CER-STEM

‘The intent of the Standards is that scholarship that is claimed to inform teaching (or supervision) must have a demonstrable relevance to the course being taught, including scholarship relating to the process of teaching and learning in itself.’

 – TEQSA Guidance Note, December 2018

The Curriculum Evaluation and Research framework for STEM (CER-STEM) is a way of thinking and a method for action for academics collectively responsible for teaching into a course (a teaching team). The framework is designed to incorporate planning for Standards of Teaching  and Learning into the practices of routine evidence collection gathered in response to institutional requirements for quality assurance of a body of curriculum and is informed by national standards. The goal is to provide staff with a practical and efficient method for ensuring coordinated quality activities related to a course that enable individual and collective outputs related to quality improvement, quality assurance and scholarship.

The CER-STEM framework provides a planned approach to evaluating curriculum design and delivery that is underpinned by an ethics approved research plan and method for routine collection of the natural data generated by students and staff throughout unit delivery. The  framework is designed to create opportunities and develop a collaborative culture that supports a teaching team to have a planned and evidence-based approach to design and deliver good curriculum, and develop peer partnerships to facilitate development as good teachers.

The CER-STEM Framework brings together:

  1. Regulatory expectations of higher education teachers, in particular requirements for scholarship
  2. Standards and measurements of teaching and curriculum quality (for example the Higher Education Standards Framework and QILT)
  3. Resources to facilitate good teaching and good curriculum
  4. Aspirations and rewards for good teaching and good curriculum

We developed this framework as:

  1. a way of thinking about the teaching (curriculum design and delivery) component of academic work
  2. an approach for embedding evaluation and research into teaching at the level of a course and its component units

We warmly invite collaboration to identify and develop resources to support ‘good’ teaching processes and curriculum outcomes.