CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT OF CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF CONTENTS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH IN SECONDARY SCHOOL (CLASS IX-X)

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the opinion of the parents (Class IX & X students), English teachers, students of secondary classes and experts in curriculum field about the purpose of studying English and selection of contents accordingly. In addition the experts in curriculum field were also consulted on the procedures and processes used at present for selection of content. The focus was on four major areas i.e. social forces in society /community values and purposes, knowledge and its treatment, the nature of learning and the learner and human growth and development that are fundamental to any curriculum. Content and construct reliability and validity of the questionnaires were ensured through pre-testing as well as by obtaining experts opinion. For data collection a sample of 1000 English teachers, 2000 students, 2000 parents and 50 curriculum experts from all the four provinces and the federal capital was selected by adopting multi-stage random sampling procedure. It was ensured that the sample represents the population from rural and urban areas, Urdu and English mediums and public and private schools for both male and female in the right proportion. The key conclusions based on the descriptive and statistical evidences indicated that the people of Pakistan attach great importance to values and purposes related to religious teachings and want to promote these through schooling. It also revealed that the people are very keen to learn English as it is the language of knowledge and higher learning in all fields. The findings of the study indicated that in the present textbooks of English speaking is least emphasized as compared to other skills. The findings of the study also gave a fairly good idea of themes and sub-themes that the majority of population wants to include as content of English for classes IX–X. Based on statistical analysis of the data, criteria for selection of contents for teaching English in Secondary Schools has been developed and weightage suggested for each which have been validated by the Textbook Boards and Curriculum Bureaus in the country.