Curriculum Design and Pedagogical Analysis of the Bible Units in the Bachelor of Theology / Bachelor of Ministry Award at ACOM

Curriculum design and pedagogical principles are key to an effective teaching program and subsequent student learning, and this paper reports the findings of a critical review of such design and principles across the seven AQF 7 biblical units available in the Bachelor of Theology/Bachelor of Ministry program at Australian College of Ministries (ACOM).

This suite of units includes two units at Introductory (7100) level, four units at Intermediate (7200) level, and one Advanced (7300) level unit. Each of the seven units was evaluated using Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Model, specifically mapping the learning objectives, learning/instructional activities, and assessments of each unit according to the Cognitive Process Dimension and Knowledge Dimension. The mapping of each unit provided a way to measure the internal alignment of each unit’s objectives, activities, and assessment.

This paper reports the findings of a critical review of such design and principles across the seven AQF 7 biblical units available in the BTh/BMin program at ACOM.

This was then followed by an analysis of the curriculum design of the suite as a whole to determine how the internal curriculum design and teaching process occurred across all units. In addition to the findings of this analysis, an unexpected result of this work was the subsequent development of a biblical studies specific adaptation of the definitions and examples of both the Cognitive Process Dimension and the Knowledge Dimension of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Model. This adaptation will now provide a vital tool for future unit creation and analysis by providing biblical studies specific language and relevant examples of existing generic categories and processes.