English National Curriculum Research Articles

Restructuring Achievement Standards in National English Curriculum

This study aims to select three main issues in the field of 2015 English national curriculum focused on Achievement Standards (AS) and provide ways of improving AS structure. To achieve this purpose, Focus Group (FG) Method and literature review are employed. A total of 11 FG members are participated from February 2019 to September 2019 for six months in five time group meetings. Data collection was conducted through discussions in FG meetings, and relevant literature review was also conducted and discussed in the process of the FG meetings. The major opinions provided from the FG meetings were mainly selected as supporting data to reconstruct the AS format. CEFR and ACTFL descriptors are analyzed to draw implications to redesign the connectivity of AS in grades three to nine. The results show three issues and respective ways of improving AS structure; the need to employ cultural AS in alignment with objectives of English curriculum, reformat of the AS in vertical dimension connecting grade levels shown in the Singapore curriculum, and comprehensive AS descriptors at the end time of each grade cluster level.

2015 개정 교육과정에 기반한 영어 I 교과서의 어형론적 복잡성

This paper aims to investigate the use of derivational forms in five English Ⅰ textbooks based on the 2015 revised English national curriculum, which treats a base word and all of its derivatives as belonging to one word family. To this end, we first identified 15 representative derivational affixes for the five EnglishⅠ textbooks, based on Bauer and Nation’s (1993) levels and the frequency, dispersion and range of affixes. We then showed that the textbooks significantly differ concerning the use of affixes belonging to Bauer and Nation’s Levels 3-6 through a chi-square test of homogeneity, and measured the derivative sophistication for each textbook in terms of Advanced Derivative Index, which is calculated by dividing the number of derivative types containing Bauer and Nation’s Levels 5 and 6 affixes by the square root of the total number of derivatives. We also through chi-square tests showed that the textbooks significantly differ concerning derivational density, which is defined as the number of derivatives divided by the total number of words, as well as the frequency of derivatives classified by the number of affixes attached to a base, and concluded with the discussion of the findings.

General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy.

This article responds to two key concerns in science education: firstly, that policies designed to assess practical work have distorted its use as an effective pedagogical tool. Secondly, it addresses concerns about the lack of research on the assessment of practical work. The article analyses the policy trajectory for the assessment of science practical work, through the GCSE, in the English National Curriculum from 1988 to the present day. Drawing on published research and policy documents, using Bowe, Ball and Gould's policy cycle approach to policy analysis, we first identify three distinct eras which represent different ways of assessing practical work from 1988 to the present day. Second, we demonstrate that the interaction between high‐stakes assessment narrows the ways practical work is conducted in schools. The interaction between curriculum policy and assessment policy and its influences on pedagogy for practical work has been influenced by the high‐stakes nature of the tests. This is not a unique case to England nor to science education. Finally, we question whether we can design assessments, ‘tests worth teaching to’, that can withstand the implications of high‐stakes testing.

DOES ABSENCE MAKE THE HEART GROW FONDER? – STUDENTS PERSPECTIVES OF CURRICULUM, ABSENTEEISM AND THEIR PURSUIT OF THE GOOD LIFE

In 2015, major revisions were made to the breadth and content of the English national curriculum to ensure the country’s economic success in an emerging technological marketplace. Increasingly punitive sanctions were introduced to safeguard student attendance and subsequent attainment. Yet student GCSE attainment has remained static since that time and attendance has decreased. The article considers these coinciding trends by presenting a study that explored 40 secondary-school students’ perspectives of their low attendance. Findings evidence their motivation to learn but also their growing disillusionment with curriculum content that is not easily accessible or seen to support a good life, which in turn has impacted their motivation to attend school. Conclusions call for collaborations to be developed between school leaders and students to help make explicit the pathways to a good life that the curriculum claims to support. Collaborations that may also address student absenteeism.

