Classical humanist,reconstructionist and progressivist traits of the English language teaching curriculum at Mustafa Kemal University

Abstract

It is generally believed that no standard curriculum will do for all or even most schools and that any evolutionary curriculum must be shaped around the qualities of the participants. The current curriculum in the Department of English Language Teaching at Mustafa Kemal University does not seem to satisfy the needs of both the students and the teachers since it was adopted from Çukurova University when Mustafa Kemal University was founded in 1992. The most important problems faced in the implementation of the present curriculum can be listed as a lack of written statements of objectives, over emphasis on grammar courses which are given for three years in an education period of five years, and a lack of emphasis on practical everyday communication needs of students. This study focused on some traits of three different curriculum approaches, namely, classical humanist curriculum approach, reconstructionist curriculum approach, and progressivist curriculum approach , in the existing curriculum of the Department of English Language Teaching at Mustafa Kemal University. To collect data, a total of randomly selected fifty students were given a questionnaire and fifteen other randomly selected students were interviewed. Since there are only five teachers in the department, the entire staff and the Head of the Department were both given a questionnaire and interviewed. The results suggest that some traits of classical humanism are more strongly felt within the department when compared to the traits of reconstructionism and progressivism, and that the traits of progressivism and reconstructionism present themselves as both the objective and the subjective needs of the students. Hence, it could be suggested that an adherence to an extreme version of any one of the above-mentioned curriculum approaches would be counterproductive since it would seem sensible to accept that these curriculum approaches are all valid at different times for different purposes with different learners.