Browsing by Subject "Curriculum design"

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The criteria of culture : an evaluation of criteria used in the selection of foreign language texts for C2 research and instruction
(2011-12) Sanchez, Chelsea Kathlyn; Garza, Thomas J.; Pulido, Diana C.
This report discusses the history of culture instruction in the language classroom and the increasing attraction to teaching culture as a process, as championed by Byram's (1997) discussion of objectives for intercultural communicative competence (ICC), rather than as the static facts reflected in traditional “culture capsule” lessons. Although according to Burwitz-Melzer (2001) such objectives left “teachers at a loss as to what to expect from their learners, how to structure their lessons and how to structure their lessons,” (p.31), using the recent outpouring of literature on ICC and its subfield, transcultural literacy, in this report Byram's original goals are adapted into an instructional timeline to guide teachers in encouraging the development of ICC, with evidence contradicting Byram's claims that such a process cannot be represented linearly or generalized to all language learning contexts. These goals are followed by resulting criteria for the selection of texts and supplementary tasks acting as the focal point of integrated language and culture lessons. These criteria are then translated into a rubric to assist instructors in identifying the aspects of a text that naturally encourage ICC development and which aspects require additional support in order to be beneficial for this purpose. Finally, this rubric is used to assess three lesson plans published in peer-reviewed journals for the contexts of English, Spanish, and German as foreign languages at the university level, as well as a text for a secondary EFL classroom with an example lesson plan of efficient language and culture integration, leading to a discussion of the need for future research on the interaction of text and task in cultural instruction.
What harm could it do? highlighting Harm by Design
(2023-04-19) Riddell, Elizabeth Tiann; Gorman, Carma
Designers often promote the power of design to “do good.” Books like David Berman’s Do Good Design, and documentaries like Netflix’s Abstract highlight all of the socially good, innovative, and creative work that design has influenced. While design has the potential to do good, it also has the potential to do harm. From the products we use every day to the systems that govern our lives, design plays a powerful role in shaping our world. But too often, design is used to reinforce harmful biases, perpetuate inequality, and even endanger lives. Both professionals and educators in the field of design have historically shied away from talking about the power design has to do harm. As a result, in professional practice, many designers lack awareness of the harmful impacts design can have, and do not have the knowledge, support, and infrastructure they need to practice “design for good.” Although professional organizations such as IDSA, AIGA, and the International Council of Design publish codes of ethics, they are not well-known nor enforceable, and standard professional workflows seldom involve evaluating the ethics of projects in relation to those codes of ethics. In this thesis, I have focused on identifying and acknowledging the many different kinds of harm even the “best” designs can do. I’ve designed a grid that encourages designers and design students to systematically think through the kinds of harm their design might potentially do. The “Harm by Design” grid can be used in multiple ways—as an analytical, collaborative, generative, critical, or evaluative tool—but its primary purpose is to help designers predict, reflect on, and reduce unintended harms.