sue sheerin coherent course design: translating your educational vision into classroom reality
TRANSCRIPT
Coherent Course Design
Translating Your Educational Vision into Classroom Reality
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Why is Coherent Course Design Important?• Course design impacts on teaching and
assessment. • To ensure implementation of your educational
approach and course design in a systematic way• To ensure that there is continuity and alignment
between what is stated as global course learning outcomes and what is taught week by week and lesson by lesson in the classroom
• To ensure valid assessment of what is taught and learnt, which flows from stated intended learning outcomes
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Course Design
• “There is a statement of the institution’s educational philosophy and written descriptions of its learning programmes, including course objectives and content”
• “All language course programmes are specified by levels which refer to the CEFR, and learning objectives are related to the global descriptors of the CEFR”
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Eaquals Standards
• “The institution’s educational philosophy and pedagogic approach are sound, coherent and documented and familiar both to staff and in an appropriately comprehensible form to learners”
• “There are written descriptions of • framework of levels referenced to CEFR• practical learning objectives for each level using
‘can do’ statements • language knowledge and skills e.g. in grammar,
vocabulary, communication skills will be covered at each level
• organisation and timing of content to achieve objectives
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Detailed Indicators
Coherent course design
All levels of planning – from the LEC’s educational approach to individual lesson plans – need to be interconnected and related in a way that is transparent
Coherent course design is alignedIf global learning outcomes are ‘can do’ statements:•each level of description should develop these ‘can do’s in ever greater detail•intended learning outcomes are stated in ‘can do’ terms at each level of description
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Eaquals International Conference, 21 – 23 April 2016
Course design – stage one:Basic approach & beliefs about language educationGlobal learning outcomes in broad terms for each level of each course
Course design – stage two:Detailed learning outcomes derived from the global learning outcomes of stage 1Inventory of what successful learners will be able to do / know / understand ata given level by the end of the course or learning period
Work plans / schemes of work (weekly? monthly?): Detailed learning outcomes: Selection, specification, ordering and timing of together with materials to be used
Lesson plans:Learning outcome(s) for the lesson – what will the learner be able to do?What knowledge / understanding / skill(s) will be needed?What materials, activities will be used to achieve the learning outcomes?
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Global Learning Outcomes (GLOs)
GLO 1 GLO 2 GLO 3 GLO 4 GLO 5
Sub-units a, b, c, d, e etc.
Sub-units f, g, h, i, j etc.
Sub-units k l, m, n, o etc.
Sub-units p, q, r, s, t etc.
Sub-units u, v, w, x, y etc.
ExampleGLO 1 Spoken Language A1:Has a very basic repertoire of words and simple phrases related to personal details and particular concrete situations
Sub-unit a) Can engage in very basic transactions to obtain goods and services A1:•Can ask people for things and services and give people things•Can handle numbers, quantities, cost and time
Weekly scheme of work: Can ask for things and services – Domain: Café, MarketLesson plan: LO – will be able to order and pay for food & drink in a café Enabling Phrases: ‘I’d like’, ‘Can I have’, How much is x’Enabling Lexis: Food and drink in café scenario e.g. ‘a cup of tea’
Detaile
d LO
s
Alignment
Ensuring Implementationin the Classroom• From the whole to the part:
• Educational approach Course programme Scheme of Work Weekly plans Lesson Plans
• This hierarchical structure is logical and enables consistency
• Input or checking from academic manager in the process?
• Monitoring and support systems as appropriate to the context e.g. teacher experience
• Facilitate use of ‘good’ textbooks and other appropriate resources
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Successful Course Planning …• Focuses on goals, i.e. intended
learning outcomes• Distinguishes between ‘ends’ and the
‘means’ to the ‘end’• Makes it clear that grammatical
structures and lexical topics are means to an end – not the end in themselves
• Makes it clear that activities are processes, not objectives
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How are ‘can do’ statements linked with grammar & lexis?
• CEFR global descriptors and lists of structures, lexical areas etc. need to be linked in a hierarchical way
• What linguistic features will need to be learnt to achieve the ‘can do’ statements? (Inventory)’
• Avoid unconnected lists of ‘can do’s’, structures etc. as such lists suggest ‘past perfect’ is a valid learning outcome
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What is a ‘learning outcome’?• A statement of what a successful
learner is expected to KNOW and / or UNDERSTAND and / or BE ABLE TO DO by the end of a defined period of learning
• Describes and quantifies the targets for the end of the teaching and learning process, and not the process itself
• May apply to a single teaching session or a course programme
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Why is it important tostate ‘intended learning outcomes’?
