5.2 Recommendations

with further research and use of the Model and its heuristic, then the Model and its heuristic are also useful in providing evidence-based policy and management of systems at institutional and national levels.

Finally, the Model and its heuristic have been seen by participants and reference group members as a tool for change. One reference group member makes this point:

The heuristic will work well on decision makers within the practising CET sector too, so that future curriculum will more naturally veer towards the desired outcome. In other words, this has transformational potential, but needs to be taken on early enough and at high enough levels, for it to work well.

For the transformational potential to be realised it is important that recommendations be picked up and acted on. The following recommendations are a consolidation of the suggestions from participants and the reference group.

It should be emphasised that these recommendations are selected due to their viability and practicality. They should be viewed as proposals requiring further conversations to concretise the implementation details. The primary purpose underpinning the team’s recommendations is to drive the adoption and recognition of the IDeA Model through community engagement and research backing, supported by making available self-help resources. Hence, the recommendations are multidimensional to meet the needs of practitioners and stakeholders.

To facilitate discussion on possible implementation approaches, the recommendations are categorised into: 1. immediate or near-term implementation

2. mid- to long-term implementation.

Table: 5.1: Implementing the IDeA Model Immediate or near-term implementation

Develop self-help resources

 Develop a hard copy handout/collateral for practitioners on how to use the Model and heuristic

 Develop self-help resources to support users of the Model and heuristic in deeper reflection and team discussion, and place on the IAL website. Additional resources could include:

o case studies that analyse different responses to different curricula as examples Develop additional online resources administered by the Adult Education Network and IAL (e.g. video case studies) and encourage sharing by practitioners to showcase use of the Model for different purposes (e.g. for individual reflection, for team reflection, as a dialogue and communicative tool to engage stakeholders in establishing the intent of the curriculum to be designed, as a dialogue tool for providers in engaging curriculum designers)

Mid- to long-term implementation

Conduct workshops/training and facilitated discussions

Build an ecosystem and a community of practice

o reflective questions against each dimension

 Provide workshops for professional development using the IDeA Model and heuristic to engage practitioners in reflective discussions that will deepen their curriculum design understanding and expertise

 Incorporate the IDeA Model into current programmes in IAL Provide consultancy services to training organisations on curriculum design and review

 Disseminate via online platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook

 Engage regulatory agencies in dialogues to align curriculum design terminology so there is a common language between QA agencies and their auditors, providers and curriculum designers

 Run workshops for quality assurance personnel in different systems

Further research Engage the research community for collaborations and to spur further studies to drive adoption by the CET industry

Ensure the IDeA Model remains dynamic

Continue to receive feedback to update the model and match the needs of users  Present the findings from the research study at international conferences and in peer-reviewed journal articles

 Conduct further research through the aboverecommended activities

 Collaborate with enterprises to trial the use of the IDeA Model with their L&D departments

 Develop platforms or build on existing platforms to share different uses of the

IDeA Model and heuristic across different pedagogical communities (e.g. literacy, special education, occupational health and safety, adult educators from different industries, etc.) to build an ecosystem to support curriculum excellence

Going forward, there is more work needed to further develop the resources for self-reflection, professional development, curriculum profiling and research. To some extent, the continuation of this

work on the IDeA Model also depends on the receptivity of the community to the Model and contributions should be garnered from the community to make the effort more organic and groundup, in the manner of crowdsourcing, to build an ecosystem to support professionalisation of the CET sector. With a ground-up approach, there are better prospects of the IDeA Model gaining traction and being more relevant to the industry practitioners.

Ultimately, the IDeA Model is designed and developed to benefit the CET community and it must always remain true to the original intent of driving self-reflection and improvement for the individual practitioner, the learning organisation and, finally, the evolving CET sector at the national level.