Mochamad Fahrizal

FRAMEWORK OF COURSE
DEVELOPMENT
 Introduction
Curriculum design specialists have developed various frameworks that breakdown
the process of curriculum and course development into components and sub process.
A framework of components is useful for several reasons:
 It provides an organized way of conceiving a complex process
 It sets forth domains of inquiry for the teacher
 It provides a set of terms currently used in talking about course development
These components include:
 Needs assessment
 Determining goals and objectives
 Conceptualizing content
 Selecting and developing materials and activities
 Organization of content and activities
 Evaluation
 Consideration of resources and constraints
 Needs Assessment
Needs assessment involves finding out what the learners know and can do and
what they need to learn or do so that the course can bridge the gap. There exist
two types of “needs” called “objective and “subjective” needs:
 Objective needs talks about the factual information of the learners
 Subjective needs talks about cognitive and affective needs of the learners
There are several steps in conducting needs assessment
 Who provides information about needs?
Input from students themselves as well as from the various people connected
to the course (teachers, funders, parents, administration and employers)
 When to conduct needs assessment?
Depending on the context or teachers’ view it can be done in
 Stage 1 (the planning stage)
 Stage 2 (the teaching stage)
 Stage 3 (the replanning stage)
 How does one conduct needs assessment
 Questionnaires
 Interviews
 Observation
 Participation
 Samples

Issues:
 It’s not a value free process
 It’s an unfamiliar procedures for many students
 The content and method isn’t always effective
Determining Goals and
objectives
Goals: what are the purpose and intended outcomes of the course?
Objectives: what my students need to do or learn to achieve these
goals?
 Why is it important to set goals and objectives?
Provides a sense of direction and a coherent framework for the
teacher in planning the course
 Four types of goals according to Stern (1992)
 Proficiency goals (general competency, mastery of the four skills;
speaking etc)
 Cognitive goals (mastery of linguistic knowledge)
 Affective goals (achieving positive attitudes)
 Transfer goals (learning how to learn)
 Nunan (1988b: 60) pointed out that “objectives are really nothing
more than a particular way of formulating or stating content and
activities”
 Content as knowledge
 Content as skill
 Content as attitudes and awareness
 Saphier and Gower (1987) list five kinds of objectives
 Coverage objective (what will be covered)
 Activity objective (what the students will do)
 Involvement objective (how to maximize students participation)
 Mastery objective (what will the students be able to master)
 Critical thinking objective (which learning skills students will develop)
 Issues
Many teachers do not formulate goals and objectives at all or do so only
after having thought about what they will teach and how
CONCEPTUALIZING CONTENT

The traditional way which many teachers

have experience in their own learning of
language is as grammar structures, sentence
patterns, and vocabulary.
When communicative approach is finally in
use it added the dimension of language function
that include to apologize, persuade etc. or in
situational such as ordering food in a restaurant.
 The emphasis on communicative
competence has prompted a view of language
as nor just something one learns but some thing
one does. Thus teachers may give task as
activities that students do
 Real-world task
 Pedagogic task
Selecting and Developing
Materials and Activities
Material forms the backbone of the course. Choosing materials may mean
 Development of new materials
 Developing new materials and activities for using them requires time and a clear
sense of why they will be used, how and by whom. Because of the lacks of time
teachers often constraint and prefer to adapt existing materials
 Experienced teachers often develop a set of core materials and activities that
they adapt every time they teach a course
 Adapting an existing materials
 For teachers who are required to use a certain text, course development IS the
adaptation of the text, for the content of the text determines the content of the
course
Issues
For some teachers developing materials requires time before, during, and
after the course – for preparing, using, and modifying them
ORGANIZATION OF CONTENT AND
ACTIVITIES
One can follow either a fixed sequence or a more fluid approach to the order in
which one teaches the content. Systems can focus on the lesson level (the
organization of each lesson) and on the course level (the overall organization of the
course)
There are two general complementary principles of sequencing, they are
 Building (from simple to complex, from concrete to open minded)
 Recycling (adapting previous material in a new ways; in a new skill area, in a
different type of activity, or with a new focus)
 Eg: material encountered in a listening activity may be recycled in writing exercise
 Recycling has the effect of integrating material and thus augments students” ability to use or
understand it
Two complementary ways to approach the overall organization of a course are as a
cycle or as a matrix
 In the cyclical approach a regular cycle of activities follows a consistent sequence
 In the matrix approach the teacher works with a set of possible activities for a given
time frame and as the course progresses decides which activities to work with
Issues

Some teachers might prefer to negotiate with

students to decide together what will they learn. In
such cases, a predetermined sequence is seen as a
handicap as it doesn’t allow teachers to take into
account the particular group of students in their
course. In such a course, the sequence isnt determined
beforehand but the teacher has a map of possible
territory and works with students to determine where
it is most useful for them to go and in what order.
Where a syllabus is provided, achieving possibility is an
issue
 Evaluation
 Evaluation means evaluation WITHIN the
course; assessing students’ proficiency,
progress or achievement
 Hughes (1989) discusses four purpose for
testing:
 To measure proficiency
 To diagnose specific strengths and weaknesses
 To place students in a course program
 And to assess their achievement
 Evaluation in course development also includes evaluation of the course itself
 Why? A course is evaluated to promote and improve its effectiveness
 What? Any part of the course can be evaluated (assumptions about and analysis of
students need or backgrounds, goals and objectives, materials and activities, means of
assessing students’ progress, students participation, students role and teachers role
 When? A distinction is usually made between
 Formative evaluation which takes place during the development and implementation of the
curriculum for the purpose of modifying it as it is being developed
 Summative evaluation which takes place after the curriculum has been implemented for the
purpose of evaluating its success and improving it for future implementation
 Who? At the course level it is teachers and students that are involved. However,
administrators, funders, parents, and clients may have a role in evaluation
 How? A variety of ways are available
 Close observation of what students do in class
 Informal chats with students
 Written or oral input from students
Issues

Sometimes teachers tend to avoid extensive

evaluation because they might feel inadequate
to do so, since they feel that task should be up
to the “experts” for which systematic training is
neccessary
Consideration of Resources
and Constraints
Resources and constraints are two ways of looking at the
same thing. The constraints and resources of one’s
situation take many forms, some tangible, others are not
 The lack of physical resources may encourage a
teacher to use available resource in creative ways
 Having to work with existing curricular guidelines
 The numbers, levels and cultural background of the
students
 The teachers background, experience, and beliefs may
influence the choices he/she makes
Issues

The givens of one’s teaching situation can

not be ignored. Effecting change requires both
recognizing what can be changed and cannot