By Donald Ducy
- Approaches to evaluation
Effective teaching, speaking, and learning coursebooks are often evaluated for two specific reasons. The first reason is that it will assist the programme developer or teacher in making decisions concerning selecting the most suitable coursebooks. Secondly, evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of a particular coursebook can help them familiarize themselves with its possible strengths and weaknesses. The evaluation of coursebook materials can also be regarded as a synonymous means of conducting action research that will enhance the programme developer’s comprehension of how the materials can be used more effectively. Additionally, these evaluation processes increase the teacher’s professional development by offering them a clearer perspective and allowing them to critically analyse the course materials from an academic point of view.
Over the years, numerous approaches, methods, and models have emerged regarding evaluating coursebooks. The first approach developed by Grant in 1987 is the CATALYST Test (Gant). The word “catalyst” was an abbreviation for eight words: Communicative, Aims, Teachability, Availability, Level, Your-impression, Students’ interest, and Trying/testing. Later on, other researchers developed another acronym, Green and Tanner, in 1998, forming MATERIALS. This abbreviation stood for Method, Appearance, Teacher-friendliness, Extras, Realism, Interestingness, Affordability, Level, and Skills (Tanner and Green).
Despite being developed in simple forms to facilitate the evaluation of coursebooks, these approaches may not have been as effective in fostering a more comprehensive understanding of the actual performance and the efficacy of the pre-determined coursebook as intended. Moreover, other scholars, such as Shaw and McDonough, created a dual-step model for a more all-inclusive evaluation process for the coursebooks. Based on this model, a short extrinsic evaluation needs to be implemented essentially to obtain a general perspective of the coursebook’s organisational foundation (McDonough and Shaw). Afterward, this step should be closely followed by a well-established intrinsic evaluation process. The intrinsic evaluation process aims to determine to what extent the ETL materials or tools are aligned with the author’s claims and the goals and objectives of a particular training programme.
In 1995, Cunningsworth suggested another approach to evaluating coursebooks based on the period the evaluation process is being conducted. This approach consisted of three critical evaluations: pre-use, in-use, and post-use. The pre-use evaluations aim to determine the possible performance of a given coursebook (Cunningsworth). Contrarily, in-use evaluations are implemented in the process of using the specific teaching material. It involves monitoring a newly introduced coursebook or being assessed to determine whether it is applicable or another alternative teaching material should be used instead. Post-use evaluation offers a subsequent analysis of the given teaching material. It facilitates the decision-making processes required to establish whether the same material is suitable for use on other occasions.
Finally, another approach to coursework evaluation was proposed in 2013 by Abelwahab, based on three fundamental aspects. The first aspect was the impressionistic method, which entails assessing a coursebook based on a general perceived opinion. According to the researcher, this technique should be integrated with the checklist approach since it may not function adequately on its own (Abelwahab). The checklist technique, which is also the second method, involves using a checklist, which is a tool that assists the programme developer in assessing the coursebook practically and effectively. The last method is the in-depth approach, which needs a thorough analysis of the representative elements of the coursebook, such as the handling of certain language elements or the design and framework of a given activity or unit.
- Deciding on a checklist
With the right amount of knowledge and exposure to the different approaches to evaluating effective teaching, speaking, and learning coursebooks, teachers or programme developers should determine which method best suits their teaching programme. Most practitioners often use checklists as their most preferred method for evaluating their teaching materials. As mentioned earlier, checklists assist the programme developer in assessing the coursebook practically and effectively. These particular tools allow for a more thorough assessment of the materials based on a selected list of commonly analytical criteria. Thus, one primary advantage of using checklists as an evaluation tool is that they offer a pretty systematic and affordable means of ascertaining that all the individual items or units are considered and represented for assessment.
Ideally, checklists can be quantitative or qualitative. Those developed based on quantitative orders generally enable the user to conduct an objective analysis of a specific coursebook. On the other hand, qualitative checklists engender subjective information concerning the coursebook’s quality by focusing on flexible questions. Consequently, various issues might determine the necessity of using checklists in an evaluation process. Many contemporary English classes globally are using teaching materials that have not been selected by the keen implementation of quantitative assessment criteria. Furthermore, most of these classes have depicted plenty of randomness in their selection processes, which is another major identifiable problem today.
In most countries across the globe, the process of selecting a particularly credible coursebook has become relatively indiscriminate. Additionally, most of these selection processes and procedures are often teacher-centred, rather than learner-centred. Although this fact might make sense given that the programme developers are the final users encountering the imminent benefits and challenges of a specific teaching material all through the training period, it is unsubtle to ignore the fact that the learners are likely to be affected positively or negatively by the gains or losses resulting from the selected coursebook. Thus, in deciding on a checklist used in selecting a given coursebook, it is also imperative to consider the student’s wants and needs seriously. This move can be accomplished by involving the learners in developing and implementing the checklist criteria used to decide on the materials to be used.
- Selecting the best available coursebook
The process of identifying a coursebook is one of the most significant responsibilities a teacher has to do. As stated before, teachers should consider the student’s wants and needs seriously by developing and implementing the material evaluation criteria used to decide on the materials to be used. The work lives of every teacher should revolve around their learners and how they will benefit the most from the learning process. In other words, it is almost impossible to schedule one teaching period, what to teach, choose the learners to teach, the classes to be taught, the classroom to use, or the holiday periods away from these classes without considering how it would ultimately affect the students. Hence, teachers must learn how to select the most suitable coursebook for their students and themselves. They first need to assess the students’ needs and their requirements to achieve this objective.
