How best to effect curricular change

This week I have been meeting daily with World Language teacher leaders from around the state. Our purpose is to re-think the way we teach in order to create more effective programs.. We are trying to move from a 'fill the head with esoteric information' style of teaching to a 'let's focus on what really helps people communicate' focus.

Part of our work is to collaborate with teachers who are new to the idea that the curriculum in World Languages needs some work. Clearly, for many teachers who have been working for decades one way,  teaching grammar and vocabulary in isolation, the idea of standing curriculum on its head is not only difficult to embrace but downright insulting. The danger is that for the more sensitive of these teachers, suggesting change implies condemnation of methodology.

I personally am excited to work on creating a curricular framework that will help students learn language they can actually use in their lives. I encounter way too many people who talk about the year or two of high school language study they completed yet could never communicate once they really did meet a native speaker of the language. However I am a relative newcomer to the land of language teachers and I don't feel protective of one particular way of doing things. I enjoy trying to find the best way to help students learn and from the beginning of my career was prompted to understand that we must always look at student learning to gauge effectiveness of methods.

This workshop experience is reminding me that suggesting teachers evaluate and change curriculum needs to be done with delicacy. If reluctant teachers are to be brought along on a ride intended to improve how things are done they may need to be coaxed and nudged (and maybe buttered up a bit too) to take baby steps. If they feel threatened or defensive the change we seek is unlikely to occur. Teachers who have not had much experience evaluating their own curriculum will not have developed the habit of self-criticism.

One change we are talking about this week is teaching only the language structures that would actually be useful on the streets of Mexico City, Tokyo, or Brussels instead of obscure verb forms that come into play only on rare occasions. Another change we are discussing is how to help parents, board members, administrators, and other teachers understand that global education - and language study as one key branch - is here to stay and must move toward center stage in the curriculum. Clearly the best methods for effecting change - whether on an individual level or a state or national level - is key if we are to succeed.