Teachers and students' perceptions of the alignment in a general english curriculum: a case in the Mekong delta

The results of this study was that both teachers and students agreed that there is an alignment between the learning outcomes and teaching and assessment activities in the[r]

iii

ABSTRACT

Constructive alignment in a curriculum has been mentioned by many previous experts all over the world This study partly contributed in this area This research was conducted to investigate the teachers and students’ perceptions of the alignment in a General English curriculum in the context of a university in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam Participants of this study were sixteen teachers and one hundred and sixty- seven students in a university in the south of Vietnam Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from questionnaires and semi- structure interviews The results of this study was that both teachers and students agreed that there is an alignment between the learning outcomes and teaching and assessment activities in the General English curriculum Implications for teachers and curriculum developers was figured out basing on the results of the study

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Research aims 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Organization of the thesis 3

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Perception 5

2.2 Curriculum and curriculum evaluation 6

2.2.1 The curriculum 6

2.2.2 Curriculum evaluation 7

2.3 Constructive alignment 8

2.4 Related studies 9

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14

3.1 Research questions 14

3.2 Research hypothesis 14

3.3 Research design 15

3.4 Participants 16

3.4.1 Teachers 16

3.4.2 Students 16

3.5 Research context 17

3.6 Research instruments 19

v

3.6.1 Questionnaires 19

3.6.2 Interview 21

3.7 Data collection procedure 22

3.7.1 Administering the questionnaires 22

3.7.2 Administering the interviews 22

3.8 Data analysis 22

3.8.1 Data from questionnaires 22

3.8.2 Data from interviews 22

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS 24

4.1 Teachers’ perceptions 24

4.2 Students’ perceptions 27

4.3 Insight into teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum 31

4.4 Insight into students’ perceptions of the curriculum 34

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 39

5.1 Summary of the findings 39

5.2 Discussion of the findings 40

5.2.1 Teachers’ perceptions 40

5.2.1 Students’ perceptions 41

5.3 Implications 41

5.3.1 To teachers 41

5.3.1 To curriculum developers 42

5.4 Limitations of the present study 42

5.5 Recommendations for the further study 42

5.6 Conclusion 42

REFERENCES 44

APPENDICES 1

APPENDIX A 1

APPENDIX B 8

APPENDIX C 15

APPENDIX D 22

vi

APPENDIX E 29

APPENDIX F 30

APPENDIX G 31

APPENDIX H 32

APPENDIX I 33

APPENDIX J 36

APPENDIX K 38

vii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.5 Questionnaire on teachers/ student’s perceptions of a General

English curriculum

20

Table 4.1 The reliability of each cluster in the questionnaire for teachers 25 Table 4.2 Teachers’ perceptions of the alignment in the curriculum 26 Table 4.3 The reliability of each cluster in the questionnaire for students 27 Table 4.4 Students’ perceptions of the alignment in the curriculum 28 Table 4.5 The participants’ gender and teaching experience 31

viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Key elements and relationship in a curriculum 6

Figure 4.1 Teachers’ perceptions of the alignment in the curriculum 26 Figure 4.2 Students’ perceptions of the alignment in the curriculum 29 Figure 4.3 Teachers and students’ perceptions of the alignment in

the curriculum

30

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The introductory chapter includes five main sections The first section is the rationale of students’ proficiency in speaking English in Vietnam and in Mekong Delta, leading to the reasons for conducting this study The second section is research aims Thirdly, research questions are introduced in this chapter The fourth section is the significance of the study The last section is the organization of the study

1.1 RATIONALE

English is an international language In Vietnam, English is the most popular foreign language Because of this, English is a compulsory language in all of public and private schools in Vietnam The students start studying English when they are

in the primary school (Grade 3) Students study English from Grade 3 to the university In language centers, English is also taught for early childhood programs Though widely taught, students’ English proficiency is still low The reality has shown that when the students take programs in the university, the majority of them cannot communicate in English In such a context, on 30 September 2008, the Prime Minister issued Decision No.1400/ QĐ-TTg and the National Foreign Languages 2020 Project was born which aims to promote the quality of foreign language learning and teaching The framework of foreign language proficiency was also issued, consisting of six levels from Level 1 to Level 6 (equivalent A1 to C2- Common European Framework Reference (CEFR)) College and university students should be able to achieve Level 3 (equivalent B1- CEFR) before graduating from the university Such policy gives chances for colleges and universities to invest time and effort in improving the quality of their General

2

English programs so as to help non-English majors achieve level 3 of their English proficiency

It is certain an operative curriculum will bring about positive impact on students’ learning and learning outcomes, and it becomes clear that no curriculum

is effective without evaluation and adjustment Therefore, curriculum evaluation is

an activity which should be conducted regularly in every schools and universities Evaluation in the scope of this study is to examine how learning outcomes align with teaching and assessment activities It is worth investigating teachers’ perceptions of the alignment between the learning outcomes and teaching and assessment activities implemented in the General English curriculum at the university under investigation

1.2 RESEARCH AIMS

This study aims to achieve two objectives The first one was to find out the teachers’ perceptions of the alignment between the learning outcomes and teaching and assessment activities in the General English curriculum at the target university The second aim was to find out the teachers’ perceptions of the alignment between the learning outcomes and teaching and assessment activities in the General English curriculum at the target university

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1 What are the teachers’ perceptions of the alignment between the learning outcomes and teaching and assessment activities in the General English

curriculum at a university under investigation?

2 What are the students’ perceptions of the alignment between the learning outcomes and teaching and assessment activities in the General English

curriculum at a university under investigation?

