SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
 Solid research base is lacking
 Hundreds of literature prescribe how to
develop educational programs: useful for
specific or for all professions
 Practitioners skeptical about the prescriptive
frameworks
 Practice involves personality conflicts,
political factors, and resources constraints
 Limited research shows no continuing
educators use textbook planning frameworks,
even for programs that are ‘successful’
 Doesn’t mean practitioners do not think in
systematic ways
 Textbook planning frameworks do not
adequately prescribe and describe those
systematic processes
 Practitioners have personal values, believes
and institutional context that influence
program development
 Central task for effective
practice:

1. Make own framework explicit

2. Analyze its assumptions and
principles
3. Alter it when necessary
 Which Program Development
Framework Should Practitioners
Use?
 Tyler (1949) suggests 4 questions as guide
for curriculum development
1. What educational experiences should the
school seek to attain?
2. What educational experiences can be
provided that are likely to attain these
purposes?
3. How can these educational purposes be
effectively organized
4. How can we determine whether these
purposes are being attained

Apps (1985) translated the questions into

five tasks:
1. Identifying learners’ needs
2. Defining objectives
3. Identifying learning experiences that meet
these objectives
4. Organizing learning experiences into an
educational plan
5. Evaluating the outcomes of the educational
effort in accordance with the objectives

Pennington and Green (1976) interviewed 52

CPE program planners in university setting:
how planning was done?
Findings:
Four major discrepancies between literature
and practice
1. Little comprehensive needs assessment –
lack of time, expertise, or recourses
2. Available resources were not used to
determine program’s objectives
3. The design of instruction was not based on
learner characteristics, desired outcomes,
time, money, or other resources
4. Comprehensive evaluation was not done
 Factors influencing the practices:
 Personal values
 Environmental constraints
 Available resource alternatives
 Other factors

 Planners respond to the context

 Planning framework in the literature presented
in context-free manner
 Textbook framework can be useful as long as
practitioners aware of their limitations
 An Overview of Program
Development Frameworks
 Frameworks from Individual Professions
 Sork (1983) found 22 literature on CPE program
planning
 Equal emphasis give to both the activity levels and
organizational levels of programming
 Most planning frameworks were designed for members
of a single organization
 The level of sophistication needed to use the
frameworks is relatively low
 Most publications emphasize the ‘how’
rather than the ‘why’
 Planning steps similar with Tyler’s

questions
 Highly prescriptive in nature little

attention to context
 Difference emphasis given to the linkage

between the educational program and the

expected changes in professional practice;
practice emphasis more than the
framework
 Cross-Professional Frameworks
 Suggested by Pennington and Green (1976)
from study of six different professions
 Business administration, educational
administration, law, teaching, social work, and
medicine
 Descriptive rather than prescriptive framework
 General model comprises a series of tasks and
decisions
 1st Cluster – Originating the idea:
 Formal need assessments
 Requests from a client
 Availability of project monies
 Legislative mandates
 Suggestions from campus faculty

 2nd Cluster – Developing the idea:

 Informal test of the idea with practitioners
 A review of literature
 A market analysis
 3rd Cluster – Making a commitment:
 Selecting instructors
 Using existing course or develop a new one

 4th Cluster – Developing the program:

 Objectives were determined
 Subject matter was developed
 Materials were accumulated

 5th Cluster – Teaching the course:

 As planned and some flexibility
 6th Cluster – Evaluating the impact:
 Determination of what to evaluate
 Developing instruments
 Administration of the evaluation

 According to Pennington & Green program

development is a form of administrative
decision-making
 The decisions were based on contextual factors
such as climate, internal and external
constraints and resources
 Houle’s Triple-Mode Model
 Focus on strengthen professional performance
 Planning itself should be part of the
educational activity
 Suggests a comprehensive educational process
consists of 3 modes of participation:
instruction, inquiry, and reinforcement
 Originated from several models used by
medical profession
 Steps in Houle’s Model
1. Developing a list of standards of good practice
2. Setting the ideals of what these standards can
accomplish
3. Establishing a floor for what these standards can
accomplish
4. All staff are informed about the steps already taken
and approve of what has been done
5. Data are collected on current staff performance
6. These measurements of performance are
compared with both the ideal and minimally
acceptable standards to determine the
problems
7. Determine the causes of the differences
between what is and what ought to be
8. Educational programs develop to correct the
problems
9. Evaluate the changes
10. Further programs are considered if needed
 Houle’s model similar to Tyler’s model
 First 6 steps are elaborated way of identifying
learner’s needs
 Setting objectives and identifying and
organizing learning experiences are done in
steps 7 and 8
 Evaluating the outcomes occurs in steps 9 and
10
 Practice-Audit Model
 Developed by Queeney and Smutz
(Pennsylvania State University)
 Based on pharmacy profession
 Similar to Houle’s model
 Both are practice oriented and similar process
are used in carrying out the frameworks
 Both are prescriptive frameworks
 Unique characteristic of this model – its
implementation involved a collaboration between a
higher education institution and professional
associations

 Consists of 7-phase process:

1. A committee of 6 – 10 members was developed from
relevant academic department, state and national
associations, and national regulatory agency
2. Developing practice descriptions and then validated by
asking practitioners the importance of each task
3. Performance assessment materials were
developed and acceptable and unacceptable
levels of performance were determined
4. Conducting the practice audit session to gather
data on the practice descriptions
5. The participants’ performance was compared to
the standards that had been developed in phase 3
– the deficiencies formed the basis for
educational program
6. CPE programs were developed
7. Evaluating the changes in practice after 6 months
 Program Development as
Professional Work
 Framework or model must be adapted to the
context
 It is a practice undertaken by CPE educators
 As a form of professional practice it can be
analyzed within the functionalist and critical
frameworks
 Functionalist – assumes practice problems are
well formed and that these problems are solved
by the application of scientific knowledge
 The goal is to help professionals gain new
knowledge, attitudes, or skills
 Done by framework where needs are assessed,
objectives identified, instruction organized,
and outcomes evaluated
 Planning frameworks as forms of scientific
knowledge if applied will improve practice
 Reality is different so an alternative was
proposed
 Critical viewpoint offers a more useful way to
understand program development
 CPE educators regularly confronted with
situations that are characterized by uniqueness,
uncertainty, or value conflict
 They must construct the problem from the
situation using the skills of problem-setting
 The knowledge used comes from repertoire of
examples, images, understandings, and actions
 Professionals’ espoused theories of practice
and theories-in-use (Argyris and Schon, 1974)
 Espoused theory – theory of action (what is
planned in given situation)
 Theory-in-use – theory governs educators’
actions; may or may not similar to their
espoused theory
 Theory-in-use must be constructed from
observing actual behavior
 All program development frameworks are
someone’s espoused theories
 Argyris and Schon argue that professionals
must develop their own continuing theory of
practice under real-time conditions
 CPE educators should make their espoused
theories congruent with their theories-in-use
which is context-specific which include:
 personal beliefs and values about learning
 Proper place of the professions in society
 Whether they are technically trained
 Some theories-in-use are more successful than
others
 CPE would become more effective if
educators see themselves as practical theorists:
 Analyzing their own practice
 Making explicit their theories-in-use
 Present actual planning frameworks