Environment analysis

Environment analysis

1. How to teach and assess it

2. Also called "Situation analysis or Environment constraints

   • In some models of curriculum desing, environment analysis is included in needs analysis
   • A constraint can be positive in curriculum design. For example, a constraint could be that the teachers are all very highly trained and are able and willing to make their own class activities.
   • Environment analysis is an important part of curriculum design because at its most basic level it ensures that the course will be usable.
     • The constraint of time
       • The time may be severely limited, or the desired goals might not fit into the time available.
         • (1) examining the local environment, (2) looking at previous research, and (3) considering the effect of the constraint on the design of the course.
   • Understanding the constraints
     • In order to understand a constraint fully, it is usually necessary to examine the nature of the constraint in the environment you are working in,
       • Dubin and Olshtain’s (1986) model of sources of information for language program policy.
         • The language setting
           • Patterns of language use in society
             • Political and national context
               • Group and individual attitudes

3. Involves lookingat the factors that will have a strong effect on desitions about the goals of the course

   • What to include in the course