Planning Goals and Learning Outcomes

In making a curriculum we have to determine the goals and outcomes of a program to

1.                              Motivate the students / learners

2.                              Improve the effectiveness and efficiercy of teaching and learning

3.                              Make the program / curriculum effective and efficient

In deciding goals we have to consider the nature of arms : that is

1.                              Value

2.                              knowledge

3.                              shill

Quesstions arise in planning curriculum goals are :

1.                              Is there any value in teaching students a foreign lauguage?

2.                              Should only practical life skills be applied in the teaching?

3.                              Should only the teacher participale in planning goals?

4.                              Should the learners study the litevature and culture of the foreign language or just learn to speak and use the language as a tool ?

5.                              Is the learning foreign language connected to the social injustices ?

6.                              Should the teachers just prepare the students to pass a language exam or together with students seek ways of find good methods of assessment ?

7.                              Should the teacher give role to the natine speaker in the curriculum?

Eisner (1992 – p.302) Educational practice is concerned with the achievement and value. Also before designing goals, consider five curriculum ideologies

Ideology stresses / emphasires that curriculum planners consider the understanding both of present and long term needs of learnens and society.

1.      Academic Rationalism

Clark (1987.p.5) Academic rationalism is sometimes used to justily the inclusion of certaim foreign language in school curricula, where they are taught not only just as tools for communication but also as an aspect of social studies.  

2.      Learness-centeredness

Reconceptualists emphasize the role of experience in learning .

 Contructivists emphasize that learning involves active construction and testing of one’s own representation of the world and accommodation of it to one’s  personal conceptual framework.

Social reconstructionism

This curriculum perspective emphasizes the roles schools and learners can and should play in addressing social injustices and inequality.

Curriculum development is not seen as a neutral process. School likewise do not present equal opportunities for all (freire 1972; Apple 1986) but reflect the general  in equalities in society.

School must engage teachers and personal problem and seek ways to address them.

This process is known   ”empowerment” Teachers must empower their students so that they can recognize unjust system of  class, race, or gender, and challenge them.

One of the best-known pedagogues is Freire (1972). Who argued that teachers and learners are involved in a join process of exploring and constructing knowledge.

Students are not the “object” of knowledge: they must find ways of recognizing and resisting various forms of control.

Cultural pluralism.

This philosophy argues that schools should prepare students to participate in several different cultural and not merely the culture of dominant social and economic group.

 Cultural pluralism seeks to redress racism to raise them self-esteem of minority groups, and to help children appreciate the view point of others cultures and religion.

Stating curriculum outcomes

Aims.

In curriculum discussions, the term goal and aim are used interchangeably to refer to a description of the general purposes of curriculum and objective to refer to more specific and concrete description of purpose. We will use the term aim and objective here.

The purposes of aim statements are:

-                      To provide a clear definition of purposes of program

-                      To provide guidelines for teachers, learners, and materials writes.

-                      To help provide a focus for instruction

-                      To describe important and realizable changes in learning.

The following are example of aim statements from different kinds of language programs.

A business English course.

-                      To develop basic communication skills needed to answer

-                      To learn how to participate in casual conversation with other employees in 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 hotel

-                      To deal with guest inquiries nd complaints

-                      To explain and clarify charges on guest’s bill

Aim statements are generally derived from information gathered during a need analys.

The following areas of difficulty were some of those identified for non English background students studying in English medium universities.

-                      Understanding lectures

-                      Participating in seminars

-                      Taking notes during lecture

-                      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 course aims objectives from this information, each areas of difficulty will have to be examined and researched in order to understand what is involved in understanding lecture, participating in seminars, and so on. What knowledge and skills does each activity imply? Normally aims of a short course can be describe in two or three aim statements:

However, in a course spanning a longer time period, such as the primary school course referred to earlier, a greater number of aim statements will be needed.

For these to become aims, they need to focus on the changes in the letters that will result:

Student s 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

Students will be able to communicate in English at a basic level for purpose of tourism.

