MAJORSHIP
Area: ENGLISH
Focus: Language Curriculum
LET Competencies:
1.
Define
Curriculum and Syllabus.
2.
Distinguish
Curriculum from syllabus
3.
Discuss
the ideology of a curriculum
Identify key features
of curriculum
CURRICULUM
¨ A curriculum is more
than a list of topics to be covered by an educational programme, for which the
more commonly accepted word is a ‘syllabus’. A curriculum is first of all a
policy statement about a piece of education, and secondly an indication as to
the ways in which that policy is to be realized through a programme of action.
It is the sum of all the activities, experiences and learning opportunities for
which an institution (such as the Society) or a teacher (such as a faculty
member) takes responsibility – either deliberately or by default (Coles, 2003)
¨ May be defined as an
educational plan that spells out which goals and objectives should be achieved,
which topics should be covered and which methods are to be used for learning,
teaching and evaluation (Wojtczak,
2002)
¨ Is the planned and
guided learning experiences and intended learning outcomes, formulated through
the systematic reconstruction of knowledge and experiences, under the auspices
of the school, for the learners’ continuous and wilful growth in personal
social competence (Tanner, 1980)
¨ The term curriculum
refers to the sum total of organized learning stated as educational ends,
activities, school subjects and/or topics decided upon and provided within an
educational institution for the attainment of the students (Garcia, 1976,
SEAMEO RELC)
¨ 'A curriculum is an
attempt to communicate the essential principles and features of an educational
proposal in such a form that it is open to critical scrutiny and capable of
effective translation into practice'. A curriculum is rather like a recipe in
cookery (Stenhouse,1975)
SYLLABUS DESIGN
¨ One aspect of
curriculum development but is not identical with it. A syllabus is a
specification of the content of a course of instruction and lists what will be
taught and tested. Syllabus design is the process of developing a syllabus
(Richards, 2001)
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
¨ Is a more comprehensive
process than syllabus design. It includes the processes that are used to
determine the needs of a group of learners, to develop aims or objectives for a
program to address those needs, to determine an appropriate syllabus, course
structure, teaching methods, and materials, and to carry out an evaluation of
the language program that results from these processes (Richards, 2001)
Syllabi, which prescribes the content to be covered by a
given course, forms only a small part of the total school program. Curriculum
is a far broader concept. It is all those activities in which students engage
under the auspices of the school. This includes not only what students learn,
but how they learn it, how teachers help them learn, using what supporting
materials, styles and methods of assessment, and in what kind of facilities
(Rodgers, 1989).
In developing goals for
educational programs, curriculum planners draw on their understanding both of
the present and long-term needs of learners and of society as well as the
planners’ beliefs and values about schools, learners, and teachers. These
beliefs and values are sometimes referred to as curriculum ideologies, and
represent the philosophical underpinnings for educational programs and the
justification for the kinds of aim they contain.
Each of the five
curriculum perspectives or ideologies below emphasizes a different approach to
the role of language in the curriculum (Richards, 2001).
- Academic
Rationalism
The
justification for the aims of curriculum stresses the intrinsic value of the
subject matter and its role in developing the learner’s intellect, humanistic
values, and rationality. The content matter of different subjects is viewed as
the basis for a curriculum. Mastery of content is an end in itself rather than
a means to solving social problems or providing efficient means to achieve the
goals of policy makers.
- Social
and Economic Efficiency
This
educational philosophy emphasizes the practical needs of learners and society
and the role of an educational program in producing learners who are
economically productive. Bobbit (1918), one of the founders of curriculum
theory, advocated this view of the curriculum. Curriculum development was seen
as based on scientific principles, its practitioners were “educational
engineers’ whose job was to “discover the total range of habits, skills,
abilities, forms of thoughts…etc., that its members need for the effective
performance of their vocational labors.” In language teaching, this philosophy
leads to an emphasis on practical and functional skills in a foreign or second
language.
