Programme Implementation 1

CHAPTER 7: PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT

7.1 Introduction
Stage 5 of the extended situational model (based on Skilbeck 1984:231) for school-based curriculum development (figure B-4) is to implement the programme, putting the philosophy and methodology into practice. Programme implementation and management will be examined in two stages in this chapter: i) principles of programme management and implementation (section 7.2); and ii) practicalities of implementing the programme in this study (section 7.3).

7.2 Principles of programme management and implementation
7.2.1 Management procedures
Language programmes are generally seen as consisting of selected pedagogic items (curriculum, syllabus, teaching method, assessment, etc.). However, it is important to recognise that the programme manager, in addition to being able to organise a viable infrastructure that provides appropriate courses of study for its intended clients, also needs to set up and/or manage procedures for personnel management (an often neglected part of programme design) including: i) hiring teaching staff; ii) dealing with salary/tax/insurance issues; iii) immigration matters (e.g. visa requirements); iv) housing problems; v) teaching resource problems (e.g. malfunctioning equipment); vi) inter-staff disputes; vii) teacher-training, and viii) cultural misunderstandings with local staff. The scope of this study is not sufficient to give adequate attention to management concerns, its focus being on "educational" aspects of designing, implementing and evaluating a student-centred task-based programme. Management issues are, however, vitally important, since inefficient or power-coercive management styles (White 1988:133; cf. table A-49) can demotivate teachers, impede learning, and nullify educational goals. A number of these issues are therefore discussed in the following section (7.2.2).

7.2.2 Management issues
Realising philosophies and methodologies which have been identified as appropriate for the students and their learning situation, by making syllabi, choosing texts, hiring and training teachers, and registering students, might seem simply a matter of "let the lessons begin", but in fact a number of significant issues are involved, some of which (relevant to this study) are outlined below. Items i) to v) describe initiatory stages - items ii) to v) can also be seen as sub-sets of item i) - and items vi) to x) describe day-to-day implementation factors which need to be in place before the first student enters the first class, and which need to continue throughout the programme.

Programme management issues:

i) managing innovation (section 7.2.2.1): students, teachers, parents and management need to be involved in implementing the new programme, especially if (as in this study) it includes significant innovation;

ii) hiring teachers: hiring of new teaching staff needs to focus on awareness of (and agreement with) the principles of the programme, ability to carry these out in the classroom, and cultural sensitivity;

iii) teacher-training (cf. sections 6.5, 7.2.2.2, 7.3.5): particularly in the case of innovative programmes and reforms, teachers need seminars and discussions on the principles behind the curriculum, workshops on how to realise the syllabi and use the textbooks, teacher observation, team teaching, and policy statements (both theoretical and practical);

iv) writing syllabi (cf. section 6.3): pre-course or ongoing needs analyses (cf. section 5.3) must result in syllabi which adequately address student learning needs;

v) textbooks (sections 2.6.3, 7.2.5, 7.3.1-3): decisions must be made on the necessity for textbooks, and the suitability of commercially available texts. If in-house texts are required (cf. section 3.2.1.3.4), the authoring process (designing/writing/piloting/reviewing/publishing) needs to begin early in the programme-design stage;

vi) teacher support (sections 7.2.2.2, 7.3.5): in addition to training opportunities, teachers need an infrastructure of logistic, administrative, and personal support. This should address allocation of lesson-preparation time, resourcing and office space, as well as complaints, sickness, tax/insurance/visa matters, and contracts. It should also promote efficient, effective, and sensitive attention to individual personal problems, and should deal with day-to-day administrative details such as easy access to sufficient teaching resources (stationery, teaching texts, resource texts, on-line computers). Teaching and self-access facilities (photocopier, laminator, overhead projector, cassette players, video players, video camera, televisions) need to be well maintained by trained support personnel (secretarial and technical);

vii) logistics: registration of students; class sizes; availability/cost of textbooks; scheduling of lessons (students and teachers); allocation of overtime; availability/convenience/maintenance of classrooms;

viii) supportive management: informed hiring policy; positive approach to problems as they arise; compassionate consideration of personal problems (teachers and staff); transparency in decision-making; immediate dissemination of relevant information; delegation of responsibilities (e.g. textbook committee, assessment committee, academic co-ordinators) and recompense/recognition for assuming and carrying out these responsibilities;

ix) marketing: informing potential students of available courses; allocation of funds to advertising;

x) formative feedback (sections 7.3.7, 9.1): obtaining information from teachers and students about the programme (weaknesses and strengths) and about possible developments; liaising with and reporting to parents and sponsors about the programme.

