Curriculum Implementation from the Perspective of a Language Teacher

Abstract

The concept of curriculum is defined in various ways. But the perceptions of teachers about the concept of curriculum can determine the effectiveness of teaching-learning process in a positive or negative way (Kyriakides, 1997). Though the involvement of students, parents, and school principals is important (Doll, 2008), teachers, who constitute one of the basic groups, should take an active role in curriculum development (Carl, 2005). Since the curriculum is put into practice by teachers in the classroom (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2012), it is reasonable to benefit from their perceptions (Marsh & Willis, 2003). The meaning attributed to the concept of curriculum by teachers includes important information for curriculum development (Yurdakul, 2015). This paper majorly examines curriculum from the perspective of a language teacher. It aims to find out the appropriateness of the given explanation on curriculum in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2020 and describes the concerns of curriculum and compares them with the given explanation. It also tries to answer the question like “does the given explanation on curriculum take care of all its basic features?” After a thorough discussion on curriculum, an attempt has been made to justify the relevance of the process approach to curriculum development. And finally, three Skilbeck’s models on curriculum have been compared to find out which of these would be associated with product approach and which of these with process approach.