• Clarity - more precise than ‘aims’ or ‘objectives’
• Focused on what is the successful learner going to achieve?
• Helps to prioritize the ‘ends’ to be achieved rather than the means to that end
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Well-formulated intended learning outcomes …• Are measurable and stated in
terms that can be assessed• Contain within them the evidence
for whether the learners have achieved the intended learning outcomes
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• Learning outcomes - even for language learning - may well include knowledge and understanding, but then you must think of what the evidence would be, so verbs like ‘know’ and ‘understand’ will not do.
• How will ‘knowledge’ and ‘understanding’ be demonstrated?
“The learners will be able to describe routines e.g. a daily journey to school or work (demonstrating knowledge and understanding of the form and use of the present simple)”
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Well-formulatedLearning Outcomes can:
• Help learners develop a more sophisticated understanding of their own learning
• Help learners focus on clear goals• Assist in the choice of effective teaching
and learning strategies• Assist in assessment design• Assist in giving learners clear and helpful
feedback on their performance
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Coursebooks• Coursebooks are tools, not masters• Selection – look for ‘best fit’
coursebooks• Analysis – Prioritize ‘can do’ objectives
in each unit• Adaptation, Omission, Supplementation
• What is unnecessary / not appropriate?• What is missing?
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Other Resources & Materials
• How will teachers get access to other teaching and learning materials needed to deliver the curriculum• Material banks and / or indexes• Sharing resources and ideas• What do you want to say about use of
IT?
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Include Transferable Skills in Course Design?
• Think also about transferable skills not directly related to language learning e.g. learning to learn, becoming an independent learner, communication strategies, cultural competence etc.
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Task1. Select a non-linguistic skill to include in
your course design2. Formulate the skill or part of it as a global
learning outcome at one of 5 levels (1 = low, 5 = expert)
3. Formulate one sub-unit of this GLO as e.g. part of a scheme of work
4. Formulate part of this sub-unit as the intended learning outcome of a lesson plan
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Example:• “At the end of the course / term etc. the
successful learner will be able to• interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly
and clearly and is prepared to help;• understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very
basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type (asking for something in a shop, ordering a meal, etc);
• ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, what he/she does, people he/she knows and things he/she has.
• write simple texts mainly consisting of isolated sentences.• More detailed for sub-unit, for example:
• “By the end of the first week the successful learner will be able to:ask and answer questions about themselves and other people, where they live, people they know and things they have”
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Rolling Enrolment• What can you do in two weeks?• Think about non-linguistic learning
outcomes• Break the year up into smaller periods
e.g. 3 months?• Weekly plans in the longer period do
not have to happen a strict order?• Self-access ‘catch up’ packs?
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Maintain Flexibility• Design your curriculum to facilitate
flexibility so that teachers can:• Vary learning outcomes according to the
group of learners they have in front of them• Depart from plans if there is a good reason to
do so• Checklists, pick-lists or inventories
are more useful in this regard than very detailed specifications
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Where to Start?Course Design Support• Common European Framework of
Reference (CEFR)• EAQUALS website resources:
• EAQUALS - British Council Core Inventory for General English
• EAQUALS Descriptor Bank:• Checklists, levels & scales
• EAQUALS CEFR Induction Overviews:• Curriculum, assessment, grids, salient features
• EAQUALS CEFR Self-help Guides:• Curriculum & Syllabus Self-help Guide with Case-
Studies
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Key Stages of theCourse Design Process• “A. The school’s educational philosophy: what does this school
believe about learning a language? • B. Objectives: What should students be able to do, (CEFR Can Do
statements) and what do they need to know at any given level in order to do it? How does this relate to exams used in the school?
• C. Methods, techniques: how is this learning to be achieved? What methods and techniques should teachers use in their classrooms?
• D. Syllabus; schemes of work; progress: what language and micros-skills will be learnt? How long is a level likely to take? How are specific periods of teaching (week, month, term) planned? How are lessons planned? How are learners informed about planning?
• E. Assessment: pre/during/post: How are learners placed in classes? How and at what intervals is progress assessed? What assessment is there at the end of the course? What form of certification is given?”
Taken from EAQUALS CEFR Guidance Sheet 225
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