Objectives.

Aims are very general statements of the goals of program. They can be interpreted in many different ways.

For example, consider the following aim statements:

Students will learn how to write effective business letters for use in the hotel and tourism industries.

Although this provides a clear description of the focus of a program, it does not describe the kinds of business letters students will learn or clarify what is meant by effective business letters.

These are known as objectives (They are also sometimes referred to as instructional objectives).

An objective refers to a statement of specific changes a program seeks to bring about and result from an analysis of the aim into its different components. Objectives generally have the following characteristics:

-                      They describe what the aim seeks to achieve in term of smaller units of learning

-                      They provide a basis for the organization of teaching activities.

-                      They describe learning in terms of observable behavior 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 an do away with subjective interpretations and personal opinions.

Aims and objectives such as the following can be described (brown 1995)

Aim.

Students will learn how to understand lectures given in English.

Objectives

Aims are very general statements of the goal of a program. They can be interpreted in many different ways.

For example, consider the following aim statements:

Students will learn how to write effective business letters for use in the hotel and tourism industries.

Although this provides a clear description of the focus of a program, it does not describe the kinds of business letters students will learn or clarify what is meant by effective business letters.

Objectives  are more specific to describe the goal of a program . Objectives are statements  to give a more precise f  ocus to the program. Objectives are also  sometimes referred to as instructional objectives or teaching objectives.

An objective refers to 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:

1.                  They describe what  the aim seeks to achieve in terms of smaller units of learning.

2.                  They provide a basis for the organization of teaching activities.

3.                  They describe learning in terms of observable behavior or performance.

The advantages of describing the aims of the course in terms of objectives are :

1.                  They facilitate planning : once objectives have been agreed on, course planning, materials preparation, textbook selection, and related processes can begin.

2.                  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.

3.                  They are prescriptive : They describe how planning should proceed and do away with subjective interpretations and personal opinions.

In relation to the activity of “understanding lectures” referred to above, for example, aims and objectives such as the following can be described (brown 1995) :

Aim

·                     Students will learn how to understand lectures given in English.

Objectives

·                     Student will be able to follow an argument, theme, or thesis of a lecture.

·                     Students will learn how to recognize the following aspects of lecture:

Cause-and-effect relationship

Comparisons and contrasts

Premises used in persuasive arguments

Supporting details used in persuasive arguments

Statements of objectives have the following characteristics :

1.                  Objectives describe a learning outcome.

In writing objectives, expressions like will study, will learn about, will prepare students for are avoided because they do not describe the result of learning but rather what students will do during a course. Objectives can be described with phrases like will have, will learn how to, will be able to.

2.                  Objectives should be consistent with the curriculum aim.

Only objectives that clearly serve to realize an aim should be included.

For example, an objective below is unrelated to the curriculum aim.

Aim : Students will learn how to write effective business letters for use in the hotel and tourism industries.

Objectives : The student can understand and respond to simple question over the telephone.

Because the aim relates to writing business letters, an objective in the domain of telephone skill 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.

3.                  Objective should be precise.

Objective that are vague and ambiguous are not useful. This seen in following objectives for conversation course :

Student will know how to use useful conversation expressions.

A more precise objective would be :

Students will use conversation expression for greeting people, opening and closing conversations.

4.                  Objectives should be feasible :

Objective should describe outcome that are attainable in the time available during a course. The following objective is probably not attainable in a 60-hour English course:

Student 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 conversation in simple English on topics related to daily life leisure.

Frankel (1983, 124) gives example of aims and objectives for a course in foundation reading skills for first-year university students in a Thai university :

Aim  : To read authentic, nonspecialist, nonfiction texts in English with comprehension and at reasonable speed.

Objectives :

1.                  To use linguistic information in the text as clues to meaning, including :

·                     deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items through an understanding of word formation and context clues.

·                     Decoding complex phrases and sentences including premodification, postmodification, complex embedding, and clause relations in compound and complex  sentences.

