To be honest, I don’t have much idea about curriculum design because I have been teaching students English in an institute without curriculum for many years. So I think curriculum is the one needed in school. As I am working in an institute, making students have a good grade is more important than having a class with a good curriculum with bad grade. Even though curriculum is great nobody is sure it can make students have good grade in English exam. Of course, having a good grade is not everything in learning language. Even worse right before school exam I am very busy teaching students skills how to pick up the right answers and letting them know the possible questions on the exam. But after reading a book and PPT related to curriculum I realize it is necessary to guide students effectively and take advantage of the class efficiently.
In order to make a curriculum, teachers must look trough and know the various contexts carefully to make decisions about the course. Designing a course is similar to designing a house. Graves (2000) showed the chart which summarizes the various aspects of the context that teachers can define: people, time, physical setting, teaching resources, and nature of the curse and institution. The more information teachers have the better course teacher can make . But if teacher design a course too much materials for the time given, or is built around the topics that are inappropriate for students, or depends on materials that are not readily available to the students, the course will be ineffective or, at best, require ongoing repair(Graves, 2000, p.18). Most of all, the curriculum must to be designed to meet the students learning needs. So teachers need to have a lot of information in order to design a structure that will fit the context (Graves, 2000, p.14). Module 2 PPT, slide 9 shows how teachers can develop curriculum.
.The term learner-driven suggests that learner - not the subject matter - plays a central role in determining curriculum.
.Learner-driven approaches draw upon constructivism, a theory of learning in which "people learn when they relate new information and skills to what they already know, actively practice the new information and skills in a supportive environment, and get feedback on their performance.
.To develop learner-driven curriculum, teachers need to view learners as active inquirers who use previous experiences - both mental and social - to make meaning of the world.
.Curriculum springs from students' purposes for learning and uses real-life materials and contexts.
In Korea, most of the students are passive in class, so developing learner-driven curriculum is very useful for students I think. But I also wonder whether it really works in test–centered Korean circumstances.
In addition to the context, teachers’ beliefs play a role at stage of course design (Graves, 2000, p.33). Among the examples of teachers’ beliefs, I like Denies Lawson’s. Denies Lawson is a teacher who designed an advance writing course for a university extension program in the Unite States. Three factors influences her beliefs: her experience as a teacher, her experience as a teacher and how the students responded to her and each other, and understanding from readings (Graves, 2000, p.32). Denies Lawson articulated four main beliefs that guided planning of an advanced composition course: her belief in learner-centered curriculum, a meaning-centered curriculum, a process-centered curriculum and her belief that the roles of teachers and learners should be clearly articulated (Graves, 2000, p.35). Rich and powerful beliefs have important implications to design a course but teachers focus on a few considered essential.
I think teachers try to plan curriculum based on context of the course, integrating their beliefs to help achieve the goals of students^^.
Teachers’ belief and the context become the foundation of designing course. Articulating teachers’ beliefs is not easy because most teachers don’t have opportunities to make their beliefs explicit. In this sense, Graves gives a good tip to uncover teachers’ beliefs. As you mentioned, the experience as a teacher, how the students responded to the teacher and each other, and understanding from readings all influence teachers beliefs. However, teachers’ beliefs are always not in agreement with the context such as institutional policy. In that case, how can teacher design course on the basis of teachers’ beliefs without breaking an institutional policy? Your last comment that teachers try to plan curriculum based on context of the course, integrating their beliefs to help achieve the goals of students gives me strong impression. To design effective and efficient course, teachers should consider learners’ need and adequate subject matter in given context, I guess.
ReplyDeleteYunjoung,
ReplyDeleteYou contradicted the learner-driven and test-centered curricula and I wonder, can you see a possibility within Korean context to develop curriculum that includes at least learner's needs?
Jua Lee,
Do you mean top-to-bottom curriculum when you said, "However, teachers’ beliefs are ALWAYS not in agreement with the context such as institutional policy"?
Yes, I mean that top-to-bottom curriculum sometimes makes teachers give an instruction against their own beliefs.
ReplyDeleteAddtionally, my workplace is the place where top-to-bottom atmosphere as well as curriculum is prevailing. Almost all decision is made by the head of the institute and teachers' role is simply to carry out instruction from above in a more or less mechanical way. I, as a teacher who puts a high value on learner's autonomy, simply have to follow the policy of institute which stresses leaners' test score and forces students to spend more time memorizing what they are given. For this reason, I said that teachers’ beliefs are not always in agreement with the context such as institutional policy.
ReplyDeleteThank you Prof.Antoaneta Bonev....
ReplyDeleteIn Korea, educational systems especially for English is being changed. Actually a few special schools are trying with learner-driven curricula but I think it is not easy to apply learner-driven ones to normal schools yet because most schools are busy grading students by standardized testing. But utilizing learner-centered curriculum is possible to some extent in elementary schools and adult class because they are free form grade pressure. My point is that to make use of learner-driven curricula is possible but people related to education try to change exam-tested situation little by little.