Rationale Statement

A rationale statement explains the educational purpose of the curriculum. It expresses the beliefs and understandings of the curriculum developers. A rationale statement guides a curriculum development project in the same way a theoretical framework guides a research project. The rationale is based on the needs identified by your needs assessment. The purpose of a rationale statement is to convince others of the importance of the proposed change/addition, and of the logic of the outlined approach. It should be a cogent, persuasive argument, with supportive documentation from the literature and needs assessment data.
Rationale Statements:
_ may be a brief as a sentence or as long as a book chapter
_ serve as preambles to the curriculum, explaining such things as: * why the topic is important to learners and the discipline
· what is to be addressed in a general way
· who is the intended audience
· the philosophy that guided the designers of the curriculum
Specifying a Rationale for the Curriculum:
_ leads to development of the goals and objectives for the curriculum
_ provides for motivation of learners
_ explains importance of the curriculum to significant others (faculty, administrators, etc.)
_ conveys the philosophy of the design to users other than the originator of the curriculum
Example: Rural Preceptorship for Medical Students
“All medical students should be exposed to the rural health care experience early in their medical education. Such exposure will accomplish an early orientation toward community health care, which may remedy both the maldistribution of physicians and the need for greater relevance in the pre-clinical