·                     Recognizing and interpreting formal cohesive devices for linking different parts of a text.

·                     Recognizing and interpreting discourse markers

2.                  To understand the communicative value of a text, including :

·                     Its overall rhetorical purpose (e.g. giving instructions, reporting an event).

·                     Its rhetorical structure, including ways of initiating, developing, and terminating a discourse.

3.                  To read for information, including :

·                     Identifying the topic (theme).

·                     Identifying the main ideas, stated and implied.

·                     Distinguishing between the topic and the main idea.

·                     Reading for detail.

·                     Distinguishing important from unimportant details.

·                     Skimming to obtain the gist or a general impression of the semantic content.

·                     Scanning to locate specifically required information.

4.                  To read interpretatively including :

·                     Extracting information no explicitly stated by making inferences

·                     Distinguishing fact from opinion.

·                     Interpreting the writer’s  intention, attitude, and bias.

·                     Making critical judgments.

The difficulty of drawing up statements of objectives should not be underestimated. In developing language objectives one is doing more than creating a wish list off the top of one’s head.

Sound objectives in language teaching are based on an understanding of nature of the matter being taught (e.g. listening, speaking, reading, writing), an awareness  of learning for basic, intermediate, or advanced-level learners, and ability to be able to describe course aims in terms of logical and well-structured units of organization.

In developing objectives it is necessary to make use of a variety o sources, such as diagnostic information concerning student’s learning difficulties, description of skilled performance in different language domains, information about different language level  as well as characterization of the skill involved in different domains of language use.

Objectives cannot therefore be regarded as fixed. As instruction proceed, some may have to be revised, some dropped because they are unrealistic, and others added to address gaps.

Competency-based program outcomes

An alternative to the use of objectives in program planning is to the describe learning outcomes in terms of competencies, an approach associated with Competency-Based Language Teaching (CLBT). CLBT seeks to make a focus on the outcomes of learning a central planning stage in the development of language programs (Schneck 1978; Grognet and Crandall 1982). Traditionally, in language teaching planners have focused to a large extent on the content of teaching (as reflected in a concern for different types of syllabuses) or on the process of teaching (as reflected in concern for different types of teaching methods). Critics of this approach argue that this concern with content or process focuses on the means of learning rather then its ends. CLBT shifts the focus to the ends of learning rather than means. As a general educational and training approach, CBLT seeks to improve accountability in teaching trough linking instructions to measurable outcomes and performance standards.

The characteristics of CBLT are described by Schneck (1978, vi):

Competency-based education as much in common with such approaches to learning as performance-based instruction, mastery learning and individualized instruction. It is outcome-based and is adaptive to the changing needs of students, teachers and the community.... Competencies differ from other student goals and objectives in that they describe the student’s ability to apply basic and other skills in the situations that are commonly encountered in everyday life. Thus CBE is based on a set of outcomes that are derived from an analysis of tasks typically required of students in life role situations.

THE NATURE OF COMPETENCIES

Competencies refer to observable behaviors that are necessary for the successful completion of real – world activities. These activities may be related to any domain of life, though they have typically been linked to the field of work and to social survival in a new environment. Docking (1994, 11) points out the relationship between competencies and job performance:

A qualification or a job can be described as a collection of units of competency, each of which is composed of a number of elements of competency. A unit of competency might be a task, a role, a function, or a learning module. These will change over time, and will vary from context to context. An element of competency can be defined as any attribute of an individual that contributes to successful performance of a task, job, function, or activity in academic setting and/or a work setting. The includes specific knowledge, thinking, processes, attitudes, and perceptual and physical skills. Nothing is excluded that can be shown to contribute to performance. An element of competency has meaning independent of context and time. It is the building block for competency specifications for education, training, assessment, qualifications, tasks, and jobs.

