Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
ASSIGMENT 2
TITLE
«CRITICAL ANALYSIS
OF CURRICULUM AND SYLLABUS»
1. INTRODUCTION ………….2
4. CONCLUSION ………………………………7
5. REFERENCES ……………………………...8
6. APPENDICES ……………………………...9
The social, political, financial and cultural conditions of living form the context of the
educational framework and affect the planning and implementation of the curriculum,
which is the official, theoretical document of a nation’s educational policy. The guidelines
of a curriculum are implemented in practice through the syllabus, which consists of the
specific subjects taught in schools.
2. Curricular Framework
There are mainly three models of curriculum design, each viewing from a
different perspective the nature and purpose of education. The first one is the ‘objectives
model’, pioneered by Tyler, also called the means-ends or rational planning approach. In
this model ends or goals are pre – specified and constitute the first step in the curriculum
If I had to describe the curricular framework that I currently teach in and decide
on a model, I would say that it includes elements of all three curricular models described
above, the objectives, the process and the situational. Although there isn’t any official
document stating the essence of the institution’s curriculum clearly, one can infer some
relevant information based mainly on its practical implementation. The conclusions
drawn indicate that in the curricular framework that I currently teach, there is emphasis
both on content (in the form of pre-specified objectives) and proccess (relating to the way
individuals learn), but the context/situation is also taken into account. To make things
clearer, I must mention that my current teaching context is in a Greek TEE, that is a
Technical Vocational School, and the curricular framework in question is that of
Secondary Technical Education.
A TEE is an alternative to Junior High School leavers who don’t want to attend a
Senior High School. In a Technical Vocational School students don’t get a general type of
education; they specialise in various sciences and technical subjects. Not every TEE
From the definition of a TEE and its thematic content, along with the subjects
taught and the structure of the time schedule one can infer that its curricular framework
focuses on promoting active and cooperative methods of acquiring knowledge, providing
each individual with the necessary skills that will enable them to meet the need for
specialization in the job market. Students get in contact with new developments, learn
about technological advancements that concern their future job, practice in laboratories
and training centers, analyse their professional opportunities and learn through a
vocational perspective the principles of critical thinking and social communication.
3. Syllabus Design
The definition of a syllabus is more specific than –and is included in – the notion
of curriculum. A syllabus is a detailed document which specifies the content of every
subject taught in each grade and has to do with the design of a series of lessons, the
methodology used and the selection and grading of tasks in order to accomplish the
specific educational aims. According to McKay (1978:11) ‘a syllabus provides a focus for
what should be studied, along with rationale for how the content should be selected and
ordered’. Ur (1996:177) refers to the common characteristics of syllabi and mentions that
a syllabus is a public document with a comprehensive list of content (words, structures)
and process items (tasks, methods) which has explicit objectives.
White (1988) suggests that there are two main categories of syllabi; Type A and
Type B. Type A syllabi are content or skills-based syllabi, they have a product orientation
and are also called ‘synthetic’-that is they teach parts step by step and students synthesize
the whole. Examples of Type A syllabi are the structural, the notional/functional, the
situational, the topical and the lexical syllabus, all of them viewing language as a
linguistic rather than a psycholinguistic or sociolinguistic process.
Type B syllabi are methods-based syllabi, which ‘focus on the process of learning
rather than the subject matter’ (White 1988:44) and have the communicative task as the
basic unit of the syllabus structure. The content is not pre-select and teacher-learner
negotiation of objectives or methodology is favoured. They are ‘analytic’ (Wilkins,
1976), meaning they operate in terms of the purpose for which people learn the language.
The process syllabus, the procedural and the task-based syllabus fall under Type B
category.
One can say that the type of the syllabus used in the present teaching context is
the integrated or multi - strand syllabus, which includes units from all models of type A,
Concerning the compatibility of the curriculum and syllabus with the students’
needs one could commend that in general the guidelines underlying the institutional
documents of technical education cover the needs of students. There is a clear promotion
of technical knowledge through a framework of professional orientation and students are
offered scientific specialization in their field of interest. Especially in the english syllabus
the laguage is taught through a vocational perpsective and teaching aims to equip
students with the nessecary qualification of english language acquisition, useful for future
professional – and not only – needs; and this is something that students seek to have.
4. Conclusion
From all the above one can perceive the major role of curriculum design and
syllabus structrure in education, as these official documents guide the whole educational
process. The model, type and methodology of a curriculum affects the syllabus’ design
and all together influence directly the learning expreriences of students. The final
outcome depends on the point of view education is conceived.
Words count: ~1750
Clark, J.L. (1987). Curriculum renewal in school foreign language learning. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Tyler, R.W. (1949). Basic Principles of curriculum and instruction. Chicago: The
University of Chicago.
White, R.V. (1988). The ELT curriculum. Design, Innovation and Management. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers Inc.