- Learner-centeredness
In
language teaching, this educational philosophy is leading to an emphasis on
process rather than product, a focus on learner differences, learner strategies
and on learner self-direction and autonomy.
- Social
Reconstructionism
This
curriculum perspective emphasizes the roles schools and learners can and should
play in addressing social injustices and inequality. Morris (1995) observes: The curriculum derived from this perspective focuses on developing
knowledge, skills and attitudes which would create a world where people care
about each other, the environment, and the distribution of wealth. Tolerance,
the acceptance of diversity and peace would be encouraged. Social injustices
and inequality would be central issues in the curriculum.
- Cultural
Pluralism
This
philosophy argues that schools should prepare students to participate in
several different cultures and not merely the culture of the dominant social
and economic group. Cultural pluralism seeks to redress racism, to raise the
self-esteem of minority groups, and to help children appreciate the viewpoints
of other cultures and religions (Phillips and Terry , 1999)
GENERAL
CURRICULUM PLANNING
Taba’s outline (1962) of the steps which a course
designer must work through to develop subject matter courses has become the
foundation for many other writers’ suggestions. Her list of ‘curriculum
processes’ includes the following:
¨
Diagnosis of needs
¨
Formulation of objectives
¨
Selection of content
¨
Organization of content
¨
Selection of learning experiences
¨
Organization of learning experiences
¨
Determination of what to evaluate, and the means to
evaluate
Decisions in
Curriculum Construction
Curriculum development revolves around three major
curricular elements (Garcia, 1976):
1. decisions
on what to teach which are educational ends generated at three levels of
specificity and immediacy(educational aims, educational objectives, and
instructional objectives)to the learner;
2. decisions
on how to teach, concerned with strategies in terms of selecting and organizing
learning opportunities, and
3. decisions
concerning the extent to which educational ends are being attained through the
strategies or means provided.
Key features of a curriculum:
Learning
is planned and guided. What is sought to be achieved and how it is to be
achieved should be specified in advance.
The
definition refers to schooling. It should be
recognized that current appreciation of curriculum theory and practice emerged
in the school and in relation to other schooling ideas such as subject and
lesson.
Four
ways of approaching curriculum theory and practice:
1. Curriculum as a body of knowledge
to be transmitted.
Curzon
(1985) points out, those who compile a syllabus tend to follow the traditional
textbook approach of an 'order of contents', or a pattern prescribed by a
'logical' approach to the subject, or - consciously or unconsciously - a
the shape of a university course in which they may have participated. Thus, an
approach to curriculum theory and practice which focuses on syllabus is only
really concerned with content. Curriculum is a body of knowledge-content and/or
subjects. Education in this sense is the process by which these are transmitted
or 'delivered' to students by the most effective methods that can be devised
(Blenkin et al 1992).
2. Curriculum as an attempt to achieve
certain ends in students - product.
The dominant modes of describing and managing
education are today couched in the productive form. Education is most
often seen as a technical exercise. Objectives are set, a plan drawn up,
then applied, and the outcomes (products) measured. In the late 1980s and
the 1990s many of the debates about the National Curriculum for schools did not
so much concern how the curriculum was thought about as to what its objectives
and content might be.
Curriculum
as product model is heavily dependent on the setting of behavioral objectives.
3. Curriculum as
process.
Another way of looking at curriculum theory and
practice is via process. In this sense curriculum is not a physical
thing, but rather the interaction of teachers, students and knowledge. In
other words, curriculum is what actually happens in the classroom and what
people do to prepare and evaluate.
4. Curriculum as
praxis.
Curriculum as praxis is, in many
respects, a development of the process model. While the process model is
driven by general principles and places an emphasis on judgment and meaning
making, it does not make explicit statements about the interests it
serves. It may, for example, be used in such a way that does not
make continual reference to collective human well-being and to the emancipation
of the human spirit. The praxis model of curriculum theory and
practice brings these to the centre of the process and makes an
explicit commitment to emancipation. Thus action is not simply
informed, it is also committed. It is praxis.