Principally, programme developers must understand that there is no perfect universal coursebook for all teachers and learners. Thus, they must always compromise when choosing a specific material that they intend to use for a particular semester or other semesters to come. Teachers must also comprehend that they and the students might dislike some aspects of the coursebook. However, they should determine the level of importance of these aspects to creatively modify other available materials to substitute the unwanted elements of the coursebook. Moreover, the teachers should ensure that the coursebook does not lack any essential information required for learning throughout the semester. In any case, some parts of the coursebook are incomplete, they should create or find relevant materials that can be used to fill in those gaps. The teacher should be in partnership with their teaching materials. Therefore, they should personalise the coursebooks as much as possible to help them deliver the information more easily.
- Specifying aims and analysing the learning
Every successful programme must have a specific set of strategies and objectives that will help it succeed and accomplish its desired outcomes. Similarly, the learning process must have the relevant goals that will mutually benefit both the teacher and the learner. Importantly, these goals should specify the precise intentions of the members of the learning programme to eliminate any form of generalization. Secondly, these aims should be measurable. Quantifying the objectives of the learning programme will help both parties to know how much effort they need to place into it to produce the best results. Thirdly, they should be achievable, meaning that both the teacher and the learners should accomplish whatever task that is set ahead of them, no matter how challenging it is. Setting very high targets that are not easily achievable can potentially lead to an untimely end of the programme since both parties would not move forward.
The following characteristic of the learning objective is that it should be realistic. Having realistic goals is important because it saves on a lot of time and money that would probably waste when focusing on unrealistic objectives. For instance, the objectives should not operate under exorbitant budgets when the available funding cannot support them. Another example would be allocating a three-month duration for a learning programme that should run for two years. Lastly, the learning activities should be time-bound. This characteristic means that the entire programme should have a specific deadline. Further, each sub-activity should have a short deadline to accomplish a particular task or activity. These specific characteristics will help the teacher to analyse the performance rate of the programme. They will also help the students in organising themselves accordingly, to march their learning schedules.
- The role of coursebooks
The teacher must always be in partnership with their teaching materials. Thus, this fact means that the teacher should not be the only one teaching the class; neither should the coursebook. Instead, both the teacher and the coursebook should work together toward one specific objective. Teachers must personalise the coursebooks as much as possible to help them deliver the information more easily. At the same time, they should also consider the students’ wants and needs seriously by developing and implementing the material evaluation criteria used to decide on the materials to be used. They need to learn how to select the most suitable coursebook for their students and themselves. Compromising when choosing a specific material that they intend to use for a particular semester or other semesters can also ensure that they develop proper course materials that will facilitate their set objectives.
An essential step in selecting the most appropriate coursebook is to consider what both the teachers and learners want. Thus, a good coursebook should provide a clear, thought-out plan which is appropriately aligned and structured to enable continuous revision. It should also provide a foundation for the development of homework assignments and topics of discussion. The coursebook should offer practical ideas that encourage the students to do most of the learning to minimize teacher-centeredness in the learning processes. Teachers must also consider choosing materials that provide them with enough time to go through them and prepare for the learning sessions. The coursebook should also have a vast range of learning materials at the teacher’s disposal to collect and use appropriately. Comparatively, it should give the learners a sense of security, purpose, and progression in their learning processes. The coursebook needs to have references for confirmation of the information they provided therein and offer a chance for autonomous and independent learning.
- The syllabus base
In any learning process, the syllabus is one of the initial glances that the learner has of the teacher’s course. A syllabus refers to a rudimentary contract between the learners and the teacher. It presents the duties and expectations of both parties. It provides a vivid description of what the course generally entails, the significant milestones that it intends to reach by the end of the course, and the results that will inform both the teacher and the learners about whether they are on the right road and what direction they should consider next. Additionally, the syllabus is an advertising point to demonstrate to the learners how great and exciting the course is throughout the semester.
A well-established syllabus should provide the learners and the teacher with an overall idea of how much work and effort they need to put in for the entire programme to succeed. Consequently, the syllabus should be designed appropriately to incorporate all the best ideas and materials that will help both parties achieve the best outcomes at the end of the teaching and learning period. One of the most significant syllabuses designs commonly used and consists of the highest ability to produce the best results are the learning-centred syllabus. Substantially, learning-centred syllabi usually focus on the learners’ requirements and the best means of achieving the relevant goals and objectives. It also included particular information that is meant to enhance their academic success.
- Structural and functional syllabuses
Structural syllabuses are often common examples of syllabi used in preparing learning materials and are also known as grammatical syllabuses. These syllabi are a part of the product-oriented syllabi that focus intently on developing grammatical structures that are ranked based on their complexity levels. Structural syllabuses represent some of the oldest approaches used in developing and designing courses. This type of syllabi can be considered one that encompasses learning theories that structural ability or knowledge can result in functional ability. Therefore, they are based on the assumption that learners should understand one concept before moving to the next since the language concepts based on these syllabuses should be learned linearly.
Conversely, functional syllabuses refer to sets of materials that a learner of a second language needs to learn. These learners frequently practice different language patterns that identify distinctive ideas and situations as they learn to perform communicative tasks. These syllabi are commonly arranged based on the content as compared to the language form. More so, its idea is that the language is presented cyclically rather than linearly.
