Page 135 - Getting of the fence
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The relevance and usefulness of the Comprehensive Approach
The first decision was to focus on enriching existing curricula. Desimone and Stukey (2014) argue that the key to sustainable development involves “helping teachers become adaptive planners capable of making good decisions over time” (p. 13). Furthermore, because of the nature of the EFL literature curriculum in Dutch secondary education, the existing modules of work are often designed by the teachers themselves and have been part of the curriculum for years (see section 2.4 on curricular heritage). In addition, respecting teachers’ design work, it is also more realistic to assume that teachers will be able to adapt existing modules of work, based on new PCK, more easily than replace them completely.
The second decision concerned the fact that each of the six schools followed the CPD programme onsite. Although van Veen et al. (2010) conclude that the location (i.e. onsite or offsite) of a professional development programme has no relation to the quality of the programme, we decided to offer the programme onsite in order to minimize the burden on the participants. In other words, each of the sessions was held at the participant’s school at days and times convenient for them. An additional advantage for the teachers was that, in most schools, other foreign language teachers joined the participants during the sessions, creating a context of collective participation.
The third decision involved a systematic way of working based on the 6 Backward Design Principle (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). In other words, the
teachers first designed learning objectives based on their own ideas about EFL
literature education, we then discussed how these learning objectives can best be
assessed, and finally we looked at materials and lesson design. This interpretation of curriculum (re)design is in line with Cohen’s (1987) understanding of instructional alignment and the Model of Constructive Alignment by Biggs & Tang (2007) and dates back to Tyler’s (1949) rationale for investigating educational curricula. Throughout the sessions, the teachers compared their new insights with their existing curricula, thereby focusing on enrichment.
The fourth and final strategy decision involved a balance between theoretical input and practical translation. In each session the participants were asked to read theoretical background information on for example the Comprehensive Approach, designing learning objectives (e.g. Wiggins & McTighe, 2005), and assessing EFL literature (e.g. Carter & Long, 1990; Paran, 2010; Spiro, 1991). This background information was then discussed and translated into instructional behaviour. According to Neuman and Cunningham (2009) “professional development that contains both content and pedagogical knowledge may best support the ability
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