In
this approach the curriculum itself develops through the dynamic interaction of
action and reflection. 'That is, the curriculum is not simply a set of plans to
be implemented, but rather is constituted through an active process in which
planning, acting and evaluating are all reciprocally related and integrated
into the process' (Grundy 1987). At its centre is praxis: informed,
committed action.
CURRICULUM APPROACH IN LANGUAGE TEACHING
Principles Underlying the language Curriculum
The language curriculum is based on the belief
that literacy is critical to responsible and productive citizenship, and that all
students can become literate. The curriculum is designed to provide
students with the knowledge and skills that they need to achieve this goal. It
aims to help students become successful language learners, who share the
following characteristics. Successful language learners:
¨ understand that
language learning is a necessary, life-enhancing, reflective process;
¨ communicate – that is,
read, listen, view, speak, write, and represent – effectively and with
confidence;
¨ make meaningful
connections between themselves, what they encounter in texts, and the world
around them;
¨ think critically;
¨ understand that all
texts advance a particular point of view that must be recognized, questioned,
assessed, and evaluated;
¨ appreciate the cultural
impact and aesthetic power of texts;
¨ use language to
interact and connect with individuals and communities, for personal growth, and
for active participation as world citizens.
Four fundamental
questions that must be answered in developing any curriculum and plan of
instruction:
1.
What
educational purposes should the school seek to attain?
2.
What
educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these
purposes?
3.
How
can these educational experiences be effectively organized?
4.
How
can we determine whether theses purposes are being attained?
(Tyler, 1950)
Reduced to a simpler
model:
Aims and objectives
Content
Organization
Evaluation
Tyler’s model or
variations of it soon penetrated wide areas of educational thought and practice
and curriculum and training manuals were son full of models such as the
following (Inglis 1975):
- Need
Aims
Objectives
- Plan
Strategies Tactics
- Implementation
Methods Techniques
- Review
Evaluation Consolidation
Nicholls and Nicholls
(1972), for example, describe curriculum development as involving four stages;
- The careful examination, drawing on all
available sources of knowledge and informed judgment, of the objectives of
teaching, whether in particular subject courses or over the curriculum as
a whole.
- The development and trial use in schools
of those methods and materials which are judged most likely to achieve the
objectives which teachers agreed upon.
- The assessment of the extent to which the
development work has in fact achieved its objectives. This part of the
process may be expected to provoke new thought about the objectives
themselves.
- The final element is therefore feedback of
all the experience gained, to provide a starting point for further study.
Stages,
decision-making roles and products in curriculum development (from Johnson 1989)
Development
stages
|
Decision-making
roles
|
Products
|
1.
curriculum planning
|
policy
makers
|
policy
document
|
2.
specification:
ends
means
|
needs
analyst
|
syllabus
|
methodologists
|
||
3.
programme
implementation
|
materials
writers
|
teaching
materials
|
teacher
trainers
|
teacher-training
programme
|
|
4.
classroom
implementation
|
teacher
|
teaching
acts
|
learner
|
learning
acts
|
STATING CURRICULUM OUTCOMES
The terms goal and aim are used interchangeably to refer to a description of the general
purposes of a curriculum and objective
to refer to a more specific and concrete description of purposes.
AIMS
An aim refers to a
statement of a general change that a program seeks to bring about in learners.
The purposes of aim statements are:
¨ to provide a clear
definition of the purposes of a program
¨ to provide guidelines
for teachers, learners, and materials writers
¨ to help provide a focus
for instruction
¨ to describe important
and realizable changes in learning
Aims statements reflect
the ideology of the curriculum and show how the curriculum will seek to realize
it. (Renandya and Richards 2002)
The following are
examples of aim statements from different kinds of language programs (Renandya
and Richards, 2002).
