Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
With the steady advance of the Curriculum Standards (The Ministry ofEducation 2017), standard-based teaching obtains popular support for the sake ofenhancing the teaching efficiency.
As the forerunner of teaching-learning-assessment alignment, instructionalobjectives are not only the direction for the teaching activities implementation andanticipated learning result in a planned way, but also the starting point anddestination in classroom teaching. Additionally, from the perspective of newcurriculum standard, there are three questions that should be answered in Englishclass, which are: (1) What to teach? (2) How to teach? (3) How to evaluate?Teaching, learning and evaluation affect and interact with each other. Therefore,English teaching should pursue the alignment among teaching, learning andassessment. The New English Curriculum has proposed core competencies forfour years. However, some problems are emerging in practical instructionalobjective design.
1. Inconsistency between Instructional Objectives and the CurriculumStandard
Instructional objectives attribute to focusing learners’ attention on learning.Whether teachers can help students to achieve objectives largely depends on theaccuracy and appropriateness of instructional objectives. However, there is acommon circumstance that teaching objectives are not scientific and appropriate.Carless (2006) indicated that there were lots of problems in instructional objectivedesign. For example, the design of instructional objective was not comprehensiveand systematic; the requirements to teaching objectives were not appropriate. Itwas difficult to observe and operate classroom objectives and so on (Li 2004).Mixing curriculum objectives with instructional objectives and applyinginstructional objectives mechanically have become a very prominent phenomenon,which leads to the failure in teaching and learning.
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1.2 Aims of the Research
The Curriculum Standards (The Ministry of Education 2017) requires thatteachers’ roles in English classroom teaching should be students’ wisdomenlightener and students’ cooperator. It is teachers’ responsibility to put forwardand carry out some creative ideas and create an active and dynamic Englishatmosphere. What’s more, it is necessary that teachers should be of greatprofession in designing, carrying out and examining instructional objectiveswhich means that instructional objectives focus on the cultivation of students’English core competencies. So how to design and implement English instructionalobjectives?
Instructional objective is the beginning and basis inteaching-learning-assessment alignment, which has been proposed for a long time,but there are still many problems: the design of instructional objectives is soarbitrary and unscientific that it isn’t in accordance with the New Curriculum (Ma2012), the relationship among each objective doesn’t catch enough attention,classroom assessment doesn’t accord with teaching and learning and so on(Leitzel 1993).
To solve those problems and to enhance the efficiency of classroom teachingand learning, the aim of this study is to analyse current situation in instructionalobjective design and to find out how do teachers design teaching objectives on thebasis of the New English Curriculum Standard in high school. What’s more, theauthor tries to analyze the relationship among instructional objectives, classroomactivities and assessment, and then summarize the problems in classroom activitydesigning and assessment methods. At last, this paper gives some suggestionsbased on the difficulties and reasons. Importantly, some standardized classroomobjectives in English will be given for effective teaching.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Definitions of Relevant Concepts
2.1.1 Instructional Objectives
It is Taylor who originally raised the concept of instructional objective in1934. In 1960s, it became a specialized term in that more attention is paid to thisconcept. Two kinds of views were raised during that period. On the one hand,some scholars regard instructional objective as the direction of teaching. Meier(1975) first defined this concept as direction which was related to concreteteaching process. On the other hand, some scholars considered instructionalobjectives are expected behavioral outcomes for learning. Bloom and Gardnerheld this view. After that, Bloom (1956) created Bloom’s Taxonomy ofEducational objectives, which was the beginning of instructional objectiveclassification theory. As for Bloom, instructional objectives can be pided intothree levels: curriculum objectives, unit instructional objectives and classroominstructional objectives.
This paper will focus on the classroom objectives. Although it is associatedwith curriculum and unit objectives, classroom instructional objective is differentfrom the other two terms. Classroom instructional objectives are more specific.However, it is of significant necessity for teachers to design instructionalobjectives based on the curriculum and unit objectives.
