processes.

Process I: Curriculum Context Design

If the curriculum formulation results are expected to concur with the labour market, it must be clear from the start of curriculum development, which, and whose needs, the curriculum results can address. In order to be effective in terms of systems and practices, the curriculum structure and issues have to be negotiated with professional partners and stakeholders in the field, and submitted to the target groups (curricula providers, professionals, policy-makers, etc.) and understood by the end users (students) (see ellipse in Figure 2).

Process II: Curriculum Area Mapping

The necessity of establishing a link between training and employment and involving professional partners facilitates clearer definition and explanation of the professional context to the end users. The sport sector is structured in four areas. Each area defines its territory, its boundaries, but also its pathways with the other professional areas. The standard occupations are defined in order to be explained simply and clearly to the end users, notably with the definition of the main activities and tasks expected in the professional context.

Process III: Curriculum Objectives Definition

In the past, curricula objectives were frequently oriented to academic training. If a relationship is to be developed with the labour market, curriculum designers and developers will have to take into account the professional competencies as an essential aim of the sport education system (see circle in figure 2).

Process IV: Curriculum Content Definition

According to the diversity of national and local settings, the curriculum content is defined according to principles which give flexibility to the training institutions, enabling them to make the necessary adjustments. Classically the curriculum is geared to students’ learning outcomes linked to professional competencies. Every learning outcome is distributed among fields of study and is intensified in modules.

Process V: Curriculum Outcomes Supervision

A ‘tuning’ process of curriculum development pre-supposes a designated supervisory control feature that enables the outcomes of the curriculum to be monitored. Thus, every training institution defines a quality assurance system that integrates the main stakeholders. This ‘tuning’ process can also be followed by an accreditation process. It allows renewal or definition of titles and labels accredited by the whole community in the sport education sector.

This framework “will never set the...