2.Curricula and College Education
College curricula design and management are different from teaching and teaching management.The former involves dealing with scientific design of curricula, for instance, how to make a reasonable or appropriate curricula, what should be considered in designing curricula, and also involves the management or supervision of curricula in the whole process the curricula is being executed, for example, how to make proper changes on curricula when factors affecting curricula have changed.And the latter, teaching and teaching management is concerned with practical execution of curricula and management of all aspects of teaching behaviors.Although both curricula management and teaching management are related to or have something to do with curricula, their emphases are different.The former stresses on the curricula itself, the latter on the execution of curricula, the practical teaching behavior.If we take teaching for its broader sense, in which anything related to teaching can be categorized in teaching, then curricula design and management is subordinate to teaching and teaching management.It's a division or branch of teaching and teaching management.However, if teaching taken for its narrow sense, only for classroom teaching, curricula design and management should be parallel or appositive to teaching and teaching management.They are different sessions of steps of the whole teaching course, both belonging to the broader-sensed teaching.
Curricula design is a relatively independent teaching behavior and teaching behavior management system.It has its coral task and special internal relations system.The coral task or target is curricula design.Its intrinsic relation system includes inter-relations between subjects, between curricula and teaching goals, between curricula and curricula designers, between curricula and teacher, and so on.The relations are the necessary factors that must be taken into account if a good curricula design is to be reached.The reason lies in that, it is through these relations that curricula design impacts on or determines a college's education and teaching qualities.
Curricula functions connecting college and student, which respectively represent education provider and education receiver or educatees The importance or significance of curricula in terms of affecting education and teaching quality lies in both that curricula is the embodiment of a college's education and teaching thoughts or ideas, and curricula at the same time represents what kind of education and teaching a college is able to prepare and offer to students.Therefore, curricula, the media or bridge between college and their educates, in its deeper sense and its essential sense, is the symbol of a college's education and teaching level and capacity of education provision.So the importance of curricula design should be in no way neglected.
Colleges implant their characteristic education thoughts or notions into their curricula through their curricula designers, then make the curricula executed or carried out and accomplish education and teaching information transmission between college side and students through teachers.The whole education process is finished by the students' graduation from colleges.However, curricula don't always remain available without change modification.Curricula should be changed and modified with the development of the society and knowledge in science and technology for it objectively imposes new demands on education.So, the feedback information from society, students and teachers and other channels urges college to change or modify the already-existed education thoughts and change their curricula design through curricula designers so as to make their education and teaching better meet the needs of the society.Factually, English teaching curricula need to be modified and innovated.The rapid-developing society calls for higher requirements on English language education and English language develops more rapidly with the rapid-developing world.
From the discussion above, we find, curricula design plays an important role in education and teaching quality, and this makes it possible for us to improve education and teaching quality by improving or optimizing curricula.
In our further study, before we get at what we should do for curricula design and management, we will focus on discussion and analysis on the main relations concerning curricula and its related factors.
3.Curricula Design, Improvement and Management
3.1 Curricula design and education-and-teaching goals
Education and teaching serve for the society.That is, to produce various kinds of eligible talents for the social needs, and to produce possibly high-quality eligible talents.To reach this, colleges have first to form or set up their goals.Education and teaching goals are the fore-set standards or criteria that guide and conduct all college behaviors, among which the execution of the curricula is no doubt the main course to reach the goals.In this point, curricula design and management and education and teaching goals are closely related.Without well-designed curricula, college education and teaching and their quality are completely groundless and rootless.In their relations, the most essential is, curricula must be coherent with the education and teaching goals.Curricula must be set as possibly to effectively hit the goals.And in reality, curricula can be made incoherent with or unfit for the presumed goals, just as a doctor's preion can be invalid for his patients disease, even the worse, to exterminate his patients' disease.So there objectively exists something we can find and follow between curricula and education and teaching goals.