7.2.2.1 Managing innovation

Although applied linguistics provides a basis for approach, design and procedure, putting into effect any decisions regarding design and procedure takes [sic] right out of applied linguistics and straight into innovation management. This is because decisions about language curriculum rapidly cease to be decisions about ideas and become actions which affect people. On such matters, applied linguistics is silent. (White 1988:113)

The topic of innovation management is extremely important in the implementation of a new programme, since the use of new/revised materials, new teaching approaches, and possible alteration of beliefs (Fullan 1991:37) involves "passing through the zones of uncertainty ... the situation of being at sea, of being lost, of confronting more information than you can handle" (Schön 1971:12), in which "meaning ... will rarely be clear at the outset, and ambivalence will pervade the transition" (Fullan 1991:31). It is important therefore that programme designers have a clear view of why particular innovations are desirable, who benefits from them, and how sound or feasible the ideas and approaches are (Fullan 1991:17), since implementation of unfamiliar ideology (cf. table A-49 – "Progressivism") involves attitude changes, and teachers and students (who possess expectations of what a language programme "should be") need information-processing opportunities, in order to "buy in" (Fullan 1991:289) to these ideas through "re-invention" ("the degree to which an innovation is changed or modified by a user in the process of its adoption and implementation" [Rogers, E. 1983:175]), construction of "shared meaning" (Rosenholtz 1989), and "transformation of subjective realities" (Fullan 1991:36), resulting in "cognitive and behavioral change" (Fullan 1991:189). It is necessary, therefore, to take into account the "small and the big pictures" (Fullan 1991:xi), seeing change from the point of view of the teacher, student, parent, and administrator (White 1988:114), and respecting individual perceptions, which play a large part in the success of educational innovation.

Louis & Miles (1990) identify five major themes in implementation of innovation, to which Fullan adds a sixth(1991:88), all six being required for substantial change to occur (cf. figure B-25):

1. vision-building: this feeds into and is fed by all other themes, permeating the organisation with values, purpose, and integrity for both the what and how of improvement: "a good vision provides shared criteria for judging movement. Such evolution also leads, characteristically, to organizational change: new structures and procedures that in turn promote institutionalization" (Miles 1987:7);

2. evolutionary planning and development: adaptation of plans to take advantage of unexpected developments and opportunities, blending top-down initiative and bottom-up participation;

3. initiative-taking and empowerment: getting and supporting people who are acting and interacting in purposeful directions is a major route to change: "Classrooms and schools become effective when (1) quality people are recruited to teaching, and (2) the workplace is organized to stimulate and reward accomplishments" (Conley, Bacharach, & Bauer 1989, cited in Fullan 1991:117);

4. resource and assistance mobilisation: "The essence of educational change consists in learning new ways of thinking and doing, new skills, knowledge, attitudes, etc. It follows that staff development is a central theme related to change in practice" (Fullan 1991:84; cf. Louis & Rosenblum 1981; Huberman & Miles 1984);

5. problem-coping: "Monitoring the process of change is just as important as measuring outcomes" (Fullan 1991:86);

6. restructuring: using feedback about the innovations to improve them and make them more effective (Fullan 1991:88).

