Personal Assignment
Muhammad Zaid Syahid
Lecturer: Iskandar, S.Pd., M.Ed., Ph.D.
December 4th, 2018
Answer these questions!
1. In many instances, curriculum
is designed by specialist to be
implemented by teacher in
the classroom. Discuss what
the benefits of having
curriculum design specialist
are! If you think there are
drawback, discuss them as
well.
(150-200 words)
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR
Subject: Curriculum & Material Development
Let us start by stating that education is a wide area of science, and classroom teaching
is only a small piece of it. Since curriculum is a set of instructions to be implemented in
the classroom situations, having specialists designing the curriculum of course will
benefits the teachers. It saves their time so they can put more attention focusing on the
‘classroom things’, such teaching materials development, classroom management and
evaluation. Designing and developing curriculum also needs wide area of
consideration such as planning (policy making), specifying the purposes and limits
(environmental analysis) and so on, which teachers commonly not prepared to.
Designing curriculum needs more than a teacher, even though he/she is the one whom
it intended to apply.
Since the ones who are expected to use it are not those who made it, it’s common that
the whole sets (curriculum) cannot be faithfully implemented, because the real
situation in the classroom where the curriculum implemented is usually different with the
expected situation when it is designed. This becomes worse if teachers are not involved
in curriculum design and production.
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2. Snyder et.al (1992) identify 3
perspective implemented
curriculum:
 fidelity perspective,
 mutual adaptation
perspective and,
 enactment perspective.
How are these perspectives
different one another?
(100-150 words)
3. There are two approaches:
 Target language-removed
context (TL Removed
Context),
 Target language-
embedded context (TL
Embedded Context).
How does each operate at
classroom level? In your
practice teaching so far,
which one do you adopt?
Why?
(100-150 words)
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR
Well, the first two perspectives are basically different from the last as fidelity and mutual
adaptation perspective both view the curriculum as an entity produced by experts to
be implemented by teachers through instructions, while the curriculum enactment
perspective view curriculum as it is shaped through the evolving construct of teacher
and students. If curriculum can be considered as a ‘final’ product according to fidelity
and mutual adaptation perspective, enactment perspective tends to see that the final
form of curriculum appears when it is implemented on the classroom level.
Furthermore, the difference between fidelity and mutual adaptation perspective lies on
what they’re concerning at. Fidelity is product oriented. It concerns about whether the
execution is ‘according to plan’ or not. The mutual adaptation on the other hand more
like ‘process oriented’, it is concerning how a curriculum is adapted during the
implementation process by both the developer and users (teachers).
Target Language-removed context treats learned-language purely as a science, just
like math, history or biology. At the classroom level, in the terms of curriculum, it will be
taught according to the instruction set provided and the only purpose is to achieve the
goal provided in the curriculum. When it happened, the job is done.
Usually, in the country where English is not the mother tongue, at the classroom situation
we will clearly recognize this context by the language spoken during the learning
process.
Contrary, Target Language-embedded context deals with language not just as a
subject, it also covers the surrounding context in which the learned language might be
used. The class not just try to achieve what is set in the curriculum, they will also put
some efforts to provide the language as ‘soft skill’ for later use. I used both of this
context according to the students’ need and their level.
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4. From your article reading,
what do you think the area(s)
of language curriculum that
is/are needed to inquire for
research? Explain the areas!
And if you are asked to
determine of the topic, what is
the tittle of your research may
look like?
(100-150 words)
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR
The article provided several good points of view about curriculum, the context of
language in which it is applied and so on. Speaking of language curriculum, it always
attracts my attention to find out why the language teaching in Indonesia (it is taught
from elementary to university level) seemed not enough to provide the students with
adequate skills and knowledge to use language not only as a science/knowledge, but
also skills and use for everyday needs. I would like to find out where the problem lies. It is
true that English for example not the first language; but having it learned from
elementary to university level, we have English learned over 10 years. Where the
problem exactly is? Is it the curriculum? Or the way it is implemented? Is it the teachers?
The possible title may be “English Continuous Learning in Indonesia. Why It is not
enough? (An Overview of 2013 Curriculum)”.
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