Environment Analysis

The aim of this part of the curriculum design process is to find the situational factors that will strongly affect the course.

Environment analysis involves looking at the factors that will have a strong effect on decisions about the goals of the course, what to include in the course, and how to teach and assess it.

There are many factors that could affect curriculum design; the curriculum designer should decide which factors are the most important. The importance of a factor depends on:

·         Whether the course will still be useful if the factor is not taken into account.

·         How large and pervasive the effect of the factor is on the course.

Environment Constraints

The environmental constrains is based in aspects related to the students´needs, the teachers´needs, and  the context in which it is develop the course. There are many aspects that a good curriculum must take into acount of research and theory. Some of the major constraints investigated by research and analysis include the time available, cultural background, the effect of the first language on language learning and special purposes.

The constraint of time

Time is an important constraint in the design and development of a course. The

steps followed include:

1.    Examining the local environment: How much class time is available, how much time out of class could be given to learning, and what the goals of the course are.

2.    Looking at previous research: Useful research information would reveal what could be achieved within certain time periods.

3.    Considering the effect of the constraint on the design of the course: An environmental constraint can be approached in two ways – working within the constraint, and overcoming the constraint. To work within the constraint the curriculum designer could limit the goals of the course to fit the available time. Another way of limiting would be to try to cover most of the language items and skills but at a rather superficial level, relying on later experience to make up for the quick coverage.

Steps in Environment Analysis

1.    Brainstorm and then systematically consider the range of environment factors that will affect the course.

2.    Choose the most important factors (no more than five) and rank them, putting the most important first.

3.    Decide what information you need to fully take account of the factor. The information can come from investigation of the environment and from research and theory.

4.     Consider the effects of each factor on the design of the course.

5.    Go through steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 again.

Environment analysis involves looking at the local and wider situation to make sure that the course will fit and will meet local requirements. There is considerable research data on many of the important environment factors, including class size, motivation, learners of mixed proficiency and special purpose goals. Good environment analysis draws on both analysis of the environment and application of previous research and theory.