In the Australian Migrant Education Program, one the world’s largest providers of language training to immigrants, a competency-based approach is used. Learning outcomes are specified in terms of work-related competencies such as the following:

Job-Seeking Skills: sample competencies

·                     Can inquire about an employment opportunity

·                     Can read and interpret advertisement for employment

·                     Can prepare a job-application letter

Workplace language: sample competencies

·                     Can follow and give oral instructions relevant to the workplace

·                     Can read diagrammatic and graphic workplace texts

·                     Can write formal letters relevant to a workplace context

In the Australian program competencies are described in terms of:

·                     Elements that’s break down the competency into smaller components and refer to the essential linguistic features involved.

·                     Performance criteria that specify the minimal performance required to achieve a competency.

·                     Range of variables that sets limits for the performance of the competency.

·                     Sample texts and assessment tasks the provide examples of texts and assessment tasks that relate to the competency.

CRITICISMS OF THE USE COMPETENCIES

CLBT is based on a social and economic efficiency model of curriculum design that seeks to enable learners to participate effectively in society. Consequently, as Tollefson and others have pointed out, the competencies selected as a basis for instruction typically represent value judgment about what such participation involves. Tollefson gives examples of value-based competency descriptions developed as part of a refugee resettlement training program in the Philippines:

·                     To develop the belief “that self-sufficiency is highly regarded in American society, that upward mobility is possible by hard work and perseverance ...and the men and the woman have equal access to employment opportunities”

·                     To discourage attending school while receiving welfare.

·                     To develop the attitude that the purchasing and use of secondhand items is appropriate.

·                     To identify common entry-level jobs that can be held by those with limited English ability.

·                     To respond appropriately to supervisors’ comments about quality of work on the job, including mistake, working too slowly, and incomplete work.

(Tollefson 1986, 655-656)

Tollefson (1986, 656-657) points out that such competencies encourage refugees “to consider themselves fortunate to find minimum-wage employment, regardless of their previous education. Moreover, the competencies attempt to inculcate attitudes and values that will make refugees passive citizens who comply rather than complain, accept rather than resist, and apologise rather than disagree.”

Criticisms such as these essentially argue for a different curriculum ideology that CBLT, such as a learned-centered or social-reconstructionist model. CBLT is not necessarily linked to the ideology Tollefson exposes. A with the use of objectives, appropriately described and chosen competency descriptions can provide a useful framework for course planning and delivery, though they may be more appropriate for certain types of courses that others. They seem particularly suited to programs that seek to teach learners the skills needed to perform specific tasks and operations, as found in many kinds of ESP programs.

THE STANDARDS MOVEMENT

The most recent realization of a competency perspective in the United States is seen in the “standards” movement, which as dominated educational discussions since the 1990s. As Glaser and Linn note:

In the recounting of our nation’s drive towards educational reform, the last decade of this century will undoubtedly be recognized as the time when a concerted press for national educational standards emerged. The press for standards was evidenced by the efforts of federal and state legislators, presidential and gubernatorial candidates, teacher and subject-matter specialists, councils, governmental agencies, and private foundations. (Glaser and Linn 1993, xiii)

Standards are descriptions of the targets students should be able to reach in different domains of curriculum content, and throughout the 1990s there was a drive to specify standards for subject matter across the curriculum. These standards or benchmarks are stated in the form of competencies. In Australia, McKay (1999, 52) reports:

Literacy benchmarks at Years 3, 5 and 7 are currently under development centrally in consultation with States/Territories, literacy experts and professional associations. The benchmarks are to be short statements and to be “expressed in plain, accessible English, clearly understandable by a community audience”.... They are to be accompanied by professionals to assess and report student progress against the benchmarks.”

