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Undergraduate medical curricula are required to change and evolve in order to reflect the evolving and changing needs of contemporary medical practice. Making substantial changes to the form and delivery of medical education is challenging. While there is a growing body of research that focuses on curriculum change, relatively little attention is given to the notion of curriculum reform as a process rather than an outcome. In addition, the buildings and learning spaces where curriculum reform and undergraduate medical education are enacted contribute to people's experiences of these spaces. However, this aspect of context is currently neglected in the medical education literature. This thesis investigates the influences, vision, intentions and unintended consequences associated with an undergraduate medical curriculum reform and how the learning place and space of the medical school (where a curriculum is translated) is understood and experienced by key stakeholders (e.g., building designers, teaching faculty and students). Ontologically and epistemologically grounded within the social constructivist paradigm, the overall thesis aim was achieved through four overlapping empirical studies. Using a qualitative exploratory case study approach, data were gathered from document analysis, interviews and focus groups, and enriched by different theoretical concepts. Findings demonstrated that both (re)designing a medical curriculum and the learning space and place where reform is enacted and where teaching and learning occur is extremely complex, multifactorial and shaped and impacted by a myriad of influences and external and internal drivers for change; influenced by numerous voices and differing opinions and perspectives, different values systems, local traditions, history, geographical location and overall context. Finally, as a contribution to scholarship, the collective findings in this thesis advances our understanding of the complexities and unintended consequences associated with curriculum reform and the space and place of learning.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Dale W. Lick, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 16, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 212 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: David L. Haury, College of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-212).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-103).

Thesis (MEd)--University of South Australia, 1997

The major aim of this study was to develop a conceptual model representing the implementation process of a curriculum change occurring in a State Education Department region. This development had its genesis in the now extensive body of literature related to the organizational phenomenon of planned change. Since its early development in the 1960ts, the study of planned change occurring i n organizations has grown in sophistication, encompassing a steadily evolving number of theoretical constructs. Such a construct, of recent origin, was that of perceiving implementation of the innovation as a discrete process within the total planned change process. Although stillinits infancy, this concept has attracted a steadily growing body of research, The present study co-ordi nated some of these findings to form the basis for a four-stage model representing the implementation process under a special set of circumstances. The application of the model was tested under field conditions. A longitudinal case study design was adopted because this was ideally suited to test the assumption of implementationas a process. The design was divided in to four sections : concepts related to the decision to change; concepts related to the effect the rationale for implementation had on teachers' behaviour; concepts related to the sequence of involvement of implementers; and finally, concepts related to the measurementof the degree of implementation for teachers and pupils. Field work was applied inarural educational region of the State of Western Australia. This region was established in 1979 as part of an Australia-wide trend. I t is well documented that at the commencement of the 19701s, Austral ian governmentcontrol led education systems were highly centralized. By the beginning of the 1980ts, all were facing major change, each incorporating some form of decentral ization. In Western Australia, a shift in power from central authorities to Regional Superintendents occurred. With the increase i n power, the Regions received more duties and became more complex organizations. To meet the demand of testing a complex theoretical model in the intricate field setting of a State Education Department region, a wide range of data-gathering techniques was used. Questionnaires were employed, some specifically designed to suit this study and some selected from other research. The breadth and depth of the data collected was extended by the use of interviews, both focused and unstructured. Information from a wide variety of perspectives was gathered by using direct observation. This was applied to the testing of the theoretical model and also used to validate data drawn from other sources. Content analysis techniques were also used to triangulate the findings from questionnaire and interview techniques. The findings of the analysis of the data,within a matrix of hypotheses and sub-hypotheses, provided powerful statistical evidence indicating that the innovation was judged as being implemented by the teachers and the pupils. Data collected were also analysed as part of the research plan incorporating four major hypotheses and twenty six sub-sections. Each sub-section has been investigated empirically. This strategy was used to test the applicability of the conceptual model as a technique to represent the process of implementation followed by an innovation in Oral English introduced into a rural region of a State Education Department. The model proved to be a very effective device, aiding in the comprehension of an implementation process that occurred under the particular conditions described in the thesis.

Thesis (M.S. in Teaching and Learning)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Murdoch University, 1986.