ENG509 Quiz

Lecture: 23

Backward Design

This curriculum approach begins with a specification of learning outputs and to use these as the basis for developing instructional processes and input. Backward design starts with a careful statement of the desired results or outcomes: appropriate teaching activities and content are derived from the very results of learning. It is also known as ends-means’ approach.

Backward Design approach process

Step 1: Diagnosis of needs Step 2: Formulation of objectives Step 3: Selection of content Step 4: Organization of content Step 5: Selection of learning experiences Step 6: Organization of learning experiences Step 7: Determination of what to evaluate and of the ways of doing it

There steps in Backward Design approach by Wiggins and McTighe

Identify desired results Determine acceptable evidence of learning. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Competency-Based Instruction within Backward Design Approach

The process consisted of:

Needs analysis Identify topics for the survival curriculum (e.g. banking, health, shopping). Identify target tasks, design tasks. Identify competencies for each topic. Group competencies into instructional units Identify the language knowledge and skills needed for each instructional unit Choose instructional materials

Subject-centered Design

The main focus is on curriculum development (not human development) with subject specialists developing ―high standards‖ for student uniformity. The main goal and purpose is to standardize students, to make them alike with a ― core curriculum.

Learner-centered Design

This approach places the learner at the center of the pedagogic process and sees education not as a matter of receiving information but of intelligent inquiry and thought.

A learner-centered curriculum will contain similar elements to those contained in traditional curriculum development, that is, planning (including needs analysis, goal and objective setting), implementation (including methodology and material development) and evaluation. However, the main difference between learner centered and traditional curriculum development is that in the former the curriculum is a collaborative effort between teachers and learners.

Lecture: 24

Forward Design

A forward design option may be preferred in circumstances where:

A mandated curriculum is in place Class size is large Teachers have little choice over what and how to teach Teachers have limited English language proficiency Teachers rely mainly on textbooks and commercial materials rather than teacher-designed resources

Central design approaches do not require teachers to plan detailed learning outcomes to conduct needs analysis or to follow a prescribed syllabus; hence they often give teachers a considerable degree of autonomy and control over the teacher learning process.

Method-based approaches require teachers to understand the obscure theory underlying the method as well as ways to master techniques and procedures that may initially prove difficult.

ELT Curriculum: Content Model

The central focus of the curriculum in this model is the content of what is to be learned by, or transmitted to the learner. In the Classical Humanist tradition, the content is a valued cultural heritage, the understanding of which contributes to the overall intellectual development of the learner

ELT Curriculum: Objectives Model

Its origins lie in the movement for scientific management of education and the work of behavioral psychologists in the first half of the twentieth century, who defined learning as a process of observable changes in behavior which could be measured.

Behavioral objectives has three essential characteristics

1. They must unambiguously describe the behavior to be performed.
2. They must describe the conditions under which the performance will be expected to occur.
3. They must state a standard of acceptable performance (the criterion).

Attraction of Objectives Model

Clarity of goals Ease of evaluation Accountability

ELT Curriculum: Process Model

It is concerned with the development of understanding learning process, and not just the passive reception of knowledge or the acquisition of specific skill.

Content is based on principles derived from research into learning development, and the overall purpose of the educational process is to formulate the objectives related to the procedural principles.

Areas central to the concept of a communicative curriculum

Sociolinguistics Humanistic approach in education Cognitively based view of language learning

Tyler’s Model - The model is linear in nature, starting from objectives and ending with evaluation. In this model, evaluation is terminal.

Kerr’s Model

Kerr divided the domains into four areas

Objectives Knowledge Evaluation School learning experiences

Kerr‘s model objectives are divided into three groups

Affective Cognitive Psychomotor

The model further indicates that knowledge should be

Organized Integrated Sequenced Reinforced

Spiral Model by Bruner

It suggested that each child‘s intellectual ability develops in stages through changes in how the mind is used. Bruner‘s position was that young children need to learn the underlying principles of different concepts – the structure of ideas – rather than memorizing their related facts and data.

Bruner hypothesized that human cognition occurred in three relatively discreet stages

Enactive Iconic Symbolic

Lecture: 25

Structural syllabus

The structural syllabus is based on a theory of language that assumes that the grammatical or structural aspects of language form are the most basic or useful.

Rationales for the formal syllabus

1. It is well established and it is informed by a long tradition of linguistic analysis.
2. It presents learners with a subject matter which is systematic and rule-governed
3. Because the linguistic system is analyzable in certain ways, these analytical categories or schemas can be incorporated in a plan for teaching the system

Merits of Structural Syllabus

Its content is relatively easy to describe Structural syllabi are naturally valuable and culture-free Structural knowledge is the most measurable component of the communicative competence