Second and foreign language teaching in the United States has also embraced the standards movement. “it quickly became apparent to ESL educators in the United States at that time (1991) that the students we serve were not being included in the standards-setting movement that was sweeping the country”

Non language  outcomes and process objectives

A language curriculum typically includes other kinds of outcomes apart from language-related objectives of the kind described above. If the curriculum seeks to reflect values related to learner centeredness, social reconstructionism or cultural pluralism, outcomes related to these values will also need to be included. Jackson reports that a group of teachers of adults immigrants in Australia identified eight broad categories of non language outcomes in their teaching learning ( Jackson 1993, 2):

·                     Social, psychological, and emotional support in the new living environment

·                     Confidence

·                     Cultural understanding

·                     Knowledge of the Australian community context

·                     Learning about learning

·                     Clarification of goals

·                     Access and entry into employment, further study, and community life

Objectives in these domains relate to the personal, social, cultural and political needs and rights learners.

Jackson gives the following examples of objectives in on – arrival programs for immigrants that relate to understanding the context of local service Institution (1993, 45 ) :

·                     To assist students to identify major local providers of services for :

1.                  The unemployed

2.                  Employment

3.                  Education and training

·                     To assist students to identify the main functions of above services in context of educational provision as a first step in the process of ongoing adult education

·                     To assist students to identify major services. Including private / public

·                     To provide task – oriented activities, including community visits, to familiarize students with above services

1.                  Migrants

2.                  Children

3.                  Women

4.                  Sport and recreation

·                     To assist students to ascertain relevance of above services for themselves in terms of

1.                  Eligibility

2.                  Accessibility

Another category of outcomes is sometimes referred to as process objectives. Bruner  (1996) and Stenhouse (1975) associated their ideas as general education.

Bruner argued that the curriculum should focus less on the outcomes of learning and more on the knowledge and skills learners need to develop.

Stenhouse argued that the curriculum should focus  on activities that engage learners in such learners in such processes as investigation, decision making, reflection, discussion, interpretation, making choices.

Thus, Hanley, Whitla, Moss and Walter identified the aims of a course titked “ Man : A Course of Study” as”:

·                     To initiate and develop in youngster a process of question posing

·                     To teach a research methodology where children can look for information

·                     To help youngster develop  the ability to use a variety of firsthand sources of evidence

·                     To conduct classroom discussions in which youngster learn to listen to others

·                     To legitimize the search, that is, to give sanction and support to open – ended discussions

·                     To encourage children to reflect on their own experiences

·                     To create a new role for the teacher

Objectives in the category of learning how to learn refer to learning strategies. This learning involves :

·                     Developing an integrated set of procedures and operations that can be applied to different learning

·                     Selecting strategies appropriate to different tasks

·                     Monitoring strategies for their effectiveness

Jackson ( 1993, 41 ) gives examples of objectives designed to help different types of learning strategies.  The following relate to developing  strategies :

·                     To explicity introduce students to the concept of time allocation

·                     To assist students to identify realistic times and time spans for home study

·                     To assist students to prioritize study time allocation in relation

·                     To assist students to create a daily / weekly timetable of study

Thinking Skills

At the end of the course, pupils should be able to :

·                     Explore an idea, situation or suggested solusion for a specific purpose

·                     Think creatively to generate new ideas

·                     Analyse and / or an idea, a situation or a suggested solution for specific purpose

Learning how to learn

·                     Apply a repertoire of library, information, and study skills

·                     Take some responsibility for their own learning

·                     Use some of the basic skills relating to information technology

Language and Culture

At the end of the course, pupils should be able to :

·                     Appreciate that there are varieties of English reflecting different cultures and use this knowledge appropriately and sensitively in communication

·                     Adopt a critical, but not negative, attitude toward ideas, thought, and values reflected in spoken and written texts of local and foreign origin.

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language in its National Standard for Foreign Language Learning (1996) (part of the standards movement referred to earlier) identifies a number of objectives for language programs that  relate to Philosophy of cultural pluralism. For Example :

·                     Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the culture studied and their own.

·                     Students acquire information and recognize  the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures.

The planning of learning outcomes for a language course is closely related to the course planning process.

  

Source : Jack C. Richards, Curriculum Development in Language Teaching, resume chapter 5.