A Business English Course:
¨ to develop basic
communication skills for use in business contexts.
¨ to learn how to
participate in casual conversation with other employees in a workplace
¨ to learn how to write
effective business letters
A Course for Hotel Employees:
¨ to develop the
communication skills needed to answer telephone calls in a hotel
¨ to deal with guest
inquiries and complains
¨ to explain and clarify
charges on a guest’s bill
Aim statements are
generally derived from information gathered during a needs analysis. For
example, the following areas of difficulty were some of those identified for
non-English background students studying in the English-medium universities:
¨ understanding lectures
¨ participating in
seminars
¨ taking notes during
lectures
¨ reading at adequate
speed to be able to complete reading assignments
¨ presenting ideas and
information in an organized way in a written assignment
In developing aim
statements, it is important to describe more than simply the activities that
students will take part in. For example the following are not aims:
¨ Students will learn
about business letter writing in English.
¨ Students will study
listening skills.
¨ Students will practice
composition skills in English.
For these to become
aims they need to focus on the changes that will result in the learners. For
example:
¨ Students will learn how
to write effective business letters for use in the hotel and tourism
industries.
¨ Students will learn how
to listen effectively in conversational interactions and how to develop better
listening strategies.
¨ Students will learn how
to communicate information and ideas creatively and effectively through
writing.
OBJECTIVES
In order to give a more
precise focus to program goals, aims are often accompanied by statements of
more specific purposes. These statements are known as objectives or also referred to as instructional objectives or
teaching objectives.
An objective refers to
a statement of specific changes a program seeks to bring about and results from
an analysis of the aim into its different components.
Objectives generally
have the following characteristics (Renandya and Richards, 2002):
¨ They describe what the
aims seek to achieve in terms of smaller units of learning
¨ They provide a basis
for the organization of teaching activities
¨ They describe learning
in terms of observable behaviour or performance
The advantages of
describing the aims of a course in terms of objectives are:
¨ They facilitate
planning: once objectives have been agreed on, course planning, materials
preparation, textbook selection and related processes can begin.
¨ They provide measurable
outcomes and thus provide accountability: given a set of objectives, the
success or failure of a program to teach the objectives can be measured.
¨ They are prescriptive:
they describe how planning should proceed and do away with subjective
interpretations and personal opinions.
For example in relation
to the activity of “understanding lectures” referred to above, aims and
objectives such as the following can be described:
Statements of
objectives have the following characteristics (Renandya and Richards, 2002):
- Objectives
describe a learning outcome
In
writing objectives, expressions like will
study, will learn about, will prepare students for are avoided since they
do not describe the result of learning but rather what students will do during
a course. Objectives can generally be described with phrases like will have, will learn how to, will be able
to.
- Objectives
should be consistent with the curriculum aim
Only
objectives that clearly serve to realize an aim should be included. For
example, the objective below is unrelated to the curriculum aim
Since
the aim relates to writing business letters, an objective in the domain of
telephone skills is not consistent with this aim. Either the aim statement
should be revised to allow for this objective or the objective should not be
included.
- Objectives
should be precise
Objectives
which are vague and ambiguous are not useful. This is seen in the following
objective for a conversation course.
Students
will know how to use useful conversation expressions.
A
more precise objective would be:
Students will use conversation expressions
for greeting people, opening and closing conversations.
- Objectives
should be feasible
Objectives
should describe outcomes that are attainable in the time available during a
course. The following objective is probably not attainable in a 60 hour English
course:
Students
will be able to follow conversations spoken by native speakers.
The
following is a more feasible objective:
Students will be able to get the gist of
short conversations in simple English on topics related to daily life and
leisure.
The separate purpose of a curriculum and a syllabus
The course designers’
full responsibility is that of setting not only broad, general goals but also
specifying objectives which are made accessible to all those involved with the
program.
