Planning Goals and Learning Outcomes

1. Planning Goals and Learning Outcomes Professor: Mavis 9610005M Eric Tien

2. Key Assumptions About Goals • People are usually motivated to pursue certain goals. • The goals in teaching improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning. • A program will be effective that its goals are sound and clearly described.

3. The debate of curriculum goals • Is there any value in teaching students a foreign language at school if they have no practical need for it? • Should a language program for immigrants just teach practical life skills or should it seek to prepare immigrants to confront racial and other forms pf prejudice? • So on.

4. Five curriculum ideologies: Eisner, 1992 • 1. academic rationalism • 2. social and economic efficiency • 3. learner-centeredness • 4. social reconstructionism • 5. cultural pluralism

5. Academic rationalism • It stresses the intrinsic value of the subject matter and its role in developing the learner’s intellect, humanistic values, and rationality. • It is sometimes used to justify certain foreign language in school curricula where they are taught as social studies. • It is also sometimes used for literature or American or British culture.

6. The academic rationalism of United Kingdom: Clark, 1987 • The maintenance and transmission through education of the wisdom and culture of previous generations. • The development for the elite of generalizable intellectual capacities and critical faculties. • The maintenance of stands through an inspectorate and external examination boards controlled by the universities.

7. Social and economic efficiency • It emphasizes the practical needs of learners and society and the role of an educational program in producing learners who are economically productive.

8. Social and economic efficiency • Critics: such a view is reductionist and presupposes that learners’ needs can be identified with a predetermined set of skills and objectives.

9. Learner-centeredness • It stresses the individual needs of learners, the role of individual experience, and the need to develop awareness, self-reflection, critical thinking, learner strategies, and other qualities and skills.

10. Learner-centeredness: Marsh, 1986 • Individualized teaching • Learning through practical operation or doing • Laissez faire- no organized curricula • Creative self-expression by students • Practically oriented activities- needs of society • Not teaching-directed learning

11. Social reconstructionism • It stresses the roles of schools and learners can should play in addressing social injustices and inequality. • Curriculum development is not a neutral process.

12. Social reconstructionism: Critics • Freire, 1972: teachers and learners are a joint process of exploring and constructing knowledge. • In addition, students are not the objects of knowledge. • Therefore, they must find ways of recognizing and resisting.

13. Cultural pluralism • It emphasizes school should prepare students to participate in several different cultures, not just the dominant one which means none culture group is superior to others.

14. Cultural pluralism • ACTFL has recently identified three dimensions to intercultural competence in foreign language program: • 1. the need to learn about cultures. • 2. to compare them • 3. to engage in intercultural exploration

15. Stating curriculum outcomes: Aims • It refers to a statement of a general change which a program seeks to bring about in learners. • It is the ideology of the curriculum and show how the curriculum will seek to realize it.

16. Aims: purposes • 1. clear definition of the purpose of a program • 2. guidelines for teachers, learners, and materials writers • 3. a focus for instruction • 4. describe important and realizable changes in learning

17. The aims of teaching English at the primary level in Singapore • Our pupils learn English in order to: • 1. communicate effectively • 2. acquire good reading habit to understand, enjoy • 3. so on…

18. Aim statement: EX • A business English course • 1. to develop basic communication skills for use in business context • 2. to learn how to participate in casual conversation……so on..

19. Aim statement: non-English-background students • Studying in English-medium universities • 1. understanding lectures • 2. participating in seminars • 3. taking notes during lectures • 4. reading at adequate speed • 5. presenting ideas and information in written assignments

20. Aim statement • Bad one: • 1. Students will learn about business-letter writing in English. • 2. Students will study listening skills. • So on…..

21. Aim statement • Better one • 1. Students will learn how to write effective business letter for use in the hotel and tourism industries. • 2. Students will learn how to listen effectively in conversional interactions and how to develop better listening strategies. • 3. so on……

22. Objectives • It is a statement which have more specific purposes. • It refers to a statement of specific changes, a program seeks to bring about and results from an analysis of the aim.

23. The characteristics of the objectives • Describe what the aims seek to achieve in terms of smaller units of learning. • Provide a basis for the organization of teaching activities. • Describe learning in term of observable behavior and performance.

24. The advantage of describing objectives • 1. they facilitate planning. • 2. they provide measurable outcomes and accountability. • 3. they are prescriptive.