There are various definitions concerning classroom objectives. Wang (2004)considered instructional objectives as the expected standards for teachingactivities and the stipulations or expectations for tasks. Yuan (2004) indicated thatteaching objectives were desired requirements or generated changeable results foreducators after the accomplishment of certain stages of work. For instance: a class,a unit or a term. In summary, instructional objectives refer to the direction andexpected results in teaching and learning. As for classroom activity, instructionalobjectives are not only the starting point, but ultimate destination.
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2.2 Previous Studies on Teaching-Learning-Assessment Alignment
2.2.1 Studies on Teaching-Learning-Assessment Alignment Abroad
Alignment research in education abroad originated in the 1960s. Representedby Skinner, new behaviorists put forward that “learning process is a process ofinstrumental conditioning. All human behaviors are the results of instrumentalconditioning and positive reinforcement (Wu 2009). This opinion has arousedwide consideration toward teaching conditions and expected results. The majorityof scholars pointed out that defining teaching objectives was the most essentialpart during the teaching process. The most effective approach in teaching startsfrom teaching objectives. In order to achieve the expected teaching results,teachers have to design and implement teaching standard behaviors according toinstrumental objectives.
Because of students’ poor performance during PISA and TIMSS, Americacalled for the Standard-based Curriculum Reform (SBCR) to enhance the qualityof teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools in the 1980s. TheStandard-based Curriculum Reform resulted from standards, which starts fromdesigning curriculum criterion. What’s more, curriculum, teaching, evaluation andthe professional development of teachers are on the basis of curriculum criterion.From then on, the alignment between teaching evaluation and curriculum criterionbecomes the focus of academic research.
The research of alignment in education originated from abroad, theachievements of which were extremely rich, including curriculum, teaching,evaluation and so on. The alignment put forward by Squires includes thealignment among teaching, evaluation and written materials. Polikoff and Fulmer(2006) pointed out that the Standard-based Curriculum Reform was to achieve thealignment among standard, evaluation and teachers’ teaching. During the analysison science curriculum in senior high schools, Turan-Ozpolat and Bay (2010)revealed teachers’ alignment levels in teaching content, method, technique,evaluation and so on.
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3.1 Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives................................23
3.2 Behavioral Objective Statement Theory............................... 25
3.3 English Disciplinary Competency.....................................27
Chapter 4 Methodology........................................ 32
4.1 Research Questions............................................... 32
4.2 Research Subjects.........................................33
4.3 Research Methods and Instruments................................. 33
Chapter 5 Results and Discussion.................................37
5.1 Results..............................................37
5.1.1 Instructional Objectives.................................... 37
5.1.2 The Correspondence between Activities and Objectives......43
Chapter 5 Results and Discussion
5.1 Results
The data in classroom observation scales and relevant contents will bepresented in the following.
5.1.1 Instructional Objectives
The center of teaching-learning-assessment alignment is instructionalobjectives. Teachers’ teaching, students’ learning and classroom assessments focuson objectives. Based on the teaching designs, the data about instructionalobjectives is presented in Classroom Observation Scales.
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Chapter 6 Conclusion
6.1 Major Findings
During this paper, the research is conducted from three perspectives. Theyare the statement of instructional objectives, the implementation of objectives andthe assessments
For the first research question, the author studied the types, completeness andlogicality of instructional objectives by observing and analyzing eight teachingdesigns. The conclusions are: (1) There are various kinds of ways to stateinstructional objectives, such as three-dimensional objectives, four-dimensionalobjectives and objectives based on the Activity-based Language learning approach.(2) The statement of instructional objectives lacks completeness, and focuses onknowledge rather than conditions and degrees. (3) The arrangement ofinstructional objectives is logical, but some teachers don’t pay enough attention toobjectives at the level of transformation and creation.
For the research question about the corresponding relationship betweenclassroom activities and instructional objectives, this paper studies the purposes ofclassroom activities in order to analyze whether classroom activities are designedto achieve the teaching objectives. The findings are: (1) Both direct and indirectcorresponding activities facilitate the achievement of teaching objectives. (2)Most classroom activities achieve their purposes.
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