Transcript A Framework of Course Development Processes

A Framework of Course
Development Processes
English 6010
Week 4
Framework Components
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Needs Assessment
Determining Goals and Objectives
Conceptualizing Context
Selecting and Developing Materials and
Activities
Evaluation
Consideration of Resources and Constraints
Needs Assessment
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Objective needs
use of language in real-life communication
 current proficiency level
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Subjective needs
cognitive and affective needs of the learner in the
learning situation (personality, confidence, attitudes,
expectations with regard to the learning of English)
 individual cognitive style and learning strategies
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Assessing subjective needs
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Student’s attitudes toward
the target language and culture
 Learning
 themselves as learners
 purposes for studying the language
 preferences with respect to how they will learn
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If subjective needs are not taken into account,
then objective needs may not be met
When does one conduct a needs
assessment?
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Depending on the context, needs assessment
can be conducted in:
Stage 1- the planning stage
 Stage 2- the teaching stage
 Stage 3- the replanning stage
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How does one conduct a needs
assessment?
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Questionnaires (common)
Interviews with students and others (I.e., professors,
administrators)
Observation and participation in situations in which the
students will use English
Tests and interviews that measure proficiency to
determine what students already know (diagnostic
exam, Michigan Test for example or your own
diagnostic exam or pre-assessment technique)
Target and learning needs
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Target need
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what the learner needs to do in the target situation
(participate in job interview)
Learning need
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what the learner needs in order to learn (specific
vocabulary, structure, knowledge of register)
Issues
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Needs assessment is not a value-free process
It is influenced by
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the teacher’s view of what the course is about
the institutional constraints
the students’ perception of what is being asked of them
Needs assessment should be evaluated and it should be
viewed as an ongoing process, both in its development
and in its use
Determining Goals and Objectives
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Goals: overall, long-term purposes of the course.
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destination of the course
purposes and intended outcomes of the course (backward
design, thinking about outcome first)
Objectives: express the specific ways in which goals will
be achieved.
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represent the various points that chart the course toward the
destination (What will my students need to do in order to
achieve these goals? For instance, “Students will be able to
identify the main idea”, “students will be able to write a thesis
statement”)
How do we determine goals?
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Students’ needs assessment
The policies of the institution
The way the teacher conceptualizes the context
Proficiency levels
Goals-cognitive (master of linguistic and cultural
knowledge) affective (motivation, positive
attitude) transfer (learning how to learn and
transfer to another context)
Bloom’s Taxonomy for Developing
Clear Objectives
BLOOMtaxonomy.doc
Types of Objectives according to
Graves
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Coverage objectives
Activity objectives
Involvement objectives
Mastery objectives
Critical thinking objectives
Issues
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Many teachers do not formulate goals and objectives at all or do
so only after having thought about what they will teach and how.
Although one may establish very clear goals and objectives, once
we teach a course we revisit those goals and objectives and then
they may become clear to us. (re-planning stage)
Goals and objectives are a statement of intent, subject to
reexamination and change once the course is under way. (maybe
the strategies you plan to use are not working for your students
and you may need to reconsider half way through the course,
this is part of the ongoing reflection process )
Types of Syllabus and
Approaches to Syllabus
design in ESL
Structural syllabus
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Top down approach to develop a syllabus
the institution or you as a teacher has already
determined what the learning outcomes will be and the
specific skills (writing, reading, speaking, listening) that
students are expected to master at the end of the
course
usually involves grammatical rules of the language
being taught, for example nouns, verbs, adjectives,
statements, questions, subordinate clauses (English
3101/3102)
Notional-functional syllabus
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content of the language teaching is a collection
of the function being performed when the
language is used, or of the notions the language
is used to express.
Examples of functions include: informing,
agreeing, apologizing, requesting.
Examples of notion include: size, age, color,
comparison, time, and so on.
A situational syllabus
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The content of language teaching is a collection of real
or imaginary situations in which language occurs or is
used. A situation usually involves several participants
who are engaged in some activity in a specific setting.
The language occurring in a situation involves a number
of functions, combined into a plausible segment of
discourse. The purpose is to use the language that is
used in a specific situation. For instance, seeing the
dentist, going to a restaurant, complaining to the
landlord, and so on.
