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Creating a Curriculum for Student Engagement

Key Ideas for Health Professions Education

  • 1st Edition - May 23, 2026
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: Ronald M. Harden, Jeni Harden, Pat Lilley
  • Language: English

Written by highly respected educationalists Harden, Harden, and Lilley, Creating a Curriculum for Student Engagement: Key Ideas for Health Professions Education is a practi… Read more

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Description

Written by highly respected educationalists Harden, Harden, and Lilley, Creating a Curriculum for Student Engagement: Key Ideas for Health Professions Education is a practical guide covering the essential considerations of curriculum making. Using a unique approach, the authors provide a new mental model for planning and implementing a curriculum. Focusing on five stages of student engagement—interest, commitment, facilitation, futureproofing, and assessment—readers are offered numerous practical ideas from creating authentic and inclusive curricula through selecting and organising content, applying educational strategies, implementing new technologies, and embedding assessment for learning. Whether in medicine and healthcare professions or postgraduate and continuing education programmes, empower yourself and your curriculum design, development, and implementation teams to foster an environment where future clinicians are successfully trained to meet the needs of the communities they aim to serve.

Key features

  • Offers a new student engagement model that prompts the reader to consider what makes a successful curriculum and how this can be delivered in practice
  • Helps refine curricula to produce clinicians with the appropriate knowledge, understanding, and clinical skills for the future
  • Stresses the interconnected nature of the curriculum and the interdependence of its elements
  • Provides necessary theoretical understanding in an accessible way
  • Assists in refocusing teaching on what matters most and what has the biggest impact on students
  • Covers important topics including equity, diversity, and inclusion; issues involved in curriculum collaborations; and quality assurance
  • An eBook version is included with purchase. The eBook allows you to access all of the text, figures, and references, with the ability to search, make notes and highlights, and have content read aloud

Readership

Teachers and trainers in medicine and the health care professions working in undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education. The “curriculum makers”; Deans and curriculum managers; Students active on curriculum committees and contributing to curriculum planning and implementation

Table of contents

SECTION 1 The Essence of a Curriculum and Student Engagement

1 What Is a Curriculum? Definitions and Debates

2 Why a Curriculum Matters: The Foundation for a Learner-Centred Education Programme

3 Voices That Shape Learning: Engaging the Stakeholders in Curriculum Planning

4 Evolution of the Curriculum and the Significance for Student Engagement

5 Student Engagement as a Framework for Curriculum Design
SECTION 2 Interesting the Student

6 The Importance of Vision and Mission Statements: Student Engagement and the School’s Values

7 Recruitment and Selection: Creating an Engaged Learner Journey from Day 1

8 Authenticity: Building Real-World Relevance Into the Curriculum

9 Beyond the Classroom: Student Engagement and On-the-Job Learning

10 Problem First and Theory Second: Engaging Students in Task-Based and Clinical Presentation–Based Learning
SECTION 3 Student Commitment

11 Whose Curriculum Is It? Student Engagement Through an Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) Lens

12 Learning That Matters: Engaging Students Through Outcome-Based Education and Curriculum Mapping

13 Student-Centred Learning: A Framework for Meaningful Engagement
SECTION 4 Facilitating Learning

14 Making Learning Happen: Facilitation as a Catalyst for Engagement

15 Bridging Silos: Curriculum Integration and Interprofessional Education for Engaged Learning
SECTION 5 Futureproofing the Student

16 Futureproofing the Learner: Preparing Students for a Changing World
SECTION 6 Assessing the Student

17 Assessment: A Tool for Student Engagement and Curriculum Coherence
SECTION 7 Conclusions

18 Bringing It All Together: Integrating Curriculum Planning and Student Engagement

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: May 23, 2026
  • Language: English

About the authors

RH

Ronald M. Harden

Professor Ronald M Harden is recognised as a leading international expert in medical education with experience as a teacher, curriculum developer, and teaching dean of a medical school. He is currently General Secretary of AMEE, an International Association for Medical Education.
Affiliations and expertise
Professor (Emeritus) Medical Education, University of Dundee, UK, Editor Medical Teacher, UK

JH

Jeni Harden

Affiliations and expertise
Director of Education, Usher Institute, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, UK

PL

Pat Lilley

Affiliations and expertise
Associate Fellow, University of Dundee, UK