Negotiated Syllabus
Negotiated Syllabus | Maria Leedham | March 5th, 2004
Dear all,
I'm thinking about negotiated syllabuses at the moment. I'm reading through the CSD file and Jane W comments that several previous CPs have written assignments on this. Is anyone currently / recently finished this area?
I'm in the fortunate position of being able to decide what I want to do in class, i.e. no externally imposed syllabus. So I try to negotiate with students at the start of a course. One of my courses is support for post grads and doesn't carry credit, so often the people who request a topic for discussion aren't there when we actually have the discussion... It makes planning tricky and I'm actually veering towards producing a syllabus and negotiating LESS in the next course.
Interestingly, for the final class next week, the ss want to look at grammar (tag questions) and intonation rather than the overall course aim of "seminar discussion".
Any thoughts on useful materials for generating discussion on current issues would be very welcome.
Maria
Re: Negotiating a syllabus | Maria Leedham | March 24th, 2004
Hi all,
In CSD, Jane Willis mentions that a few participants have written assignments on negotiating a syllabus with students. I wondered if this applies to anyone still on the list? - I'd be very interested in swapping comments or even assignments on this.
This term I asked students for discussion topics and areas of language to work on at the beginning of term, then each week we chose the following week's topic. This was within a course focusing on oral / aural skills for post grads titled English for Social and Academic Purposes. I produced a retrospective syllabus at the end of term and asked them in a questionnaire how they felt about choosing. The responses were generally favorable, but with a couple of interesting adverse comments.
Maria
Re: negotiating a syllabus | Andy Boon | March 25th, 2004
Maria,
I wrote my CSD paper on designing a method of needs analysis for short business courses (20 hours) in which students negotiate the course content according to their specific needs for English in the workplace / reason for taking the class.
If it sounds relevant to your particular assignment, I can send it you.
Andy
Re: negotiating a syllabus | Jerry Talandis Jr. | March 27th, 2004
On Mar 24, 2004, at 10:25 PM, Maria Leedham wrote:
I produced a retrospective syllabus at the end of term and asked them in a questionnaire how they felt about choosing. The responses were generally favorable, but with a couple of interesting adverse comments.
Hi Maria,
I was wondering what some of those "interesting adverse comments" were. I've done some syllabus negotiating here in Japan, and the response I get sometimes is that the syllabus is "the teacher's responsibility, so why ask us" kind of thing. In other words, some of my Japanese students think teachers are being lazy when they involve students, and the change in roles is confusing or uncomfortable. Is this the reaction you got, and if so, what do you think about it?
Jerry Talandis Jr.
Toyama, Japan
Re: negotiating a syllabus | Maria Leedham | March 29th, 2004
Hi Jerry,
I had 8 returns and 6 were positive. Two said it was better for the teacher to decide and didn't really explain why, this was in a mixed nationality group.
I piloted another, fuller questionnaire on just two students from a different course and asked follow up questions by email. These ss both like some choice but not too much, and when I asked for more detail they said sometimes the choice was too hard, they felt the teacher "knew better" what they should study. The latter two ss were both Japanese. I think that yes, they probably did feel a bit confused and uncomfortable by the devolving of responsibility from T to ss. They seem to feel they don't know enough to know what they should do - and of course to some extent this is true when the choice is about language not topic/activity.
I'm working on my questionnaire to try to make it more useful and will send it out to more people shortly.
Maria
Re: negotiating a syllabus | Jerry Talandis Jr. | March 31st, 2004
Hi Maria,
Thanks for letting me know about the "negative" responses to your questionnaire.
The fact that these students were Japanese does not surprise me one bit. I find that a lot of my Japanese students appreciate choice, but there are always a few who don't like it. Like you noted, they feel confused or uncomfortable with the change. With some classes, especially the adult learners who take continuing Ed courses at night, I find that a traditional teacher-centered approach creates a sense of calm. I remember trying this "radical" totally student-centered curriculum one year- it totally flopped. It's just an interesting aspect of the culture. The thing I learned was that you have to know your students and push them only as far as they are willing to go (well, maybe a little bit beyond!).
Good luck with your assignment.
Jerry
Re: negotiating a syllabus | Maria Leedham | March 31st, 2004
Yes, all true about pushing students just a little and knowing them really well. The Japanese students I've taught have always really appreciated one to one with the teacher, whether letters / journals passed back and forth, email contact, or brief in-lesson tutorials. Asking them individually what they'd like to do in class is a way to make things more under learner control without ss feeling lost.
I use email a lot now as I see the students only once a week. A brief email between lessons from me really seems to push things forward. Students tell you a lot more in a private email than they ever cd in class eg what they find difficult, what they'd like to do more of in class.
Maria
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