- A curriculum contains a broad
description of general goals by indicating an overall educational-cultural
philosophy which applies across subjects together with a theoretical
orientation to language and language learning with respect to the subject
matter at hand. A curriculum is often reflective of national and political
trends as well.
Diagram 1 The relationship of a
curriculum to the syllabuses which draw from it
- A syllabus is more detailed and
operational statement of teaching and learning elements which translates
the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of planned steps leading
towards more narrowly defined objectives at each level.
An
important reason for differentiating between the two is to stress that a single
curriculum can be the basis for developing a variety of specific syllabuses
which are concerned with locally defined audiences, particular needs, and
intermediate objectives.
(Dubin and Olshtain 1986)
The components of a curriculum
Since the curriculum is
concerned with a general rationale for formulating policy decisions, it
combines educational-cultural goals with language goals. For example, an
overall educational approach could focus on one of the following major goals:
- a behavioristic orientation considers the human species to be a
passive organism, reacting to external, environmental stimuli;
- a rational-cognitive orientation considers the human species to
be the source and initiator of all acts;
- a humanistic orientation is concerned with each individual’s
growth and development, while emphasizing affective factors as well.
¨ The behavioristic
view is an educational-psychological philosophy which is compatible
with a structuralist view of language and a stimulus response view about human
language learning.
Diagram 2
The components of an audiolingual curriculum
¨ The rational-cognitive
orientation became strongly reflected in the views of human language
proposed by transformational-generative linguistics in the 1960s and was
associated with the cognitive-code approach to language learning.
Contemporary approaches
which link a rational-cognitive view with a communicative orientation towards
language use:
a.
Silent Way approach. Developed by Gattegno
(1972) have distinct affinities with a rational-cognitive orientation in the
way in which they both emphasize the learning of language forms
b.
Natural Approach. Developed by Krashen
and Terrel (1983). This approach has much in common with other contemporary
views which emphasize the importance of listening and comprehension at the
onset of learning – among them Silent way.
¨ The humanistic orientation has been closely
associated with the communicative view of language
Types of Syllabus
(Reilley)
Although
six different types of language teaching syllabi are treated here as though
each occurred “purely,” in practice, these types rarely occur independently of
each other. Almost all actual language-teaching syllabi are combination of two
or more of the types. The characteristics, differences, strengths, and
weaknesses of individual syllabi are defined as follows:
1. Structural (formal) Syllabus
v The content of language
teaching is a collection of the forms and structures, usually grammatical, of
the language being taught.
v Examples include nouns,
verbs, adjectives, statements, questions, subordinate clauses, and so on.
2. A notional/ functional syllabus
v The content of the
language teaching is a collection of the functions that are performed when language is used, or of the
notions that a language is used to express
v Examples of the
functions includes: informing, agreeing, apologizing, requesting; examples of
notions includes age, size, color, comparison, time, and so on.
3. Situational syllabus
v The content of the
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 meeting.
v The language occurring
in the situation involves a number of functions, combined into plausible
segment of discourse.
v The primary purpose of
a situational language-teaching syllabus is to teach the language that occurs
in the situations.
v Examples of the
situations include: seeing the dentist, complaining to the landlord, buying a
book at the bookstore, meeting a new student, and so on.
4. A skill-based syllabus
v The content of the language
teaching is a collection of specific abilities that may play a part using
language.
v Skills are things that
people must be able to do to be competent in a language, relatively
independently of the situation or setting in which the language use can occur.
While the situational syllabi group functions together into specific settings
of the language use, skill-based syllabi group linguistic competencies
(pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse) together into generalized
types of behavior, such as listening to spoken language for the main idea,
writing well-formed paragraphs, giving effective oral presentations, and so on.
v The primary purpose of
the skill-based instructions is to learn the specific language skill.
v A possible secondary
purpose is to develop more general competence in the language, learning only
incidentally any information that may be available while applying the language
skills.