7.2.2.2 Innovation and teachers

Educational change depends on what teachers do and think - it's as simple and as complex as that. It would be easy if we could legislate changes in thinking. (Sarason 1971:193)

As mentioned in section 7.2.2 programme implementation is not just a matter of getting the right courses to the right students, but involves a number of subjective issues which can determine success or failure (cf. Fullan 1991; Markee 1997), and which need to be recognised and addressed (Fullan 1991:32). Three of these issues (i.e. teacher attitudes [cf. Kennedy & Kennedy 1996]; teacher training [Verspoor 1989], and teachers' understanding of the innovation [Fullan 1991:199; Carless 1998:354]) are concerned with the teacher's crucial role in the implementation of the programme, since this can nullify change, despite the theoretical justification of curricular reform, or the quality of the learning materials (cf. Young & Lee 1987; Grotjahn 1991; Kleinsasser & Sauvignon 1991; Nunan 1991c). It is necessary therefore to understand that theories of language teaching and learning which are the product of previous teaching and learning experiences, prejudices, and beliefs (Freeman and Richards 1993) can be threatened by a new approach, and that teachers' educational attitudes and theories, even if unconscious, have an effect on classroom behaviour, influence what students actually learn, and "are a potent determinant of teachers' teaching style" (Karavas-Doukas 1996:188; cf. Bennet 1967; Brophy & Good 1974; Stern & Keisler 1977; Clark & Yinger 1979; Gayle 1979; McNergney & Carrier 1981; Clark & Peterson 1986; Burns 1990; Nunan 1990b). If innovation management concentrates solely on transmitting information about the new approach and persuading teachers of its effectiveness, these "tried and tested" attitudes will persist, causing misinterpretation of the new ideas and adaptation of them to existing classroom routines, even by teachers who believe that they are following the new approach (Wagner 1991; Lamb 1995; Carless 1998:355). Karavas-Doukas (1996:194) therefore calls attention to the importance of taking teachers' attitudes as a starting point in any teacher training (Johnson 1994; Richards & Lockhart 1994; Tillema 1994), and encouraging reflective awareness of the attitudes that underlie classroom practice, as "a first step towards clarifying them and developing the appropriate frame of reference in which to receive new ideas" (Karavas-Doukas 1996:194). Carless (1998) also points out that teachers need support, if they are to carry out new procedures and approaches:

Support for teachers at the classroom level plays a significant role in facilitating the implementation of innovations ... Support and encouragement, in one form or another, are an essential prerequisite for successful classroom implementation of a curriculum innovation. (Carless 1998:366)

In practical terms, innovations tend to result in an increase in teachers' workloads (preparation, planning lessons and materials, in the classroom, after the lesson - White 1988:114), in addition to the reality of day-to-day teaching pressures. As a result, teachers can be more concerned about how change will affect them in terms of their in-classroom and extra-classroom work than about the goals and supposed benefits of the programme. The subjective reality of teachers is described by Lortie (1965); Jackson (1968); House and Lapan (1978); Huberman (1983); and Rosenholtz (1989). Huberman (cf. Crandall et al. 1982) summarises the "classroom press" which influences teachers daily (1983: 482-483):

1. the press for immediacy and concreteness: teachers engage in an estimated 200,000 interchanges a year, most of them spontaneous and requiring action;

2. the press for multidimensionality and simultaneity: teachers must carry out a range of operations simultaneously, providing materials, interacting with one pupil and monitoring the others, assessing progress, attending to needs and behavior;

3. the press for adapting to ever-changing conditions or unpredictability: anything can happen; classes have different ‘personalities' from year to year; a well-planned lesson may fall flat; etc.;

4. the press for personal involvement with students: teachers discover that they need to develop and maintain personal relationships and that for most students meaningful interaction is a precursor to academic learning. (Huberman 1983:482-3; cited in and adapted from Fullan 1991:33)

This "classroom press" affects teachers in a number of different ways:

1. it draws their focus to day-to-day effects;

2. it isolates them from other adults, especially meaningful interaction with colleagues;

3. it exhausts their energy: "at the end of the week, they are tired; at the end of the year, they are exhausted" (Crandall et al. 1982:29);

4. it limits their opportunities for sustained reflection about what they do: "teachers tend to function intuitively and rarely spend time reasoning about how they carry out their jobs" (Crandall et al. 1982:29);

5. it tends to increase the dependence of teachers on the experiential knowledge necessary for day-to-day coping, to the exclusion of sources of knowledge beyond their own classroom experience. (Huberman 1983: 483; cited in and adapted from Fullan 1991:33)

