INTRODUCTION

The second language teacher education (SLTE) curriculum is an interdependent, situated set of educational processes and tools whose aim is teacher learning. Studies of curriculum in SLTE have focused on analyses of the kinds of courses or activities that make up an educational program for teachers (e.g., Zhang 1990) or, more recently, on the knowledge base of teaching that underlies teacher education and the kinds of instructional practices that help teachers acquire it (e.g., Freeman and Johnson 1998; Richards 1998; Roberts 1998; see also Johnson, Chapter 2). This chapter will build on these analyses of the knowledge base of language teaching – what effective language teaching involves / what teachers know and are able to do to teach languages effectively – from the perspective of curriculum, that is, considerations for designing programs that enable teachers to acquire the knowledge base.

The chapter will first provide a framework for understanding curriculum planning. It will then explore how the different ways in which the knowledge base of language teaching has been conceptualized and have affected the SLTE curriculum. It will end with a brief discussion of issues that deserve further consideration.

THE SCOPE OF CURRICULUM PLANNING FOR SLTE

A FRAMEWORK FOR CURRICULUM PLANNING

Planning an educational program focuses on who will be taught, what will be taught, how it will be taught, and how what is learned will be evaluated (see Figure 1). In this chapter, educational program or program will be used to include the range of programs from those with multiple courses (e.g., a masters program) to short-term in-service programs.

Sound curriculum planning is based on needs analysis. Broadly speaking, in needs analysis information is gathered from two perspectives: a starting perspective and an ending perspective. The starting perspective, A in Figure 1, gathers information about the learners who will experience the curriculum, who they are, what they know and know how to do, their expectations, and so on. For the SLTE curriculum, the learners may be both prospective teachers and practicing teachers. Both will be referred to as teacher–learners. The ending perspective, B in the figure, gathers information about what the teacher–learners should know and be able to do as a result of the educational experience.