A skill-based syllabus
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content of the language teaching is a collection
of specific abilities that may play a part in using
language. This type of syllabus group linguistic
competences (pronunciation, vocabulary,
grammar, and discourse) together into
generalized types of behavior, such as listening,
to spoken language for main idea, giving
effective oral presentations, and so on.
A task-based syllabus
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The content of the teaching is a series of complex
purposeful tasks that the students want or need to
perform with the language they are learning. Task based
differs from situation-based teaching in that while
situational teaching has the goal of teaching the specific
language content that occurs in the situation, task-based
has the goal of teaching students to draw on resources
to complete some piece of work (applying for a job,
getting housing information over the phone)
A content-based syllabus
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The subject matter is primary, and language
learning occurs incidentally to the content
learning. The content teaching is not organized
around language learning, but vice-versa. An
example is a science class taught in English in a
Spanish speaking context (an immersion or
bilingual curriculum may use such syllabus)
Negotiated Syllabus
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You may have ask your students to evaluate the
syllabus and then ask them if there is anything
else that should be included based on their
expectations of the course
You could also negotiate the readings depending
on your constraints
You could have students help design the syllabus
or design it after the initial needs analysis
Syllabus cont’d
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Remember you need to provide also for students
with disabilities and very specific guidelines and
policies about homework, grading policy,
attendance policy, quizzes, and behavior policies
as well
Provide a tentative schedule with readings and
dates. This may vary, but it will give the students
a clear idea of what to expect.
Selecting and developing materials
and activities
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Organization of content and activities- two
principles are “building and recycling.”
Building from the simple to the complex, for
instance to learn how to write a narrative before
writing an argumentative essay. In a basic course,
learning main idea before providing an opinion
or critique of a reading.
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Recycling- students encounter previous materials
in new ways. For instance, an individual reading
activity maybe recycled in a role play activity
with other students.
Organization of Content and
Activities
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Two approaches to organize a course:
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Cycle- for instance, you organize it by dividing the class into
sections-discussion, group work, writing (all thee activities
may deal with reading comprehension)
Matrix- compiling a list of possible activities and then decide
what to do depending on the students needs and availability
of materials
Both approaches suggest a collection of core material to be
learned and activities to be conducted within a specific timeframe.
Evaluation
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How will you assess what students have learned?
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Have they learned what you taught? Have they
incidentally learned something else? (tests, selfreflections, student-teacher conference)
How will you assess the effectiveness of the
course?
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Was the course effective? Where did it fall short?
(students’ evaluation of the course, teachers’ selfevaluation, peer-observation)
Consideration of Resources and
Constraints
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Class-size
Technology
Classrooms
Materials
Time
Institutional philosophy
Language policies
curriculum
A Cautionary Word on Course
Development
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The components discussed by Graves (1996)
should not serve as a checklist for the teacher
but rather as a set of tools for understanding
and directing the process of course
development.
Each component is one way of working with
the whole.
Categorizing techniques
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From manipulation to communication
Mechanical, meaningful, and communicative
drills
Controlled to free techniques
For the difference between manipulative
(controlled) and communicative (free)
techniques see Brown (2001) page 133
For a complete taxonomy of language
techniques see Brown (2001) pages 134-135
Textbooks
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Deciding to prepare your own materials as
opposed to using a textbook
Teachers’ guide are a good resource
Literacy and alternative contexts
Posters, charts, magazines
 Comic books and comic strips, graphic novels
 Movies, documentaries, videogames
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Technology
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The use of language labs
Audio-books
 Personal computers
 Grammar exercises online
 Audiotapes (recording journal entries, listening
activities)
 Overhead projection
 Videogames (yes, we can learn from them as well)
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Collaborative projects- data analysis, webpage
design
Peer editing of compositions- online (webCT)
Class forum
Emails
Blogs
Online portfolios
Critically examine a syllabus
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Does it have clear goals appropriate for the course
level?
Are the objectives clear?
Can you point at specific assessment measures for each
objective?
What kind of syllabus is this? Is it structural,
functional?
Do you see a particular theoretical framework in the
design of this syllabus (behaviorist, cognitive,
constructivist) or is it a combination of more than one?
Exchange your ideas/comments/analysis in small
groups.