5. A task-based syllabus
v The content of the
teaching is a series of complex and purposeful tasks that the student wants or
need to perform with the language they are learning.
v The tasks are defined
as activities with a purpose other than language learning, but, as in the
content-based syllabus, the performance of the tasks is approached in a way
intended to develop second language ability.
v Tasks integrate
language (and other) skills in specific settings of the language.
v Task-based teaching
differs from situation-based teaching in that while situational teaching has
the goal of teaching the specific language content that occurs in the situation
(pre-defined products), task-based teaching has the goal of teaching students
to draw on resources to complete some piece of work (a process). The students
draw on a variety of language forms, functions, and skills often in an
individual and unpredictable way, in completing the tasks.
v Tasks can be used for
language learning are, generally, tasks that the learners actually have to
perform in any case. Examples include: Applying for a job, talking with a
social worker, getting housing information over the telephone, and so on.
6. A content-based syllabus
v The primary purpose of
the instruction is to teach some content or information using the language that
the students are also learning.
v The students are
simultaneously language students and students of whatever content is being
taught.
v The subject matter is
primary, and the language learning occurs incidentally to the content learning.
The content teaching is not organized around the language teaching, but
vice-versa.
v Content-based language
teaching is concerned with information, while task-based language teaching is
concerned with communicative and cognitive processes.
v An example of
content-based language teaching is a science class taught in the language the
students need or want to learn, possibly with linguistic adjustment to make the
science more comprehensible.
COURSE PLANNING AND SYLLABUS DESIGN
Dimensions of course
development (Richards 2001):
- developing a course rationale
- describing entry and exit levels
- choosing course content
- sequencing course content
- planning the course content
(syllabus and instructional blocks)
A. The course rationale
A starting point in
course development is a description of the course
rationale. This is a brief written description of the reasons for the
course and the nature of it. The course rationale seeks to answer the following
questions:
¨ Who is this course for?
¨ What is the course
about?
¨ What kind of teaching
and learning will take place in the course?
The course rationale
answers these questions by describing the beliefs, values and goals that
underlie the course. It would be normally be a two- or three- paragraph
statement that has been developed by those planning and teaching a course and
that serves to provide the justification for the type of teaching and learning
that will take place in the course.
Developing a rationale
also helps provide focus and direction to some of the deliberations involved in
course planning. The rationale thus serves the purposes of:
¨ guiding the planning of
the various components of the course
¨ emphasizing the kinds
of teaching and learning the course should exemplify
¨ providing a check on
the consistency of the various course components in terms of the course values
and goals
(Posner
and Rudnitsky 1986)
B. Describing entry and exit levels
In order to plan a
language course, it is necessary to know the level at which the program will
start and the level learners may be expected to reach at the end of the course.
Language programs and commercial materials typically distinguish between
elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels, but these categories are too
broad for the kind of detailed planning that program and materials development
involves. For these purposes, more detailed descriptions are needed of students’
proficiency levels before they enter a program and targeted proficiency levels
at the end of it.
Information may be
available on students’ entry level from their results on international
proficiency tests such as TOEFL or IELTS. Or specially designed tests may be
needed to determine the level of the students’ language skills.
C. Choosing course content
The question of course
content is probably the most basic issue in course design. Given that a course
has to be developed to address a specific set of needs to cover a given set of
objectives, what will the content of the course look like? Decisions
The link between goals and objectives
The connection between
general goals at the curriculum level and specific objectives at the syllabus level is evident in the
effect which goals have on the three concerns of a syllabus:
- the dimension of language content
- processes or means
- product or outcomes
In general, curriculum
goals tend to place emphasis on one or another of these dimensions.
Key questions about language
content (based on a particular theory of
language that has been adopted as the foundation upon which to write a
curriculum):
- What elements, items, units, or
themes of language content should be selected for inclusion in the
syllabus?
- In what order or sequence should
the elements be presented in the syllabus?
- What are the criteria for deciding
on the order of elements in the syllabus?