A Theoretical Analysis of How Critical Literacy May Support the Progressive Goals of the Korean National Curriculum

Many Korean scholars have praised progressive initiatives in the current Korean National Curriculum (KNC) and Korean National English Curriculum (KNEC), although they also state that the actual teaching practices have changed little. With each new iteration of the KNC it is apparent that the Korean Ministry of Education (MOE) is encouraging a pedagogical agenda that reflects the necessities of situated learning and ‘student-centered’ approaches to teaching and learning. The MOE’s inclusion of ‘micro-teaching’ in tertiary teacher training program reviews also illustrates its increasingly active measures to affect educational change in Korea. Concomitant with the recent MOE initiatives, there has been a growing interest in practices of critical literacy/pedagogy in English education over the past 15 years in Korea. The purpose of critical literacy is to educate students to be knowledgeable, creative, and active participants in a democracy for the purposes of increasing social justice and agency. Thus, it becomes possible, and desirable, to undertake a theoretical analysis of the language and intent between the KNC/ KNEC and theories of critical literacy. This paper analyzes the language ant intent of the KNC and KNEC to determine the extent to which they reflect the theories and pedagogies of critical literacy. Results of this analysis indicate that that critical literacy supports the goals of the curricula and suggest that it should be included in tertiary teacher education programs.

A Comparative Analysis of EFL Students’ Needs and Evaluation of English Curriculum: A Case Study from Korea

Given the important status of students as major stakeholders of the National English Curriculum, this study investigated specific needs of curriculum-takers for an English curriculum and compared the results with analyses of curriculum evaluation from curriculum-completers. We implemented a needs assessment survey targeting 68 elementary school students (current curriculum-takers) and an evaluation survey targeting 27 high school students (curriculum-completers) in Korean EFL context. Results showed similarities between students’ needs and evaluation in terms of the ideal time for starting English education and time allotments. However, we found significant gaps between the two groups in several domains related to their specific goals of learning English. While the current curriculum-takers showed a high motivation to learn English for both instrumental purposes and integrative purposes, the curriculum-completers were strongly biased toward instrumental purposes. Our findings provide useful insight into curriculum development and improvement for seeking educational effectiveness in EFL settings. This study also provides helpful resources for conducting needs and evaluation analyses.

Exploración de metáforas espacio-temporales para la codificación de idiomas aprendidos en las escuelas primárias

Las acciones que acompañan al lenguaje hablado apoyan su retención y recuerdo. Esta estrategia puede aprovecharse para aprender idiomas adicionales en la escuela primaria (PL). Los códigos asociados promulgados junto con el lenguaje hablado utilizan el sistema de espejo del cerebro, lo que permite recordar cada vez que se vuelve a representar la acción asociada, sin importar quién lo haga. La dependencia de la forma ortográfica es potencialmente perjudicial al establecer la pronunciación. La “cognición corporal” hipotetiza que todo el input se representa dentro de los sistemas sensoriales y motores en el procesamiento conceptual de los alumnos (Mahon y Caramazza 2008), Sin embargo, la hipótesis de la cognición desencarnada cuestiona el procesamiento a través de estos sistemas de conceptos abstractos o simbólicos debido a su diferente naturaleza cualitativa. Se puede decir que la temporalidad es un concepto abstracto porque es relativa e inidentificable dentro de cualquier sistema sensorial particular. Sin embargo, las metáforas espacio-temporales que conceptualizamos en el espacio que nos rodea pueden esquematizarse para representar el pasado, el presente y el futuro. Indicarlas dentro de los códigos asociados puede extender el repertorio hablado de los alumnos y los entendimientos gramaticales de tiempo.Restringir el aprendizaje PL a la forma presente simple limita la funcionalidad del lenguaje y, por lo tanto, su uso auténtico, incluso para los enfoques bilingües o CLIL. La gramática PL aprendida explícitamente es un desafío para las primeras etapas del desarrollo cognitivo. Sin embargo, la aptitud para la fonología del lenguaje, que se dice que alcanza a un máximo de 4 años de edad, permite a los alumnos aprender los tiempos verbales en forma hablada. En Inglaterra, los alumnos (de 6 a 7 años) conceptualizan en inglés las nociones de presente, pasado y futuro (National Curriculum 2014) y también los tiempos verbales progresivos de L1. El soporte de los códigos asociados actuados junto con los formularios hablados de PL ensayados permitiría la recuperación y la retención.Este artículo es una revisión sistemática de la literatura que explora metáforas espacio-temporales que aprovechan el espacio corporal como un código para la temporalidad. La siguiente sección proporciona una breve descripción del aprendizaje de idiomas primarios en Inglaterra, a diferencia de lo de otros países europeos.