3

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

There has not been any study investigating the alignment of the learning outcomes and teaching and assessment activities in the General English curriculum which has been published in Vietnam and in the Mekong Delta As a result, findings from the study would enrich the literature in the field and shed light into how to enhance the quality of the curriculum to meet learners’ learning needs

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

The thesis consists of five chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Research Methodology, Results, Discussion and Conclusion

Chapter One presents rationale of the study, research aims, research questions, significance of the study and organization of the thesis

Chapter Two reviews literature related to the perceptions of teachers and students on the General English curriculum Firstly, the definition of the perception was synthesized and reported Secondly, the theories of curriculum and curriculum evaluation were found Thirdly, constructive alignment was defined Finally, a number of related studies were summarized by the researcher

Chapter Three describes the research methodology of the study including research aims, research questions and hypothesis, participants and research instruments as questionnaires and interview questions used for data collection, the procedure of collecting data and the data analysis

Chapter Four reports the results from the data collected through the use of questionnaires and interviews

Chapter Five presents the summary of the major research results, the discussion of the issues evolving from the results and the implications for the

4 curriculum Moreover, the limitations of the study as well as suggestion for further research are recommended at the end of the chapter

5

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

The chapter reviews the literature related to EFL teachers and students’ perceptions of the General English curriculum This chapter consists of four parts: (1) definitions of perception (2) definitions of curriculum and curriculum evaluation (3) definitions of constructive alignment and (4) related studies on those

topics

2.1 PERCEPTION

Definitions of perception are abounding in literature Bryant (1973) confirmed that there is a close relationship between people’s perception and people’s understanding of their environment It means that perception could be understood as understanding of one’s surrounding Rao and Narayan’s (1998) stated, “Perception is the process whereby people select, organize, and interpret sensory stimulations into meaningful information about their work environment (p 329-330)”

In this study, perception is understood as human ability to receive, adjust and evaluate what they experienced Teachers and students who have experienced the General English curriculum because of working directlt with this can evaluate the alignment between the learning outcomes and teaching and assessment activities in the curriculum exactly and reliably Teachers and students reflect precisely what are unsuitable such as the mismatch of contents and assessments; contents and students’ needs; assessments and learning outcomes

44

REFERENCES

A English materials:

1 Ali, A (2018) Journal of education and e- learning research The design of

curriculum, assessment and evaluation in higher education with constructive alignment 5(1), 72-78

2 Almalki, M M (2014) Teacher perception of a new English as a foreign

language (EFL) curriculum in Saudi Arabia Master’s thesis, State

University of New York

3 Barlow, H.(1990) Condition for Versatile Learning, Hemholtz’s Unconcious

Inference and the Task of Perceptions Vision Res, 1561-1571

4 Bigg, J (2003) Teaching for quality learning at university Maidenhead

5 Biggs, J & Tang, C (2007) Teaching for quality learning at university (3rd

ed.) Buckingham: SRHE/Open University Press

6 Brown, J (1989) Language program evaluation: A synthesis of existing

possibilities In R.K

7 Bryant, P (1973) Perception and understanding in young children Oxford:

Oxford

8 Burke, J (1995) Introduction and overview In Burke, J (ed.), Outcomes,

Learning and the curriculum Implications for NVQ's, GNVQ's and other qualifications London Routledge Falmer 6

9 Cattington, Limon E (2010) (Ed) Handbook of Curriculum Development

New York: Nova Science Publisher Inc

45

10 Cohen, L., & Manion, L., & Morrison, K (2007) Research methods in

11 Creswell, J W (2014) Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods

approaches SAGE Publications, Inc

12 Dornyei, Z (2003) Questionnaires in second language research Lawrence

Erlbaum Associates, Inc

13 Finch, C R & Crunkilton, J K (1999) Curriculum development in

vocational and technical education: planning, content, and implementation

(5th ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon

14 Fraenkel, J R., Wallen, N E., & Hyun, H H (2012) How to design and

evaluate research in education SAGE Publications, Inc

15 Hashmi, A., Hussain, T., Shoaib, A (2018) Bulletin of education and

research Alignment between mathematics curriculum and textbook of grade

VIII in Punjab 40(1), 57-76.

16 Jordan, W., & Jordan J (1989) Man in context Isando: Lexicon Publishers

17 Kader, M A (2016) Curriculum evaluation of professional post- graduate

MA in ETL/ TESOL program: A study on Bangladeshi Institutions Master’s

thesis, BRAC University, Bangladeshi

18 Kitwood, T M (1977) Value in adolescent life: towards a critical description, Unpublished dissertation, School of Education, University of Bradford

19 La Marca, P M., Redfield, D., Winter, P C., & Despriet, L (2000) State

standards and state assessment systems: A guide to alignment Series on

46

standards and assessments Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School

Officers

20 Larkin, H & Richardson, B (2011) Creating high challenge/high support academic environments through constructive alignment: student outcomes

Teaching in Higher Education, 18(2), 192-204

21 Martone, A., Sireci, S G (2009) Review of educational research

Evaluating Alignment between curriculum, assessment, and instruction

79(4), 1332-1361

22 Meyers, N M., Nulty, D D (2009) Assessment & evaluation in higher

education How to use (five) curriculum design principles to align authentic

learning environments, assessment, students’ approaches to thinking and learning outcomes Routledge Talor & Francis Group 34(5), 565-577

23 Nation, I.S.P., & Macalister, J (2010) Language Curriculum and Design New York: Taylor and Francis Group

24 Nichols, Shidaker, Johnson, & Singer (2006) MANAGING

CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT- A Practitioner’s Guide Ohio:

Linworth Publishing, Inc

25 Oxford, R L., & Burry-Stock, J A (1995) Assessing the use of language learning strategies worldwide with the ESL/EFL version of strategy

inventory for language learning SILL ELSEVIER 23(1), 1-23

implemented curriculum through teachers’ interpretation: a case study of a- level biology practical work 13(3), 723-740