"Introducing Change" Chapter 12

INTRODUCTION Curriculum design frequently involves change, mainly when a new course replaces an existing one. There are many ways of introducing a change in a curriculum and some steps ready to be used for such purpose. Thus, a successful way of doing this is to take into consideration the users of the course and develop different techniques through the way. “The aim of this part of the curriculum design process is to get teachers and learners to accept a new course or changes to an existing course”. Language curriculum design / I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister. This particular process would be developed in the next chapter by way of a reaction essay. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK There are many kinds of change that can occur in an educational system and some changes that can provide a straight result on our classrooms like: introducing a new course, changing approaches, techniques, methodologies and tests. Yet, it does not mean that changes would be successful. Another important aspect, is that, changes are not always needed, so it would be very important to consider when, how and why to make as adjust on a curriculum. In case of any change, then it would be important to make a realistic one, something that might not be a probability, but a possible modification. Finally, the strategies are the last step for us to make some changes on any curriculum design project. No matter what the changes are, the most important would be the significant changes about to make and the results. CONCLUSION In conclusion, defining the end results is a good way of checking if change is really needed or wanted. This involves getting those implicated to describe what the ideal outcome will be. Teachers who are not well-informed will not take responsibility for the innovation. Good communication encourages greater responsibility. Introducing the change positively and cleverly would be a gift that students could appreciate during the process.

"Adopting and Adapting an Existing Course Book" Chapter 11

INTRODUCTION The curriculum design is more than just an invention, it is a creation based on existing courses and books. Teaching must be matched to the learners’ current knowledge; and course books are supposed to be an effective support to continue building knowledge. “After working through this chapter you should be able to choose and adapt a course book in a systematic way, and justify your decisions...” Language curriculum design / I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister. The process must be carefully studied and evaluated with some interesting points which would be developed in the next chapter by way of a reaction essay. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The main topic regarding this chapter is a book. It is all about dividing the parts of the book and planning course material. I believe that, the author tries to convince us, about the idea of having to follow one book. On the other hand, I disagree in one thing; I know it is good to have a very well book in order to make classes easier, but at the same time it makes teacher and students more dependant of it and whenever they do not have it, they feel lost. It is undeniably necessary; to have a book course only if it would be used as a guidance and not as the supplant teacher. Moreover, I would love the idea of having a very organized and advanced book for teachers as well, so that we make the classes more interesting, significant and worth it for the students. Finally, I consider a source and a course book, both, should be available for teachers and students at any time. As well as teachers should be ready to teach the students with internet and multimedia stuff as a supporting-extra matter. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the topic of a course book in a curriculum design should not be definitely taken lightly. Instead, it should bring to our minds the idea of considering goals, content and sequencing, as well as the format and presentation and the monitoring and evaluation. For many teachers the evaluation of course books are more important than designing courses because their teaching situation decides that they should work from a course book. For me, it should be clear that evaluating a course book is a small but important exercise in curriculum design. No matter if we like to following an standardized book, we need to comprehend it is an important part of a curriculum design and so should be for us when it comes to teaching.

Negotiated Syllabuses Chapter 10

INTRODUCTION The curriculum design is a very complicated process that involves many aspects and requires specific attention on each detail present on it. The main objective of a curriculum design is to work as a guide full of objectives that were created based on the necessities of a specific population. Yet, it should be also consulted with our target population, the students to make decisions at some point on any part of a curriculum design: “After working through this chapter you should be able to give learners a say in the design and running of a course..” Language curriculum design / I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister. The process must be carefully studied and evaluated with some interesting points which would be developed in the next chapter by way of a reaction essay. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The main topic regarding this chapter is the negotiation. It is said that a good dealer undoubtedly earns easy money than a person than only wants to make his will. Thus, I personally believe that we have to see this business as a good future deal in which all parties would be beneficiated. It is obvious that, not all populations are the same, for example we have to consider the background of the students, previous environments and situations. There are some requirements like: the negotiation procedure, participation, learning the evaluation and the materials that any curricular designer must consider to have a successful negotiation. Finally, there are some advantages and disadvantages when a negotiation is needed. Teachers may feel that using a negotiated syllabus removes too much of their power and status. Moreover, a totally negotiated syllabus requires significant teacher skills and time in accessing and producing resources. However, something really positive is that, when students negotiate and participate on the evaluation stuff, they feel responsible for themselves and their academic results. This understanding, make them better learners. CONCLUSION In conclusion, looking how learners can be involved on the process of a curriculum design is definitely a challenge not only for the teacher, but also, for the students. It is important to make deeply study of different backgrounds and situations present on the population because it would not have any sense if the negotiation does not have any educational purpose. Even though creating a curriculum might not be a very easy task, in one thing I am absolutely sure; it must be a very satisfactory matter at the end.

“Approaches to Curriculum Design” Chapter 9

INTRODUCTION The design of a entirely new course may start from nothing except the knowledge of the curriculum designer. “After working through this chapter you should be able to decide on a starting point for curriculum design, and a way of covering the steps.” Language curriculum design / I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister. The main objective of a curriculum design is to work as a guide full of objectives that were created based on the necessities of an specific population. The process must include the start point and what kind of path to follow through the process. By following some ideas the author mentions on the book, my personal opinion would be developed in the next chapter by way of a reaction essay. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The main purpose of this approach to a curriculum design is to describe those parts and the steps involved so every piece of curriculum design no matter how small is, should be considered. It is obvious that, any designer of a curriculum won´t be able to predict the behavior of a population, nevertheless by having an example of any other similar place, would be able to consider the same aspects in order to have a better approach. As well teachers cannot anticipate whom his /her student´s would be or even how they would act. In view of that, it is important to take into consideration the environment, needs, principles, content, format and the evaluation; those are the key facts in order to have a very well prepared curriculum design. I consider, it would be acceptable to look for someone else´s curriculum design, to have an idea but, bearing in mind that student´s are different and even more populations. Thus, choosing to copycat a design would be definitely a bad idea. Finally, there are many models or different approaches like the necessity model or the opportunistic one. No matter what model is chose, the most important is that any model must include supporting material for teachers and students. CONCLUSION As a conclusion, whatever approach is chosen, the benefit of following an organized approach, involving all the parts of a model, is that, parts of the process won´t be missed out. Poor curriculum design misses important parts and does not deal with parts in an honorable way. It is important to make sure that the various parts of the curriculum design processes are given proper consideration at some point in the curriculum design activity.