Recontextualisation of genre-based pedagogy: The case of Indonesian EFL classrooms

Genre-based pedagogy has been adapted to the Indonesian national curriculum for subject English since 2004. There has been reports of its success and it now remains as an important part of the language curriculum at schools. However, there is a couple of considerations need to be taken seriously in relation with genre-based adaptation. First, genre-based pedagogy, based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) theory, was developed in Australia in English as a mother tongue and ESL classrooms. Indonesian classrooms are different from those in Australia, not least because they teach English as a foreign language. Secondly, the Indonesian curriculum is prescribed from the centre, and though teachers are required to follow the genre-based approach that has been adopted, it is not clear how well teachers have understood it or implemented it. This article aims to discuss critically the recontextualisation of genre-based pedagogy in the EFL classrooms in Indonesia by investigating the ways teachers interpret and implement the teaching of English under the genre-based pedagogy. The study reported here was drawn from an action research project and involved observing one teaching learning unit of the teachers trained to implement the genre-based pedagogy. The findings indicate that the genre-based pedagogy in Indonesian EFL classrooms has been recontextualised only in part, because the influence of other teaching methods tends to prevail. This is problematic to the interest of the national curriculum to improve students’ English literacy. The main goal of genre pedagogy which aims to uphold social justice through equal distribution of knowledge will not prevail if the principles of the pedagogy itself is not recontextualised properly.

Conceptual confusion in the chemistry curriculum: exemplifying the problematic nature of representing chemical concepts as target knowledge

This paper considers the nature of a curriculum as presented in formal curriculum documents, and the inherent difficulties of representing formal disciplinary knowledge in a prescription for teaching and learning. The general points are illustrated by examining aspects of a specific example, taken from the chemistry subject content included in the science programmes of study that are part of the National Curriculum in England (an official document published by the UK government). In particular, it is suggested that some statements in the official curriculum document are problematic if we expect a curriculum to represent canonical disciplinary knowledge in an unambiguous and authentic manner. The paper examines the example of the requirement for English school children to be taught that chemical reactions take place in only three different ways (i.e., proton transfer; electron transfer; electron sharing) and considers how this might be interpreted in terms of canonical chemistry and within the wider context of other curriculum statements, in order to make sense of neutralisation and precipitation reactions. It is argued that although target knowledge that is set out as the focus of teaching and learning cannot be identical to disciplinary knowledge, the English National Curriculum offers a representation of chemistry which distorts and confuses canonical ideas. It is suggested that the process of representing the disciplinary knowledge of chemistry as curriculum specifications is worthy of more scholarly attention.

Research Analysis on Issues and Suggestions for Improving 2015 National English Curriculum

Research Analysis on Issues and Suggestions for Improving 2015 National English Curriculum

2015 개정 영어과 교육과정에 따른 중2 영어 교과서 어휘 분포 분석

2015 개정 영어과 교육과정에 따른 중2 영어 교과서 어휘 분포 분석

The role of English in the conversation of humankind: humanism and creativity in Newbolt (1921) and the national curriculum (2014)

ABSTRACTThe centenary of the publication of The Teaching of English in England provides an opportunity to consider the current National Curriculum for English in England from a historical perspective. This paper reports on a hermeneutic study that explores the humanist values underpinning Newbolt’s Report and how they shape the creative practice the Report advocates, in relation to the current curriculum. It briefly considers the reasons behind the current creativity- and risk-averse orders and the possible impact on creative classroom practice, concluding that an awareness of the tradition of creativity in English teaching (in particular, through Newbolt) is important to shape future practice. In so doing, it promotes hermeneutics as an approach to educational research.

Students’ identification and expression of relations between variables in linear functions tasks in three curriculum contexts

ABSTRACTResearching students’ responses to tasks at different year levels and in varied curriculum contexts can provide insights that relate their understandings to prior learning experiences and teaching approaches. In this article, we discuss evidence of students from three curriculum contexts (English, Australian, and Israeli) (n = 350) ways of attending to the functional relationship between two variables at different levels of secondary school in their responses to two linear functions tasks. We found that the students from an English national curriculum context were more likely than the other cohorts to focus only on the dependent variable when presented with a table of values. With a figural pattern generalization task, no examples of invalid proportional reasoning were found among student responses from the Israeli curriculum context, unlike those in the English and Australian curriculum contexts. A high percentage of the Year seven-eighths responses from the Israeli curriculum context evidenced symbolic generalization whereas several responses from the Australian curriculum indicated explicit descriptive, but not symbolic, generalization. Twenty teachers also participated in the study. Analysis of national curriculum content and task examples from each context, along with the teachers’ expectations of their students’ responses to the tasks and described teaching approaches for linear functions, led to our exploration of possible reasons for differences and similarities found among the responses. We suggest possible implications for teaching and learning linear functions and avenues for further research.

