PL ANNING GOALS

AND LEARNING
OUTCOMES
R I K A P E R M ATA Y U L S A R D I 1 7 0 1 8 1 5 7
R I Z K I P U J I L E S TA R I 1 7 0 1 8 1 6 0
SEVERAL KEY ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT GOALS
CHARACTERIZE THE CURRICULUM AP-
PROACH TO EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

These can be summarized

as follows:

People are generally motivated

to pursue specific goals.

The use of goals in teaching

improves the effectiveness of
teaching and learning.
A program will be effective to
the extent that its goals are
sound and clearly described.
 THE IDEOLOGY OF THE
CURRICULUM
• 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 ideologies about
schools, learners, and teachers.
 • This justification for die
aims of curriculum
ACADEMIC stresses the intrinsic
RATIONALISM value of the subject
matter and its role in
developing the learner's
intellect, humanistic
values, and rationality.
 • The maintenance and transmission
through education of the wisdom
and culture of previous generations.
This has led to the creation of a
two-tier system of education - one
to accord with the "higher** cultural
CL ARK (1987,
6) POINTS traditions of an elite, and the other
OUT THAT IN
THE UNITED
to cater for the more concrete and
KINGDOM practical lifestyles of the masses.
ACADEMIC
RATIONALISM • The development for the elite of
CONCERNED
WITH: generalizable intellectual capacities
and critical faculties.
• The maintenance of stands through
an inspectorate and external exami-
nation boards controlled by the
universities.
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.
• Curriculum development was
seen as based on scientific
principles, and its practitioners
were "educational engineers"
whose job it was to "discover
the total range of habits, skills,
abilities, forms of thought, etc.
that its members need for the
effective performance of their
vocational labors" (1918, 43).
• Bobbitt concluded that an
appropriate metaphor for
curriculum development was that
of the factory and production.
• In language teaching, this
philosophy leads to an emphasis
on practical and functional skills
in a foreign or second language.
 • This term groups together
educational philosophies
that stress the individual
needs to develop
awareness, self-reflection,
critical thinking, learner
strategies, and the other
qualities and skills that are
LEARNER-
believed to be important
CENTEREDNESS
for learners to develop.
MARSH (1986,201) POINTS OUT THAT THE ISSUE OF CHILD-CENTERED
OR LEARNER- J CENTERED CURRICUL A REAPPEARS EVERY DECADE OR
SO AND CAN REFER TO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:

• individualized teaching
• learning through practical operation or doing
• laissez faire -no organized curricula at all but based
on the momentary interests of children
• creative self-expression by students
• practically oriented activities directed toward the
needs of society
• a collective term that refers to the rejection of
teaching-directed learning
SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTIONISM

This curriculum perspective

emphasizes the roles schools
and learners can and should
play in addressing social
injustices and inequality.
CULTURAL PLURALISM
This means that one cultural group is not
seen as superior to others and that multiple
perspectives representing the view points of
different cultural groups should be
developed within the curriculum.

Collingham (1988) emphasizes the importance of valuing learners'

language knowledge: "to treat adult learners as if they know nothing of
language is to accept the imbalance of power and so ultimately to
collude with institutional racism; to adopt a bilingual approach and to
value the knowledge that learners already have is to begin to
challenge that unequal power relationship" (Collingham 1988, 85).
 STATING CURRICULUM OUTCOMES

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.
THE NATURE OF COMPETENCIES
Competencies refer to
observable behaviors that
are necessary or 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.
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.
Jackson reports of teachers of adult immigrants
in Australia identified eight broad categories of
nonlanguage outcomes their teaching (Jackson
1993, 2):
• social, psychological, and emotional support in
the new living environment
• confidence
• motivation
• cultural understanding
• knowledge of the Australian community
context
• learning about learning
• access and entry into employment, further
study, and community life.