COMPILATION AND REFLECTION ABOUT DIFFERENT PEDAGOGICAL

APROACHES,METHODS AND TECHNIQUES

CURRICULUM APROACHES
The manners we teach a language can be approached in several different
ways, each of which have different implications for the curriculum design. Three
curriculum approaches are described and compared. Each differs with respect
to when issues related to input, process, and outcomes, are addressed.

1. Forward design:
content

process (methodology)

outcomes (objectives).

You choose the methodology based in the content you are going to
teach.

2. Central design:

3. Backward design:

Process
Outcomes

Outcomes
content

Fist you choose the activity,

and then fit the content and
outcomes in it.

Process

content

First you design which

objectives you want to achieve,
and then, the methodology and
content

Each of this three curriculum approaches differs with respect to when issues
related to input, process, and outcomes, are addressed.
Forward design has been the major tradition in language curriculum
development. Resolving issues of syllabus content and sequencing are
essential starting points with this approach.
Meanwhile, Central design begins with classroom processes and methodology.
Issues of syllabus and learning outcomes are not specified in detail in advance
and are addressed as the curriculum is implemented. This approach was very
popular during the 80s and 90s, period in which lots of innovative methods
appeared.
However, nowadays, The Common European Framework of Reference,
followed by many language teachers around Europe in particular and the rest of
the world in general, is focus on the backward design, which n starts from a

specification of learning outcomes and decisions on methodology and syllabus

are developed from the learning outcomes.
Wiggins and McTighe (2006:15) give an illustration of this process with an
example of a typical forward-design lesson plan:
The teacher chooses a topic for a lesson (e.g. racial prejudice)
The teacher selects a resource (e.g. To Kill a Mocking-bird)
The teacher chooses instructional methods based on the resource and the
topic (e.g. a seminar to discuss the book and cooperative groups to analyze
stereotypical images in films and on television)
The teacher chooses essay questions to assess student understanding of the
book.

Clarks description of the features of progressivism captures the essence of

central design:
It places less emphasis on syllabus specification and more on methodological
principles and procedures.
It is more concerned with learning processes than predetermined objectives.
It emphasizes methodology and the need for principles to guide the teaching
learning process.
It is learner-centered and seeks to provide learning experiences that enable
learners to learn by their own efforts.
It regards learners as active participants in shaping their own learning. 16
RELC Journal 44(1)
It promotes the development of the learner as an individual. It views learning
as a creative problem-solving activity.
It acknowledges the uniqueness of each teaching-learning context.
It emphasizes the role of the teacher in creating his or her own curriculum in
the classroom (Clark, 1987: 49-90).
According to Tyler and Taba, the process of backward design consists of:
Step 1: diagnosis of needs
Step 2: formulation of objectives
Step 3: selection of content

Step 4: organization of content

Step 5: selection of learning experiences
Step 6: organization of learning experiences
Step 7: determination of what to evaluate and of the ways of doing it (Taba,
1962: 12).

TPS TECHNIQUE
Think, peer and share is a technique that can be used for many activities in the
classroom. It is focused on the fact that every student should have time to think
about a proposed issue and should have the opportunity to share his/her ideas
with at least another student which, in turn, increases their sense of involvement
in classroom learning. Therefore, students have time to think about it
individually, and then they work in pairs to solve the problem and share their
ideas with the class.
I think that this technique can be very useful in many stages of the class and
used for several activities with different purposes such as: concept reviews,
discussion questions, partner reading, brainstorming, quiz reviews, topic
development, etc.
Moreover, I believe that TPS helps students develop conceptual understanding
of a topic, develop the ability to choose information and create their own
conclusions, and develop the ability to consider other points of view.

INSTRUCTIONAL SCAFFOLDING

There are many techniques focused on scaffolding which is a learning process

that follows a stronger understanding taking into account the students needs
and achieving a deeper level of knowledge going up through different phases or
levels.
Instructional scaffolding is a learning process designed to promote a deeper
level of learning. Scaffolding is the support given during the learning process
which is tailored to the needs of the student with the intention of helping the
student achieve his/her learning goals (Sawyer, 2006).