2015 개정 교육과정에 기반한 6학년 영어 교과서 쓰기 활동 분석

This study analyzed writing activities included in the 5 different 6th grade English textbooks. The writing activities were analyzed under the three different criteria: pedagogical approach, instructional strategy and topic. Pedagogical approach was further divided into skill-based writing and communication-based writing and instructional strategy was divided into instructional steps, language skill integration, feedback, and organization of participants. Writing topics were tallied based on the 19 topics suggested in the national English curriculum. The results revealed that skill-based writing activities were adopted about three times as often as communication-based ones. In terms of instructional steps, writing without pre- or post-activities was found to be most frequently used. Regarding language skill integration, writing-speaking integration and no integration showed similar frequencies. The analysis on feedback showed that teacher feedback was the most frequent followed by self and peer feedback in order. Also, writing alone was the most frequently used organization of participants. As for writing topic, school life, leisure, social life and personal life were used often. Based on these findings implications for textbook use and development were suggested.

On Developing English National Curriculum and Assessing Methods Aligned with Teaching Focused on a Weather Chart for Improving Learners’ Digital Literacy

On Developing English National Curriculum and Assessing Methods Aligned with Teaching Focused on a Weather Chart for Improving Learners’ Digital Literacy

A study of literacy acquisition in English as a foreign language amongst native Hebrew and Arabic speaking pupils

ABSTRACT Israel has two official languages: Hebrew and Arabic, and one semi-official language, English. Within this multilingual environment, the national English curriculum relates to all learners as one homogenous population. There are no specific directives regarding the linguistic needs of diverse language backgrounds. Studies of literacy acquisition in English as a foreign language (EFL) to date have focused primarily on Hebrew or Arabic speakers without considering unique characteristics of each language population that might influence the EFL acquisition process. These unique characteristics include typological characteristics of each language and the fact that Hebrew speakers learn English as their second written language, whereas Arabic speakers learn Hebrew as their second written language and English as their third written language in school. The present study examined beginning EFL literacy amongst fourth grade Hebrew and Arabic speakers within a cross-sectional framework. Two issues were examined: the role of universal versus language specific factors in EFL acquisition and the contribution of multilingualism. These issues were examined within the framework of the central processing hypothesis [Geva, E., and L. Siegel. 2000. “Orthographic and Cognitive Factors in the Concurrent Development of Basic Reading Skills in Two Languages.” Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 12: 1–30] and the linguistic and orthographic proximity hypothesis [Kahn-Horwitz, J., M. Schwartz, and D. Share. 2011. “Acquiring the Complex English Orthography: A Triliteracy Advantage?” The Journal of Research in Reading 34 (1): 136–156]. Findings have theoretical and practical implications regarding the role of multi-lingual backgrounds in EFL acquisition.

A Diachronic Look at the National English Curriculum through the Vocabulary List

A Diachronic Look at the National English Curriculum through the Vocabulary List

An analysis of teacher talk in the elementary English teachers’guide based on key competencies of the 2015 revised English national curriculum

An analysis of teacher talk in the elementary English teachers’guide based on key competencies of the 2015 revised English national curriculum

2015 개정 교육과정을 바탕으로 한 진로-영어 통합 수업의 실제

2015 개정 교육과정을 바탕으로 한 진로-영어 통합 수업의 실제

‘We’re Not Building Worker Bees.’ What Has Happened to Creative Practice in England Since the Dartmouth Conference of 1966?

ABSTRACTIt is now five years since the introduction of the current National Curriculum for English in England; it is just over 50 years since the Dartmouth Conference drew together American and English educationalists. This paper reports on a hermeneutic study that presents voices from the field of English teaching in England. It asks questions of today’s statutory instruments in the light of approaches highlighted at Dartmouth, with a focus on writing. It illustrates the challenges faced by English teachers from an examination-focused system, but suggests that ultimately the tradition exemplified by Dartmouth, which promotes creative pedagogies and the potential of writing to develop students’ personal and social growth, survives. It concludes that it is important to promote creative approaches in English classrooms of today and education policy of tomorrow.