session eleven

Session 11: curricular issues

Preparation

    For this part I tend to give a brief overview of my own lecture. Any teaching curriculum answers three interrelated questions: What is the purpose of the curriculum? How is this purpose to be achieved? How is the curriculum process to be evaluated? Accordingly, the essentials for a communicative curriculum include a communicative purpose, a communicative methodology and a communicative evaluation. Firstly, communicative purpose of curriculum is discussed. Communicative purpose of curriculum is a communicative performance. But in order to achieve this performance, a communicative competence is needed. a communicative competence comprises a communicative knowledge which consists of ideational knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, textual knowledge, and some affective aspects as well as communicative abilities including primary abilities such as the ability of expression, the ability of interpretation, and the ability of negotiation and secondary abilities like coding, code-substituting, and style-shifting. When this communicative competence is actualized through skills, it turns out to be the communicative performance. A communicative curriculum should also incorporate the learners’ initial contributions including expectations, needs, interests & motivations.

     Secondly, there should be a communicative methodology. This kind of methodology exploits (a) the principle of differentiation, which considers a differentiation in learners' contributions, routs, media, and abilities (b) The communicative potential of the learning-teaching context (c) The communicative interaction between teachers, learners, texts and activities. Here a question may arise. What are the roles of the teacher, learners, and content within a communicative methodology? In this kind of methodology, the learner acts as an interdependent participant, as a monitor, and as a negotiator. The teacher facilitates the communicative process, acts as an interdependent participant, and acts as a researcher and learner and the content is the carrier of the process competence of the learner and the provider of the opportunities for communicative experiences. Aspects of content in a communicative view are as follows:

• Focus: Content within a communicative methodology focuses on knowledge which is personally significant for each individual learner.

• Sequence: Sequencing in communicative content is a cyclic process and derives from the state of the learners rather that from the content itself.

• Subdivision: Subdivision is done in terms of whole frameworks wherein there is interaction between all the components rather than in terms of separate structures and functions.

• Continuity: there is continuity in tasks & activities, continuity in communicative acts & discourse, continuity in ideational system, continuity in skills.

• Direction: Choosing directions involves negotiation between learners & learners, learners & teachers and learners & text.

      Finally a communicative curriculum demands a communicative evaluation. This kind of evaluation is a significant part of communicative interaction, and has an intersubjective nature and can be Shared and negotiated or formative and summative.

     The issues that influence on a teacher’s decisions during the instructional process are (a) the nature of the program (learner-centered curriculum, learning-centered curriculum, communicative language teaching, high and low structure teaching), (b) the needs of the learners and (c) the goals of the instruction. The curriculum is a collaborative effort between teachers & learners.

      In a learner-centered curriculum, learners are involved in the goal setting & decision making process regarding the content of the curriculum and how it is taught. They are involved in planning, implementation & assessment stages of a curriculum. This kind of curriculum has its roots in humanistic education.

Any learning centered program has two kinds of goals: a. language content goals b. learning process goals. This kind of curriculum educates learners about what it means to be a learner and help them in reaching a point where they can make decisions about what and how to learn.

     In high structure contexts, students are accorded little choice over what is to be taught & how, where in low structure contexts, learners have many options & maximum autonomy. In high structure contexts, teachers decide over strategies and activities that facilitate teaching but in low structure contexts, teachers try to find ways to facilitate learning. In high structure contexts, teachers try to use effective techniques for assessing the achievements of the learners while in low structure contexts, teachers help learners to self- assess.

     The needs of the learners also affect on the teachers decision making over the management of the class. Therefore these needs must be analyzed. A major purpose for conducting needs analysis is to group & categorize learners. This grouping process facilitates the specification of content & learning procedures. There are 3 approaches to needs analysis: a. language proficiency orientation b. psychological/ humanistic orientation c. specific purpose orientation. The alternative ways of grouping learners after needs analysis would be based on a. language proficiency profile b. learning strategy profile c. learning purpose.

      The goals can also affect on the teachers decision making over the management of the class. Goal setting provides a rational for selecting and integrating pedagogical tasks and a point of reference for decision making process, It guides the selection of appropriate materials and activities, it is a pre-requisite for devising appropriate forms of learner assessment. The kinds of objectives which specify what learners should be able to do as a result of instruction are called formal performance objectives. They include performance, conditions, and standards.

Assistance

     In this part I add some of the points of my friends' lectures which I found worth mentioning. Since 1979, the materials were based on a structural syllabus; teacher training was based on GTM or ALM. From 1979 a set of specially developed materials driven from a more skill-based and more functionally organized syllabus was introduced with the aim of encouraging more communicative classroom activities. The curriculum renewal affected from 1988 onward included the development of student books, teacher's guides, sets of new materials, audio and video materials, TV programs…

Planning, implementing and evaluating curriculum renewal is a complex process, dealing with people’s beliefs, interests, expectations, feelings, and emotions. It is difficult, to “get it right” all of time, both in terms of process and product- and in the evaluation of both.

   Any curriculum includes three subparts: syllabus design, methodology and evaluation. Syllabus design includes: Assessing learner’s needs, developing objectives, planning the syllabus, selecting teaching approach, deciding on assessment procedures.

    Although there are different models for curriculum planning, but the mixed-focused curriculum is the most flexible one. This framework proposed by Johnson has three dimensions: Policy, aims of curriculum, Pragmatics, what is possible to achieve and participant in decision-making process, which has four stages: curriculum planning, end specification, program implementation, implementation in classroom. This model focuses on both process and product of learning.

Application

    Consulting ethnographer who clarifies the problems and identifies appropriate Curriculum renewal should be a continuous process. In the absence of solutions, teachers and learners can achieve the same result by working together and find their own ethnographic voice. Learner diaries, classroom observation, interviews, videotapes of lessons, and questionnaires can be beneficiary. By finding the most appropriate form and application of these devices, I try to explore problems and find solutions with the help of my students.