Alignment between Curriculum, Textbook and Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Question Papers of English at Secondary Level

Abstract

This study deals with the alignment between National Curriculum, Textbooks, and Question papers of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) in the subject of English at secondary level. The purpose of the study was to check the alignment of National Curriculum for English Language, 2006 with the Textbooks of English for Grade IX-X, and to evaluate the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) question papers with reference to cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy and with the corresponding textbooks. This study was done through document analysis. The documents analyzed for the study were the National Curriculum for English Language, Textbooks of English for Grade IX-X, and question papers of BISE of year 2014 and 2015. The instruments used for this study were the 1) Curriculum Textbook Alignment Framework and 2) Curriculum Textbook Alignment Rubric. The question papers of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education were analyzed through the checklist developed by researcher. It was validated through expert opinion. Findings of the study depict that the SLOs stated in the textbooks of English were not completely matched with the SLOs narrated in National Curriculum Furthermore, the textbooks are not very helpful in achieving those SLOs with the help of the assessment exercises given in the textbook because most of the questions given in the textbook are not related to SLOs of National Curriculum. Findings further report that the all the question papers of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) for year 2014 and 2015 focused on knowledge and understanding level of Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive domain and very less focus were given on application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation abilities. It was recommended that the same SLOs of National Curriculum of English Language for Grade IX-X should be included in the textbooks otherwise the alignment will suffer and the SLOs of higher order thinking skills should also be included in the textbooks. There should be a balance between the higher level and lower level cognitive skills Paper setters should be well aware of the Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive domain and question papers should include items of all cognitive levels in accordance with assessment scheme of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, and specifications mentioned in the National Curriculum of English.