The literature review is the first stage of the research project. It asks three research questions:
1) What research-based principles should be adopted to guide decision making about the curriculum of a tertiary teacher education programme?
2) What principles associated with parallel programmes should be taken into account?
3) What Government and Wintec policies should the programme curriculum align with?

Scope of the review
The literature reviewed is targeted, rather than exhaustive; most of it relating to the tertiary education environment in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Principles guiding decision making for curriculum development are gleaned from the tertiary sector, particularly universities, which has documented recent institution-wide undergraduate curriculum reviews. Further guidance comes from ‘standards frameworks’ designed to give an assurance of quality for institutions. The frameworks provide criteria for judging the quality of a curriculum, as well as teaching, the learning environment and student outcomes. A further set of literature reviewed focuses on tertiary teacher education programmes. This set includes three main bodies of work: professional standards for tertiary teachers, evidence-based frameworks guiding academic development programmes for tertiary teachers, and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). The literature provides convincing, coherent and research-led justifications for judging the worth of the current programme and for making programme improvements.