Curriculum Definition

In line with a rational approach to specification and development of the curriculum, the Tyler model recognises objectives at three separate levels: 1) Global, 2) Educational, 3) Instructional.

– Global objectives represent the high level, broad set of institutional objectives. The purpose of global objectives is to provide a vision for all stakeholders in the education system.
– Educational objectives are used by teachers in there classroom planning activities. Consistent with Tylers description of educational objectives, each of the objectives describes student behaviour (to read, to interpret) and some content topic (types of social data, facts, hypotheses) on which behaviour will be performed.
– Instructional objectives are used to focus teaching and testing on narrow, day by day slices of learning in specific areas of content.
Blooms taxonomy provides a structured means of contextualising objectives in terms of types of knowledge and cognitive processes.

Knowledge Dimension

Factual: knowledge of discrete, isolated content elements (bits of information)
Conceptual: knowledge of classifications and categories, principles and generalisations, theories, models and structures.
Procedural: knowledge of how to do something. Includes knowledge of skills and algorithms, techniques and methods as well as knowledge of criteria used to determine when to do what within specific subject domains and disciplines.
Meta-cognition: knowledge about the cognition process as well as awareness of one’s own thought processes.

Cognitive Dimension
Remember: retrieving relevant knowledge from the long-term memory. The cognitive processes (and associated examples) include:
– Recognition: recognise the dates of important events
– Recall: recall the dates of important events

Understand: construct meaning from instructional messages, including oral, written and graphic communication. The cognitive processes (and associated examples) include:
– Interpretation: paraphrasing important speeches and documents
– Exemplification: examples of various artistic painting styles
– Classification: classify observed or described cases of mental disorders
– Summarisation: write a short summary of the events portrayed on video tape
– Inference: when learning a foreign language, infer grammatical principles from examples
– Comparison: compare historical events to contemporary situations
– Explanation: explain the causes of important 18th century events in France

Apply: Carry out or use a procedure in a given situation. The cognitive processes (and associated examples) include:
– Execution: divide one whole number by another whole number, both with multiple digits
– Implementation: determine in which situations Newtons second law is appropriate

Analyze: Break material into constituent parts and determine how parts relate to one another and to overall structure or purpose. The cognitive processes (and associated examples) include:
– Differentiation: distinguish between the relevant and irrelevant numbers in a mathematical word problem
– Organisation: structure evidence in an historical description into evidence for and against a particular historical explanation
– Attribution: determine the point of view of the author of an essay in terms of her political perspective

Evaluate: Make judgements based on criteria and standards.
– Check: determine whether a scientists conclusions follow from observed data
– Critique: judge which of two methods is the best way to solve a given problem

Create: Put elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganise elements into a pattern or structure
– Generation: generate hypotheses to account for an observed phenomena
– Plan: plan a research paper on a given historical topic
– Produce: build habitats for certain species for certain purposes

The aim of the taxonomy is provide a framework for classifying educational objectives in terms of the knowledge forms (objective noun) and cognitive processes (objective verb). In a similar manner classroom activities and related assessment criteria are also classified. Having located the appropriate cell for each aspect of the learning process (objective, activity, assessment criteria), it is possible to make a judgment of task cognitive complexity (from remember up to create) and objective alignment.

In terms of the PhD activity, it is necessary to break down the learning requirements in a similar fashion. This will require the analysis of objectives within the Ghanaian curriculum. On the basis that some form of educational technology will be employed within the learning process, a psycho-linguistic analysis will be required in order to identify what aspect of the chosen activity (film, computer based media, music) actually triggers the learning i.e. questions related to a film that stimulates remembering and understanding. The learning activity itself is located within the cognitive/knowledge framework i.e. remembering factual knowledge and understanding conceptual knowledge. What is important to note, in terms of the alignment process is the nature of the relationship between cognitive processes and knowledge types. The following combinations promote learning retention (activities related to the past); remembering factual knowledge, understanding conceptual knowledge, applying procedural knowledge. The subsequent combinations promote learning transfer (activities that promote knowledge to a new future context): analysing, evaluating and creating any form of knowledge.

It is important to note, that rote learning is only related to the lower level of cognitive function (remembering). Where as progressive techniques require higher-level cognitive processes leading to meaningful learning.

In terms of English learning at the elementary level for excluded children with a familiarity of the second language, it is the intention to develop a level of meaningful learning based on remembering and understanding. This may be related to the theories of Chomsky and Pinker, suggesting that individuals have an instinct for language acquisition. It is therefore proposed to develop/design an environment that promotes a top-down approach to learning, placing the individual within a language-saturated environment as opposed to a bottom-up approach that focuses on the inculcation of language fundamentals i.e. phonics, grammar. The aim is to focus on improving overall communication skills rather than focus on the specifics of the language. The complication here is related to the assessment process that in all likelihood is focused on the specifics. Where objectives can not be reconciled, it is suggested that students who have enjoyed the media related strategy be offered the opportunity to learn the fundamentals (in a PAL format) in order to achieve certification.

In this context it is worth noting that in countries like Egypt with a large numbers of tourists, many poor children have learned one or more foreign languages simply as a consequence of exposure and presumably peer support as opposed to any formal learning.