Mastering the Content- The Challenges of an Academic Course Design

Abstract

Our purpose in the present paper is to discuss the importance of an adequate academic courseplanning not only in terms of content, but also in terms of application learning- such as problemsolving, thinking and decision making. Another aspect we take into consideration is the fact thatinformation processing is different from one individual to another, it can be divided into global andsequential. There should be high academic standards for all students, but to expect everyone, regardless oftheir ability (and disability) to meet those standards simultaneously, is inadequate and inherentlyunfair. Just as they learn differently, students test differently. In order to respect these social,emotional and cognitive differences, instruction needs to be differentiated, apart from beingrelevant in terms of content.

Keywords

• learning styles
• course design
• content organization
• cognitive skills