Questions about Process
dimension:
- How should language be presented to
facilitate the acquisition process?
- What should be the roles of
teachers and learners in the learning process?
- How should the materials contribute
to the process of language learning in the classroom?
Product/outcome
questions:
- What knowledge is the learner expected to
attain by the end of the course? What understandings based on analyses of
structures and lexis will learners have as an outcome of the course?
- What specific language skills do learners
need in their immediate future, or in their professional lives? How will
these skills be presented in the syllabus?
- What techniques of evaluation or
examination in the target language will be used to assess course outcomes?
Diagram 3
How goals become instructional objectives
The BASIC EDUCATION
CURRICULUM
Curriculum policies are
usually set forth by the Department of Education through various orders,
circulars, memoranda and bulletins. They are aligned with national priorities
and contribute to the achievement of development goals. However, several laws
passed by the national legislature specifically relate to the school
curriculum.
The Basic Education
Curriculum (BEC) aims to produce more functionally literate students by
empowering them with life skills and promote more ideal teachers that will
perform collaborative teaching and transcending knowledge in a
non-authoritative way of instructing. It has reduced the number of subjects
from an average of eight to five, focusing on Filipino, English, Science and
Math, which is seen to prepare students for global competitiveness. A fifth
subject, Makabayan, also called as the "laboratory of life,"
instructs complete learning to students. Makabayan intends to develop personal
and national identity through adequate knowledge of Philippine history and its
politico-economic system, local cultures, crafts, arts, music and games. It
covers a wide range of values system that stresses the development of social
awareness, understanding and commitment to the common good.
The subjects in the new
curriculum respond to the individual needs of the students, and are
contextualized in their present conditions. Reciprocal interaction between
student-teacher, among students, students-instructional materials,
students-multi-media sources, students-teachers of different disciplines is
also reinforced. The approach to the subjects is “integrated,”. Thus, Filipino
and English would, in addition to reading, writing and grammar, include
literature and current affairs. The school principal is authorized to make
adjustments, but not modification, to the content of the subjects.
(Guzman and Sevilleno
2003)
Development of the basic education curriculum (SEAMEO INNOTECH 2002)
¨
is the responsibility
of the Central Office Bureau of Elementary and Secondary Education, Curriculum
Development Divisions. This bureau defines the learning competencies for the
different subject areas; conceptualizes the structure of the curriculum; and
formulates national curricular policies. These functions are exercised in
consultation with other agencies and sectors of society (e.g. industry, social
and civic groups, teacher-training institutions, professional organizations,
school administrators, parents, students, etc.).
¨ the
subject offerings, credit points and time allotments for the different subject
areas are also determined at the national level. In this sense, a national
curriculum exists in the Philippines. However, while curriculum implementation guidelines
are issued at the national level, the actual implementation is left to
school-teachers. They determine the resources to be used; teaching and
assessment strategies and other processes. Furthermore, schools have the option
to modify the national curriculum (e.g. content, sequence and teaching
strategies) in order to ensure that the curriculum responds to local concerns.
The approach to
curriculum design in the country is based on content topic and competency. The Department of Education
prescribes competencies for the subject areas in all the grade/year levels. The
Bureau of Elementary and Secondary Education develops, publishes and
disseminates these learning competencies to the field.
Most of the
subject/learning areas have a list of learning competencies expected to be
mastered by the children at the end of each grade/year level and also at the
end of elementary/secondary schooling. Some subject/learning areas have a
combination of both (i.e. learning competencies under each content/topic).
The curriculum is
designed to be interpreted by teachers and implemented with variations. Schools
are encouraged to innovate and enrich or adapt, as along as they have met the
basic requirements of the curriculum.
The
curriculum plan (learning competencies) does not present teaching methods and
learning activities that teachers must follow in implementing the curriculum.
