Day Two Task – Learning objectives and competences
You will find attached an extract from Richards (2001), Curriculum
design in language teaching. If you find reading English easy, then
read it all, but if it is a struggle, I include here some key sections.
Richards discusses the use of language competencies as a
planning unit (CBLT=competency-based language teaching).
p. 128
“...its ends. CBLT shifts the focus to the ends of learning rather
than the means. As a general educational and training approach,
CBLT seeks to improve accountability in teaching through linking
instruction to measurable outcomes and performance standards.”
p. 129
“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...”
Although Richards’ examples are all from language learning, they
can also apply to other kinds of courses (e.g. in science subjects,
do your students need to learn to work in a laboratory? What are
some of the skills that they need for that?). Would these be a
useful way of describing learning in your course?
Later In the extract, Richards discusses some outcomes of
curricula which focus not on the content of learning but on the
learning processes that we hope students will acquire. He includes
some examples from a Singapore secondary curriculum:
p. 136
“Thinking skills
At the end of the course, pupils should be able to:
o explore an idea, situation, or suggested solution for a specific
purpose
o think creatively to generate new ideas, to find new meanings,
and to deal with relationships
o analyse and/or evaluate an idea, a situation, or a suggested
solution for a specific purpose
Learning how to learn
At the end of the course, pupils should be able to:
o apply a repertoire of library, information, and study skills
o take some responsibility for their own learning
o use some of the basic skills relating to information
technology”
Although these are aimed at school level, do you think some of
them still apply to new university students? What other outcomes
of this nature do you think that they need (e.g. what level of
information technology knowledge and information literacy – such
as searching for information online – do you think they need?). Do
you think that there are subject-specific aspects of these skills that
you should include in your course, or do you think it is somebody
else’s (whose?) responsibility to teach them? Discuss this matter.
At the end of the extract there is a list of Discussion questions and
tasks which focus on language teaching and teachers, but I would
like to adjust two of them to relate to content courses. Choose one
to discuss.
3. How has the philosophy of learner-centredness approaches to
teaching your subject in recent years? (If you have not come
across this idea in relation to your subject, do a search to see if
you can find some information on that.) Do you consider it is a
valuable way to think about teaching in your subject?
6. What approach to planning learning outcomes is used in a
program you are familiar with? How effective is it?
… and see if you can complete a list of objectives (or
competencies …) for the Overall Task.
“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...”
Question: Would these be a useful way of describing learning in
your course?
Answer: Yes, these are likely to describe the learning in my
course. When I design the outcomes for the course, I pay more
attention to the students’ abilities to deal with real world situations.
In assessment, I don’t just ask them to do a multiple test but I often
ask them to complete real-world activities or find out their own
solutions to some problems that they might meet in work or social
situations. These will ensure that students can achieve real
competencies after the course.
“Thinking skills
At the end of the course, pupils should be able to:
o explore an idea, situation, or suggested solution for a specific
purpose
o think creatively to generate new ideas, to find new meanings,
and to deal with relationships
o analyse and/or evaluate an idea, a situation, or a suggested
solution for a specific purpose
Learning how to learn
At the end of the course, pupils should be able to:
o apply a repertoire of library, information, and study skills
o take some responsibility for their own learning
o use some of the basic skills relating to information
technology”
Question:
Although these are aimed at school level, do you think some
of them still apply to new university students?
What other outcomes of this nature do you think that they
need?
Do you think that there are subject-specific aspects of these
skills that you should include in your course, or do you think
it is somebody else’s (whose?) responsibility to teach them?
Discuss this matter.
Answer:
Yes, I think some of them still apply to university students.
Every student, especially university students who have to
learn independently, needs to think creatively and analyze
issues to find suggested solutions. And to become
independent learner, they must learn how to learn effectively
and be responsible for their own learning.
Other outcomes of this nature that they need are:
o In Thinking skills, students also need to synthesize
the information that they have explore or analyze to
create their own productions.
o In Learning how to learn, students also need to learn
time management skill because time is a problem that
students usually face with when they have to learn on
their own.
I think that these skills should be includes in my course
because it is not the only responsible of a particular teacher.
Each teacher needs to spend time instructing their students
to achieve these skills because they are very important and
needed in every subject. Once students achieve these skills,
they can work on every subject effectively and
independently. These skills are not separated from other
subjects and should be integrated into them to get the best
results.
Discussion question I choose is “How has the philosophy of
learner-centeredness approaches to teaching your subject in
recent years? Do you consider it is a valuable way to think
about teaching in your subject?”
Answer:
The philosophy of learner-centeredness has played an important
part in language teaching for years. Many researchers have done
research on this philosophy. A lot of teachers and schools have
applied this philosophy to teaching, especially in language
teaching and learning in universities. Teachers these days are no
longer the center of the classroom but the learners are instead.
In the past, many teachers tend to base their lesson planning on
the traditional PPP approach (Presentation, Practice, Production)
because it is reliable and it is a valid framework around which to
base a series of classroom activities. But the problem is that PPP
serves the teacher’s needs but not really fulfills the needs of the
learner. The language presented and practiced does not take into
account the particular needs of each learner; the language content
is almost always dictated by the textbook and/or syllabus. For this
reason, many teachers turn to more learner-centered approaches
where the needs of the learner are central to the lesson content.
Two such approaches are TBL (Task-Based Learning) and PBL
(Project-Based Learning).
In task-based learning, the central focus of the lesson is the task
itself, not a grammar point or a lexical area, and the objective is
not to ‘learn the structure’ but to ‘complete the task’. To complete
the task successfully students have to use the right language and
communicate their ideas with the others. Therefore, the language
becomes an instrument of communication. The advantage of TBL
over more traditional methods is that it allows students to focus on
real communication before doing any serious language analysis. It
focuses on students’ needs by putting them into authentic
communicative situations and allowing them to use all their
language resources to deal with them. This draws the learners’
attention to what they know how to do, what they don’t know how
to do, and what they only half know. It makes learners aware of
their needs and encourages them to take (some of the)
responsibility for their own learning.
The PBL approach takes learner-centeredness to a higher level. It
shares many aspects with TBL, but if anything, it is even more
ambitious. Whereas TBL makes a task the central focus of a
lesson, PBL often makes a task the focus of a whole term or
academic year. As with TBL, different teachers approach project
work in different ways. Some use it as the basis for a whole year’s
work; others dedicate a certain amount of time alongside the
syllabus. Some use projects only on short courses or ‘intensives’.
Others try to get their schools to base their whole curriculums on it.
The role of the teacher and the learner in the TBL approach and
the PBL approach is very similar. Learners are given freedom to
go about solving problems or sharing information in the way they
see fit. The teacher’s role is monitor and facilitator, setting up
frameworks for communication, providing access to information
and helping with language where necessary, and giving students
opportunities to produce a final product or presentation. As with
TBL, the teacher monitors interaction but doesn’t interrupt, dealing
with language problems at another moment.
Both TBL and PBL focus primarily on the achievement of realistic
objectives, and then on the language that is needed to achieve
those objectives. They both treat language as an instrument to
complete a given objective rather than an isolated grammar point
or lexical set to learn and practice. They give plenty of opportunity
for communication in authentic contexts and give the learner
freedom to use the linguistic resources he/she has, and then
reflect on what they learned or need to learn. Finally, as an English
teacher, I often use a combination of TBL, PBL and traditional
techniques such as PPP. There is no perfect approach of teaching;
the most important thing is to use the approach that works best for
you and your learners.