According to Sawyer, Instructional Scaffolding is the provision of sufficient

support to promote learning when concepts and skills are being first introduced
to students. These supports may include the following:

resources

a compelling task

templates and guides

guidance on the development of cognitive and social skills

Moreover, in my opinion, techniques based on scaffolding give students greater

independence in the learning process, as well as, it is a helpful method to used
to bridge learning gaps.

In coclusion, it is such as important aspect of education that I think we all, as

teachers, have it in mind when planning the teaching learning process.

NLP (NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING)

This is a Cognitive educational principle. It is connected with the process in
which students obtain the knowledge. In fact, NLP deals specifically with the
various ways in which they do that.
In order to obtain knowledge, students have to process information, and NLP
effectiveness in helping students gain a better understanding of the way they
learn.
As Richard Bandler and John Grinder said; NLP shows us how language and
behaviours are really structured, and that this structure can be 'modeled' or
copied into a reproducible form.
In addition, these techniques are closely connected to the theory of multiple
intelligences due to the fact of taking into account the different ways that
different students learn (visual learning, auditory learning or kinaesthetic
learning). Therefore, some teachers are apliying NLP in the classroom for the
benefit of all kind of learners.
I think that having into account not only the concepts or contents to be learned
but also the process in which these is acquired, is essential when we are aware
of the different types of learners we have in our classroom.

THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

"Multiple intelligences is a psychological theory about the mind. It's a critique of

the notion that there's a single intelligence which we're born with, which can't be
changed, and which psychologists can measure. It's based on a lot of scientific
research in fields ranging from psychology to anthropology to biology. It's not
based upon based on test correlations, which most other intelligence theories
are based on. The claim is that there are at least eight different human
intelligences. Most intelligence tests look at language or logic or both - those
are just two of the intelligences. The other six are musical, spatial,
bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. I make two
claims. The first claim is that all human beings have all of these intelligences.
It's part of our species definition. The second claim is that, both because of our
genetics and our environment, no two people have exactly the same profile of
intelligences, not even identical twins, because their experiences are different."
-Howard Gardner

As we can see, the theory of multiple intelligences proposes a big

transformation in the way our schools are run. Due to the fact that. Traditionally
school education is mostly focus on linguistic and mathematical intelligences.
Dr. Gardner suggests that teachers should be trained to present their lessons in

a wide variety of ways using music, cooperative learning, art activities, role play,
multimedia, field trips, inner reflection, and much more.
I completely agree with this point of view, because when you are a teacher, you
easily perceive that not all your students learn through the same way.
Therefore, on the one hand, you should have into account the different
intelligences there are in your class and, on the other hand, you have to have a
clear idea about the contents and the concepts you want the students achieve
in order to provide them with the biggest range of different activities focused in
these multiples intelligences to cover all their needs.

PPP METHODOLOGY

The PPP is a method that consists of 3 stages:

The first stage is the presentation of an aspect of language in a context that
students are familiar with.
The second stage is practice, where students will be given an activity that gives
them plenty of opportunities to practice the new aspect of language and
become familiar with it whilst receiving limited and appropriate assistance from
the teacher.
The final stage is production where the students will use the language in
context, in an activity set up by the teacher who will be giving minimal
assistance.
This is a traditional method that has received lots of criticisms. However, I think
that sometimes this kind of methods allows teachers to control the direction of
the learning process, which is necessary when you must follow a curriculum.

ESA METHODOLOGY

ESA: Engage, Study, and Activate.

This is an alternative method of the PPP proposed by Jeremy Harmer in How to
Teach English (Longman Publishing 1998) ESA: Engage, Study, and Activate.
However, the stages of ESA are roughly equivalent to PPP, though ESA is

slightly different in that it is designed to allow movement back and forth between
the stages. Thus, each stage is similar to the PPP stages in the same order.
This method tries to focus the learning process on the motivation and the
engagement of the learners.
I believe that we, as teachers, must be aware of the different situations and
context that our students come from. That means, sometimes it is very difficult
that certain students have the intrinsic motivation they need for a natural and
positive learning. Therefore this kind of methods that chase to reach their
engagement through games and stimulating activities are a very useful tool to
achieve our goal as teachers.