25. The characteristics of the statement of the objectives • 1. Objectives describe a learning outcome. (will have, will learn how to…..) • 2. Objectives should be consistent with the curriculum aims. (be related) • 3. Objectives should be precise. (learn something for…..) • 4. Objectives should be feasible (work).

26. Example of aims and objectives • A short English course of traveling and tourism • Aim: to prepare students to communicate in English at a basic level for purposes of travel and tourism. • Objectives: 1. the students will have a reading vocabulary of 300 common words……so on.

27. Example of aims and objectives • For first-year university students in Thai. (Frankel, 1983) • Aim: to read authentic, nonspecialist, nonfiction text in English…….. • 1. to use linguistic information in the textas clues to meaning, including: a……b….c….

28. Example of aims and objectives • Listening comprehension course in Singapore Primary Syllabus: • At the end of the course, pupils should be able to demonstrate listening competence in the following ways: 1….2….3….4….

29. Objectives • Objectives cannot be regarded as fixed. As instruction proceeds, we have to revise some, drop some, or add some for addressing gaps.

30. Criticisms of the use of objectives • 1. Objectives turn teaching into a technology. (meaningful and worthwhile may be lost) • Comment: this is more applicable for the behavioral objectives. (appendix 1.)

31. Criticisms of the use of objectives • 2. Objectives trivialize teaching and are product-oriented. (every purpose in teaching can be described as an objective) • Comment: objectives need not be limited to be observable outcomes.

32. Criticisms of the use of objectives • 3. Objectives are unsuited to many aspects of language use. (ex: critical thinking) • Comment: objectives can be written in domains, such as critical thinking.

33. Competency-based program outcomes • Competency-Based Language Teaching (CBLT) • It seeks to make a focus on the outcomes of learning.

34. The nature of competencies • They refer to observable behaviors that are necessary for the successful completion of real-world activities. • These activities may be related to the field of work and social survival in a new environment.

35. The process for refugee program to develop language skills: Mrowicki, 1986 • Reviewing existing curricula, resource materials, and textbooks. • Needs analysis • Identifying topic for a survival curriculum. • So on……

36. Examples of competencies: Mrowicki, 1986 • Topic: housing • 1. identify common household furniture/rooms. • 2. answer simple questions about basic housing needs. • 3. so on………….

37. The Australian program competencies • Divide competencies into smaller components . • Specify the minimal performance in order to achieve a competency. • Set limits for the performance of the competency. • Sample texts and assignment tasks with examples that relate to the competency.

38. Criticisms of the use of the competencies • 1. Definition of the competencies: no valid procedures are available for competency specifications. • 2. Hidden values underlying competency specifications: for example: • A refugee resettlementtraining program in Philippines: it encourages refugees to consider themselves fortunate to find minimum-wage employment.

39. Nonlanguage outcomes and process objectives • Eight broad categories of nonlanguage outcomes in teaching: • 1. Social, psychological, and emotional support in the new living environment • 2. Confidence • 3.Motivation • 4. Cultural understanding • 5. So on……..

40. Nonlanguage outcomes and process objectives • The on-arrival program for immigrants: • 1. to assist students to identify major local providers of services. • 2. to assist students to identify the main functions of the services. • 3. so on…………..

41. Process objectives: Example • 1. to initiate and develop in youngsters a process of question posing. • 2. to teach a research methodology where children can look for information. • 3. to help youngsters develop the ability to use a variety of firsthand information. • 4. so on…………

42. Learning strategy theory • Effective learning: • 1. develop a skill which can be applied to different learning. • 2. select appropriate strategies for different tasks. • 3. monitoring strategies: change if don’t work.

43. Learning strategies • Effective organization and time management: (Jackson, 1993) • 1. make students understand the concept of time of studying. • 2. help them to make the good use of time at home and learning center of studying. • 3. help them prioritize the study, activities, and others. • 4. help them create a timetable for studying.

44. The categories of process objectives at primary level in Singapore • Thinking skills: at the end of the course, pupils should be able to………… • Learning how to learn: • Language and culture:

45. The philosophy of cultural pluralism • For example: • 1. students can show their understanding of culture via comparison of culture studies and their own. • 2. students get information and recognize the different viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its culture.

46. Thank you