Designing Curriculum and Assessment to Promote Effective Learning in Chemistry in Higher Education

This paper is an overview of current issues for academics designing programmes for third level education in chemistry. The changing demographic of third level students along with employers’ demands has resulted in course development with a focus on skills (Hyslop-Margison 2001) to support a knowledge-based society. These factors inevitably have an impact on curricula and pedagogies. In this paper the rationale behind contemporary changes in curriculum design is introduced together with a discussion of curriculum design models, assessment models and evaluation models. Examples of innovative curricula and assessment models in third level chemistry education are incorporated throughout the paper.