I had an “ah ha” moment after I read Dr. Anderson’s explanation between the vertical and horizontal portions of the curriculum or “threads” on how content is implemented. He explained that a vertical thread is like a silo of instructional content, a single course, for example, psychiatric nursing. Horizontal curricular content is content which is common to all nursing courses and is "threaded" throughout the curriculum, for example, communication, ethics, delegation.
As an undergraduate student, I was taught pharmacology as a vertical thread. At the past two universities that I have taught at, the content has been delivered horizontal or “threaded” through the curriculum. The students told me that they do not like the content presented this way, and they prefer the content taught as a single course. I was wondering if there is any research on a higher retention rate if content it is taught as a vertical or horizontal thread.
I previously taught at Georgia College State University, and I taught maternal child nursing over an entire semester. I currently teach at Wilkes University, and the course is taught over 7 weeks. I complained to the senior faculty in my department that I feel that it is too much content to teach in a half of a semester. I was very surprised to hear that some universities are deleting (OB/PEDS) from their curriculum. I don’t understand how this is being done because there are OB/PEDS questions on the NCLEX, and I am wondering how the students are passing this portion of the exam. Is this content taught horizontally or “threaded” through the curriculum? If so, it seems like it would be difficult to “thread” this type of content through the curriculum. These are two curriculum questions that I have reflected upon this week.
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Students detest horizontal curricular threads because it means that they cannot forget about it after the class is over. Horizontal threading essentially amounts to comprehensive testing over certain subjects in every class as they progress throughout the program. However, just because they don't like it doesn't mean it isn't a good idea. What do you think?
I've heard of programs removing OB and PEDI from the curriculum, but have never known of any specific programs that have done so. I have myself wondered how they're getting away with removing important NCLEX content. Perhaps they are including the content in with med-surg by system. It may be worthwhile to call someone and ask. Let us know on the discussion forum if you do.
I agree with you that students do not like content taught by horizontal curricular threads. At my University, we are seeing that students are not transferring knowledge from one course to the next, and we have made some changes in the curriculum. For example, at the beginning of the semester, we are now requiring students to complete comprehensive case studies and demos in the skills lab that require them to transfer knowledge from previous semesters. Finally, we plan to include questions from previous courses on each final exam. This is the first year that we are making these changes so hopefully we will see some positive changes in the students.
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