“Evaluation” Chapter 8

INTRODUCTION The evaluation is an indispensable part of a well made curriculum design. It guarantees that all found limitations in a curriculum design would be repaired. “The aim of this part of the curriculum design process is to decide how to check if the course is successful and where it needs to be improved.” Language curriculum design / I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister. The purpose of the evaluation is focused on how much information gathered through a period was and besides how well planed the process has been done. The process of evaluation should be taken seriously and with a very detailed care, as it is one of the most important parts of the education. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Significant aspects to consider in this chapter are: audience, types of evaluation and quality. I consider the evaluation must be based on some standard teaching techniques, meaning that the satisfaction of the students would be more than the minimum expected. Hence, we should start with the audience, to whom the curriculum would be addressed to, taking into consideration of course the environment and the population of the place; after that, there are some steps like: finding accurateness information and providing proper follow up, with the intention that the whole objectives would be well organized. I agree with the author in one thing, there is no best assessment, but it does not mean that, any teacher could evaluate whatever s/he wants just because, it must be a curriculum designed with specific objectives and instructions. By any reason, the students can have the feeling unfairness or threatened. In view of that, teachers ought to be basing on facts and fundaments not to make a subjective evaluation, but an objective one. Finally, the amount of quality in a curriculum design should not be taken lightly, but seriously and in a professional way in order to provide accurate and useful information. CONCLUSION As a conclusion, the main objective of an evaluation is the purpose and what kind of results we really need to discover while using different types of assessment. It does not really matter what type of evaluation we will be using, or what the purpose is, an evaluation must involves first, ethical methods in order to apply a very well support to each student.

“Monitoring & Assessment” Chapter 7

INTRODUCTION Assessing students might not be a very easy job, but it would be undeniably a great tool for teachers, so that the monitoring of tasks assigned during a scholar period would be appropriately applied. “The aim of this part of the curriculum design process is to decide what to test and how to test it...” Language curriculum design / I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister. The most relevant aspect in this chapter is, the decision teachers must consider, whether it would be apt or not to evaluate a student, and also how it should be done. By following some ideas the author mentions on the book, my personal opinion would be developed in the next chapter by way of a reaction essay. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Significant aspects to consider in this chapter and re-taking them are: environment, needs and principles. The format of a curriculum must include a way of evaluation, even though there are some countries that might not have evaluation method, but Costa Rica, so the person in charge of creating the curriculum must consider not only one method, but also as many as possible. For example: placement, observation, short-term, diagnostic, achievement and proficiency assessment. I agree with the author in one thing, there is no best assessment, they are actually independent one from another and each of them are for different situations. Finally, it does not really matter which evaluation or assessment teachers use, the most important is the reliability, validity and practicality present in those tests. CONCLUSION As a conclusion, monitoring the students by assessing them is one of the oldest methods to evaluate students and it is very useful if we know how and when it should be applicable. There is a necessity in our society for being evaluated. We spend indeed, most of our life being evaluated and evaluating the students. Therefore, we must find the right way to do it by following and monitoring carefully the curriculum in order to provide good results when evaluating.

“Format & Presentation”

INTRODUCTION Deciding the format and the way a curriculum should be presented, determines a very well planned forecast in which, some parts of a curriculum design must be considered. This is for having not only a high-quality instrument of teaching, but also a very detailed and well organized guide for the students. “The aim of this part of the curriculum design process is to choose the teaching and learning techniques and design the lesson plans.” Language curriculum design / I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister. The crucial function of this essay is to reinforce the idea of an ideal curriculum that depends on how well applied, established and organized is the designing of any curriculum for teaching purposes. There are some strategies and ideas the writer mentions on the book and diverse contents which will be carefully taken into account and developed in the next chapter by way of a reaction essay. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Important aspects to consider in this chapter are: environment, needs and principles. I believe the one of the most important validations for any curricular designer on how the lessons are, how the tasks and activities are accommodated is definitely the environment, so it will justify why the curriculum was made the way it was. Something the teachers must do ahead since the very first day of classes is an analysis of how students might behave on class and what their level of English is; that previous evaluation must include their needs, lacks, and wants, so that teachers may have facts in which will be based the presentation we want to give to that specific class. After that, then come the principles that are divided in inputs, outputs, motivation and the four strands which is the usage of the language and its development. The format of a curriculum design is all about length by making use of threads (activities). I am certain that when students spend time in class doing relevant activities which are useful for the comprehension of the lesson, is one of the best investments a teacher can do because a process full of vivid activities are very valuable for the students as the learning process will remain in a long-term. Finally, the many techniques we can apply on classes and activities can be diverse. The most important is to set clear goals and instructions with a real objective. CONCLUSION As a conclusion, variation, creativity, lot of work and mixture are unquestionably key facts when a curriculum design is on process. Teachers may use many methods, techniques and support material applicable on classes but the most important are the settled goals teachers will be working on and the clear expectations we have from the students. Format and presentation should be like designing a house, we want very well structured bases, so that no wind will demolish it.