DESIGN THINKING
This term comes from the business and design world.
This processwhich has been called design thinkingdraws on methods from
engineering and design, and combines them with ideas from the arts, tools from
the social sciences, and insights from the business world. Stanford Universitys
dschool webpage
However, in general terms, it is considered as a human-centered method that
focuses on people rather than products or technologies to solve problems, that
is, it could be defined as a methodology for practical, creative resolution of
problems or issues.
Therefore it could be considered a method to be applied not only in design and
business but also in education. Solving problems with solutions reached
through creative agreements result of collaborative work is always a very
powerful tool when talking about education. However, I am not very sure if it is
an appropriate method to all levels or in a young age range of learners.
Because I think that, to go through this process, learners should have enough
cognitive maturity and self-confidence to deal with certain steps of it.

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES; DIFFERENCIATION

Differentiation refers to an educational strategy that consist on the adaptations

made by a teacher in his/her lessons to let the whole group of students, in an
assorted class, achieve the pretending goals depending on their levels.
We all know that, in a same group class there are always several learning
levels, as well as, different learning needs or different abilities, even when the
group is a common and heterogeneous class. Therefore, teachers should be
aware of this fact and increase flexibility (using several instructional methods,
adapting the lessons plans and using different kind of activities) to be sure that
all students master essential knowledge, concepts, and skills.
It is obvious that we, as teachers, must take into account the different needs of
our students. But, sometimes, we find this extremely difficult either because we
have too many students in one class or because a lack of personal and
technological resources.
However , there is a famous educator and writer called Carol Ann Tomlinson
who wrote in her book to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms,
the differentiation is the practice of varying instructional techniques in a
classroom to effectively teach as many students as possible, but it does not
entail the creation of distinct courses of study for every student (i.e.,
individualized instruction). The conflation of differentiated instruction and

individualized instruction has likely contributed to ongoing confusion and

debates about differentiation, particularly given that the terms are widely and
frequently used interchangeably
I agree with reflection, but I think that, to do so, we need to be trained in how to
deal with. We should have specific training to manage different levels at the
time, which is not easy, especially, when we have a numerous class group or
different graders.

CLIL
The term CLIL was coined by David Marsh, University of Jyvskyl, Finland
(1994):
"CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught
through a foreign language with dual-focused aims, namely the learning of
content and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language."
According to this definition of CLIL we, as teacher of the bilingual programme,
can be considered CLIL teachers due to the fact that we teach subjects such as
Science or History through a foreign language.
When developing CLIL we need to:

Choose appropriate content

Develope intercultural understanding

Use language to learn/learning to use language

Make meanings that matter

Scaffold the knoweledge.

For learners, CLIL can be more interesting and more motivating than other
traditional methods because it provides opportunities to use a new language for
learning new knowledge but in different ways from in conventional grammarbased lessons. It makes good use of time since both subject area content and
languages are being learned together.

The 4Cs Framework

Coyle, D. (1999) developed the 4Cs Framework. The 4Cs framework for CLIL
starts with:

content (such as subject matter, themes, cross-curricular approaches)

and focuses on the interrelationship between content (subject matter)

communication (language)

cognition (thinking)

culture (awareness of self and otherness)

To work on integrating learning (content and cognition) and language

learning (communication and cultures).

KWL; READING METHOD

KWL is a very useful technique for reading and studding in a meaningful way,
that can help you to understand better a text.
It is composed of only three stages that reflect
a worksheet of three columns with the three letters:
What we
Know

what we
Want to
know

what we
Learned

1. K stands for Know

think about previous knowledge and make a list of it.

This advanced organizer provides you with a background to the new
material, building a scaffold to support it.
2. W stands for Will or Want
The second stage is to list a series of questions of what the student want to
know more of the subject, based upon what you listed in K.
3. L stands for Learned
The final stage is to answer the questions,
as well as to list what new information the student has learned.