Situational analysis

Lecturer : Adieli Laoli, S.Pd, M.Pd
Curriculum and Material Development
PIETERSON HAREFA
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT – A
THE FOURTH GRADE
IKIP GUNUNGSITOLI

SITUATION ANALYSIS
Ω A language curriculum is a function of the interrelationship that hold between subject-specific concerns and other broader factors embracing socio-political and philosophical matters, educational value system, theory and practice in curriculum design, teacher experiential wisdom and learner motivation.
Ω Situation analysis is an analysis of factors in the content of a planned or present curriculum project that is made in order to assess their potential impact on the project.
Ω Kinds of factors that can have an impact on the success of a curriculum project and emphasize the importance of determining the potential influence of such factors on the implementation of a curriculum change such as societal factors, project factors, institutional factors, teacher factors, learner factors, and adoption factors.
Ω Procedures used in situation analysis are similar to those involved in needs analysis, namely :
o Consultation with representatives of as many relevant groups as possible, such as parents, students, teachers, administrators, and government officials.
o Study and analysis of relevant documents, such as course appraisal documents, government reports, ministry of education guidelines and policy papers, teaching materials, curriculum documents.
o Observation of teachers and students in relevant learning setting.
o Surveys of opinions of relevant parties
o Review of available literature related to the issue
Societal Factors
Ω Second or foreign language teaching is a fact of life in almost every country in the world. Yet countries differ greatly in terms of the role of foreign languages in the community, their status in the curriculum, educational traditions and experience in language teaching, and the expectations that members of the community have for language teaching and learning.
Ω The position of foreign language in the school curriculum is neither strong nor secure.
Ω In examining the impact of societal factors on language teaching, therefore, the aims is to determine the impact of groups in the community or society at large on the program. These groups include: policy makers in government, educational and other government officials, employers, the business community, politicians, tertiary education specialist, educational organizations, parents, citizens, and students.



Ω In the case of project of community or national scope, questions which is need to determine :

o Language teaching policies
o The underlying reasons for the project
o The impact on different sectors of society.
o Language teaching experience and tradition exist in the country
o View of public to second language and second language teaching
o Academics and teacher trainers
o View of parents and students
o View of employers and the business community
o Community resources

Project Factors
Ω Curriculum projects are typically produced by a team of people.
Ω Projects are completed under different constrains of time, resources, and personnel, and each of these variables can have a significant impact on a project.
Ω The following project factors need to be considered :

o Who constitutes the project group and how are they selected?
o What are the management and other responsibilities of the team?
o The goals and procedures determined
o Who reviews the progress of the project and the performance of its members?
o Experience that members of team can have
o Wow do members of the team regard each other?
o Resources that they have
o The time frame of project

Institutional Factors
Ω A language teaching program is typically delivered in an institution such as a university, school, or language institute. Different types of institutions create their own “culture,” that is, settings where people interact and where patterns emergence for communication, decision making, reole relations, and conduct.
Ω A teaching institution is a collection of teachers, groups and departments, sometimes functioning in unison, sometimes with different components functioning independently, or sometimes with components in a confrontational relationship.
Ω Institution factors are determined of questions about :

o Leadership
o School’s physical resources including classroom facilities, media, and other technological resources, and library resources.
o Role of the textbooks and other instructional materials
o Staff morale like among English teacher
o Problem that teacher should face
o Administrative support
o How committed is the institution to attaining excellence?


Teacher Factors
Ω Teachers are key factor in the successful implementation of curriculum change.
Ω In any institution, teacher may vary according to the following dimensions: language proficiency, teaching experience, skill and expertise, training and qualifications, morale and motivation, teaching style, and beliefs and principles.
Ω The following teacher factors need to be considered :
o Kinds of teachers currently teach in the target schools, their typical background, training, experience, and motivation.
o Their proficient in English
o What kinds of belief to the teachers typically hold concerning key issues in teaching?
o What teaching loads do teachers have and what resources do they make us of?
o Teaching methods that teachers use
o What benefits are the proposed new syllabus, curriculum, or materials likely to offer teachers?
Learner Factors
Ω Learners are the key participants in the curriculum developments projects and it is essential to collect as much information as possible about them before the project begins.
Ω Among relevant learner factors therefore are following :
o Experience of learners’ language
o Their motivation to learn English
o Their expectation for the program
o Are they homogeneous or heterogeneous group?
o Type of learning approach that they favor
o Type of content that they prefer
o Their expectations they have for the roles of teachers, learners, and instructional materials
o The time they can be expected
o Learning resources they have to access
Adoption Factors
Ω The following teacher factors need to be considered :
o The advantages of curriculum change
o Is the innovation perceived to be more advantageous than current practices?
o Is the innovation very complicated and difficult to understand?
o Has it been used and tested out in some schools before all schools are expected to use it?
o Have the features and benefits of the innovation been clearly communicated to teachers and institutions?
o How clear and practical is it?
Ω A methodology that can readily be turned into teaching materials and textbooks will generally be easier to adopt than one that exist only as a set guidelines.
Ω The goal of situation analysis is to identify key factors that might positively or negatively affect the implementation of a curriculum plan. This is sometimes known as a SWOT analysis because it involves an examination of “a language program’s internal strength and weaknesses in addition to external opportunities and threats to the existence or successful operation of the language program”.