The guiding philosophy is that the creativity of teachers is stimulated by the
option to plan and use the appropriate teaching/learning activities
independently. However, teacher’s manuals or guides do incorporate higher-level
content areas and suggestions for teaching and assessing.” (MariƱas and
Ditapat, 2000).
Features of
the 2002 Basic Education Curriculum for Elementary and Secondary Education:
¨ restructuring of the
learning areas, reducing them to five (Filipino, English, science, mathematics
and Makabayan);
¨ stronger integration of
competencies and values within and across learning areas;
¨ greater emphasis on the
learning process and integrative modes of teaching; and
¨ increased time for
tasks to gain mastery of competencies of the basic tool subjects.
¨ The
objectives are expressed in terms of competencies, which are knowledge, skills
and attitudes that the learner is expected to acquire at the end of the
programme.
¨ A
significant feature of the competencies is the inclusion of the use of ICTs, articulated
in terms of skills in accessing, processing, and applying information, and
using educational software in solving mathematical problems and conducting
experiments.
¨ Content is
delivered using a variety of media and resources.
¨ The
teaching-learning process considers the learner an active partner rather than
an object of pedagogy.
¨ The learner
takes on the role of constructor of meaning, while the teacher serves as
facilitator, enabler and manager of learning.
(Department of Education, 2002)
REVIEWING
THE OLD CURRICULUMThe main objectives of Secondary Education Development Program (SEDP) are to strengthen the Ministry of Science, Technology, Education and Culture (MOSTEC), develop the quality and coverage of basic, non-formal and secondary education, create a market-driven Technical Education and Vocational Training (TEVT) program and fortify the Science and Technology (S & T) capacity at the tertiary level. SEDP will also direct the Government's poverty alleviation strategy in the education sector.
The SEDP contains the New Secondary Education Curriculum (NSEC) implemented in 1989, which changed the 1973 Revised Education Program (RSEP). The program was applied in response to the following needs: continuation of the Program for Decentralized Education (PRODED) giving emphasis on science and technology, mathematics, reading, and writing; improve the value of high school graduates; and develop access to quality secondary education.
BEC vs SEDP
SEDP is said to be overcrowded, putting together too many competencies and topics. This results to the loss of mastery of basic skills, narrow opportunity to process and contextualize major concepts and weak interconnections of competencies.
On the other hand, BEC
had encountered various criticisms.
Tessie Aquino Oreta,
the main author of Republic Act No. 9155 or the Governance of Basic Education
Act, said the "outcome of learning" among students in public schools
nationwide will be sacrificed and eventually suffer because a number of teachers
in the country are not prepared to teach the new curriculum.
The research agency, IBON Foundation,
also criticized the design of the BEC, claiming it caters to the needs of
multinational corporations for highly skilled and technically proficient
workers at the expense of nationalism.
Antonio Tinio, national coordinator of
the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), said the new curriculum will have a
strategically adverse impact on the promotion of a scientific and nationalist
education program which are critical components in the holistic development and
progress of a nation. He said the BEC is a scheme crafted to produce lowly paid
labor force that will support the niche marketing schemes of the government and
corporations in the era of globalization. He added that the DepEd rushed the
implementation of the program to catch up with the full implementation of World
Trade Organization agreements in 2004. According to ACT, BEC will be producing
cheap skilled laborers for the world market instead of Filipinos with a strong
sense of history, culture, arts and life skills.
In spite of the
negative impressions, the restructured curriculum allows teachers to address
important issues promoting social awareness to the students. It develops wider
views of each subject matter while reducing redundancy of content. It also
helps to keep pace with the changes in the global context of our educational
system and to attain functional literacy. It aims to provide more attention on
the means of learning and at the same time promote values development to all
the students. It features greater importance on helping every learner
particularly in Grades 1-3 to become successful reader. Mathematics on the
other hand is the focus in the secondary level. It emphasizes interactive
teaching approaches and values formation in all subject areas.
(Guzman and Sevilleno 2003)