Study of Experienced Curriculum for Master Students in Curriculum Development at Bu-Ali Sina University

The present study was conducted to investigate the experienced curriculum in the master students in curriculum development field of study at Bu-Ali Sina University. This research was conducted by phenomenological method. Participants in this study were 26 master students in the curriculum development discipline at Bu Ali Sina University in the 3 academic year of study 1394-1394, 1395-1394 and 1396-1695, all of whom were examined. Data collection tools were semi-structured interviews which questions were tested on the basis of four curriculum levels (expected curriculum, concealed curriculum, interactive curriculum and learned curriculum). Data analyzed by coding and categorization and validated through qualitative research criteria, research description in the details, long-term engagement with the field, sampling according to differences of opinion from the three groups of student based on entry periods, information collected even later of theoretical saturation in order to other possible cases of rejection of findings and analysis checking by research participants. The findings showed that the student is at each level of the program that is faced with different categories. At the expected curriculum level, the difficulty category was identified. At the level of the concealed curriculum, educational motivation and the necessary knowledge and skills were obtained. At the level of interactive curriculum, in the course section, the categories of changing attitudes towards some courses, repetition in some courses, lack of a specific source in some courses, homework problems, evaluation challenges and interaction and response of professors and in the dissertation section, supervisor selection and the choice of the dissertation topic were identified. In learned curriculum level, categories named explicit, null and hidden learning were identified. Each category also includes multiple subcategories. The results showed that the experienced curriculum at each level, changes and finally, the curriculum of the learned level is very different from the expected. On the other hand, students face a lot of confusion and ambiguity by being exposed to experience and without any support. Therefore, it is necessary to think of the measures to improve the curriculum experience process for them.