CURRICULUM DESIGN

Dear student,

Welcome to my course of curriculum planning. Effective planning contributes to high quality teaching. Effective performance against this indicator does not in itself mean that the quality of teaching is high, but it can be used to triangulate other evidence about the overall quality of teaching.

The word curriculum is essentially a course of study. Every subject has its own way of being taught, and educators are constantly searching for new ways to teach so that students come away with both knowledge and the desire to learn even more. Different elements combine together to create a good course for students at a distance learning mode.

The study of curriculum design explores new possibilities for teaching, as well as studying tried and true methods that have been proven to be effective over the years.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me immediately.

TEXTBOOK:

TITLE: THE ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE CURRICULUMAUTHOR:JAMES DEAN BROWNPRESS:NEW BURY HOUSE TEACHER DEVELOPMENTEDITION: 1995

Friendly,

Professor Norman Mosquera Castro normanmosquerac@yahoo.es

PRESENTATION OF THE SUBJECT

Possession of relevant knowledge, creation of new knowledge, and the capacity for its application have become the determinants in the strength of a nation. Consequently, education has come to the centre stage and is today the most important agent for change and development.

Education is a dynamic phenomenon that must recognise the changes in the environment and respond to the growing demands and challenges. In today's scenario, the technology is changing so rapidly that half-life of several disciplines has dwindled down to just a few years. Some of the other disciplines are fast appearing on the surface.

Mobility of professionals across the national boundaries has changed the demand-supply perspective and this may eventually force the educational planners to take a global view. Extrapolation of these and other expected inputs may permit us to predict the immediate future behaviour of the education system but predictions over medium or long range are going to be difficult primarily because of the involvement of a large number of fuzzy parameters.

The design of a curriculum for such a dynamic system is a very challenging task. Further difficulties arise when the multifarious nature of teaching functions - each requiring differing skills, abilities and attitudes - are brought into consideration.

All curricula require periodic review and institutions must have a permanent mechanism for identifying the curriculum requirements based on national needs and international trends. This is essential for developing a work-force which has gone through education and training to successfully tackle the challenges of technological advancements. Our education system has expanded considerably but we have still not developed a management system capable of incorporating such changes.

Language curriculum development deals with the following questions, which provide the framework for this course.

What procedures can be used to determine the content of a language program? What are learners needs? How can learners needs be determined? What contextual factors need to be considered in planning a language program? What is the nature of aims and objectives in teaching and how can these be developed? What factors are involved in planning the syllabus and the units of organization in a course? How can good teaching be provided in a program? What issues are involved in selecting, adapting, and designing instructional materials? How can one measure the effectiveness of a language program?

Finally, I must add that a curriculum no matter how good it is, will not translate into academic excellence for the school if the persons implementing it lack a passion for excellence and the infrastructure available is sub-standard.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF THE SUBJECT

The main objectives of the course are to planning programs of instruction, the construction of teaching materials, and the designing of tests and their analysis. These topics deal with various the most outstanding aspects of the general procedures to programming the phases of sound foreign (second) language courses. The topics are on matters such as making macro-programming plans, projects for instruction in foreign (second) language learning/teaching, devising instruments for independent or official audit of the results of the application of programs of study.

ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES

Development, evaluation, and implementation are part of a logical progression in any situation that has an end product. If a company produces a computer program for instance, they need to 1) design it with the needs of the end users in mind, 2) evaluate it in house and encourage outsiders to review it, and 3) have a mechanism to implement it, including figuring out how to make it available and training end users in its effective operation.

METHOD

Approach. A language teaching approach is taken to include assumptions about what language is and how languages are learned.

Design. The design portion of the development framework includes elements such as the following: language difficulty, program difficulty, program content, language focus (also called program focus), skill focus (also called learner focus), and learner styles supported. These interact with considerations such as the learner profiles among the intended users (age, first language, etc.) and the objectives of the syllabus and should maintain consistency with the approach-based design criteria.

Procedure. The procedure considerations are much more specific to the teaching environment. They may begin with the concept of "activity type", which is the general form of the exercise, e.g. text plus comprehension questions, picture identification, text reconstruction. The presentation scheme determines how the language will be presented, including the modalities (text, audio, graphics, and video) and what the general interaction sequence will be.

THE ELEMENTS OF CURRICULUM

The word "curriculum" originally meant the race course in the Roman coliseum, much like the race track in a modern stadium. It came to mean "running a course, race, or career." Modern definitions include:

1) The courses offered by an educational institution or one of its branches.2) A set of courses.3) A fixed series of studies required, as in a college, for graduation, qualification in a major field of study, etc.4) All of the courses, collectively, offered in a school, college, etc., or in a particular subject.

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF CURRICULUM

FIRST MONTH SPECIFIC LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this month, the student will be able to:

Describe and classify language teaching activities. Discuss about the design and elements of curriculum

LEARNING ACTIVITY #1

Make a concept map of the Four categories of language teaching activities.

LEARNING ACTIVITY #2

Answer the following questionnaire (10 points).

1. What is the difference between syllabus design and curriculum development?2. How are syllabuses developed in language program you are familiar with?3. How relevant are the issues of selection gradation to language teaching today? What factors influence views of selection and gradation?4. How did the categories provided by Richards and Rodgers (1982) (approach, design, and procedures differ from Anthonys (1963) earlier classifications?5. How is an approach defined in Chapter 1? Can you name five approaches?

EVALUATION

Learning activities would be graded as follows,

Activity 1: 5 pointsActivity 2: 5 points

Professor norman Mosquera Castro

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