On Course for Change: Self-Reliant Curriculum Renewal

Abstract

Typically, large-scale curriculum renewal in countries such as Thailand is led by outside experts specifically brought in for the purpose. Unfortunately, such curriculum renewal often fails. Instead of relying on outside experts, self-reliant curriculum renewal is needed where teachers who will implement the new curriculum are themselves the change agents. This paper presents a case study of self-reliant curriculum renewal at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. The curriculum under consideration is the set of English courses taught as language support to students of science, engineering and technology faculties. The proposed curriculum is task-based but also incorporates selfaccess, projects and content-based learning. To involve the teachers in the curriculum renewal process, a series of input sessions and workshops was held; a reading programme for teacher development was organised; a task-based unit was piloted; teachers were encouraged to undertake action research projects relating to the proposed curriculum; and teacher-led sessions to generate proposals for the curriculum were held. Following this process, self-reliant curriculum renewal is feasible, but all teachers must be involved, and the process should combine staff development with curriculum renewal.