Such competing and various pressures leave teachers with little time or energy to spend on discussion of programme principles, though effective implementation of a programme cannot occur without this: "Predictably, ‘rational' solutions ... have backfired because they ignored the culture of the school" (Fullan 1991:34; cf. Sarason 1982). Innovations which threaten to invalidate the "accumulated wisdom of how to handle the job" (Marris 1975:16), by robbing teachers of their skills, confusing their purposes, and upsetting the ways in which they made sense of their situation are therefore doomed to failure. Instead, change must be introduced in a way that takes into account the subjective reality of teachers (Fullan 1991:35), and addresses issues of "boundedness, psychic rewards, time scheduling, student disruption, interpersonal support, and so forth" (Lortie 1975:235), in addition to offering training in educational and practical aspects:

Teacher development and school development must go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other. (Fullan 1991:289)

7.2.2.3 Reflection
Fullan points out that "the process of educational change in modern society is so complex that the greatest initial need is to comprehend its dynamics" (Fullan 1991:16). Educational theory has begun to recognise the importance of language classroom dynamics, in which interactions and "connections" (cf. section 6.6) are paramount, in which minimal inputs can have unpredictable outcomes, and in which consideration of affect and promotion of autonomy are important factors. However, this recognition needs to extend to institutional dynamics and interactions, and to contradict the lasting assumption in language learning literature that attention to SLA theory and applied linguistics alone will ensure the smooth and efficient running of a programme. Programme designers and implementers need to acknowledge the importance of all participants in the implementation of a language programme, and to understand that however sound the educational base, the programme will not "get off the ground" without skilful management, from facilitation of the necessary renegotiation of subjective realities that has to take place, to allowing the playing out of rejection impulses (Marris 1975:166), and finally to management of the ongoing realities (and crises) that are the manager's equivalent of the teachers' "classroom presses". Thus the programme implementer must be both educationalist and manager, aware of student/teacher constraints, ready to set up effective support systems, to provide teacher-training and teacher development opportunities, to monitor the process of change, and to make appropriate educational/managerial decisions based upon programme feedback:

The main reason for failure is simple - developers or decision-makers went through a process of acquiring their meaning of the new curriculum. But when it was presented to teachers, there was no provision for allowing them to work out the meaning of the changes for themselves. Innovations that have been succeeding have been doing so because they combine good ideas with good implementation decision and support systems. (Fullan 1991:112)

7.2.3 The study
Potential divisions and misunderstandings between programme participants (including management) were minimised in this study by the fact that the programme evaluator, designer, syllabus designer, textbook co-author, web-page designer and director of studies were all the same person, and therefore understood and believed in the goals of the programme. This situation not only made it easier (and quicker) to disseminate information along the consequently simplified management structure, but also meant that student/ teacher/supervisor/syllabus-designer/programme-designer/evaluator interactions were less complex than they might have been. Management issues are included by implication in a description of the results of the programme (chapter 8). These issues are, however, not covered in the section on implementation practicalities (section 7.3), since this would entail exhaustive documentation of the implementation and day-to-day running of the programme, from a number of perspectives, and would detract from the main focus of the study.

7.2.4 Syllabus design
Syllabus design principles for this study were derived from the literature review of syllabus design (section 3.4.4) and were adapted to the particular learning needs of ANU students (section 5.3), according to Breen & Candlin's (1980:93-4) syllabus-design issues (section 6.3) and Willis' and Skehan's syllabus design principles (section 6.3.1). These issues (cf. table A-51) were investigated in an ongoing manner during the programme, and application of them in the in-house textbooks is discussed in sections 7.3.1-3.

7.2.5 Textbooks
Selection and introduction of new textbooks is one of many aspects of innovation management (section 7.2.2.1), though White (1988:113) remarks that this is "often dealt with in a largely unplanned manner", choosing commercial texts based on a linear, reductionist view of language learning, which encourage teachers to present (and test) discrete language items, and to believe that valid language acquisition is occurring as a result (cf. section 3.2.1.3.4). Such considerations, along with the lack of appropriate commercially available materials in Korea in 1997 (section 2.6.3), led to the creation of in-house textbooks. The rationale behind the design of these is examined in sections 7.3.1-3.

Continue reading Chapter 7: 7.3. Practicalities of programme implementation