In short, there are many considerations in selecting a good textbook to be used as media learning at school. Since the textbook is one of learning media that
provide materials, it is really important to make it appropriate with such aspects that has stated above. Those aspects should be applied in selecting the textbook
because it affects the result of the process in teaching and learning at school.
D. Curriculum 1. Definition of Curriculum
Curriculum is closely related to education field. In a curriculum, it consists of goals or objectives of a course and also the content or materials which will be
taught in a course. In designing a curriculum, firstly curriculum designer should analyze the situation or environment in which the course will be held. In this
environmental analysis, based on Tessmer in Nation Macalister’s book, it
involves to find some factors which will affect on the decision about the goal of the course, the materials which will be taught, the method, and also the evaluation
of this course.
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After analyzing the environment, analyzing the learner needs is also necessary to know what the learner know and what the learner should know.
The last is about the principles. These three aspects are really influenced in designing a curriculum. Nation and Macalister state that:
The result of environment analysis is a ranked list of factors and a consideration of the effects of these factors on the design. The result of needs
analysis is a realistic list of language, ideas or skill items, as a result of considering the present proficiency, future needs and wants of the learners. The
application of principles involves first of all deciding on the most important principles to apply and monitoring their application through the whole design
process. The result of applying principles is a course where learning is given the greatest support.
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It is clear that those three aspects in designing a curriculum really affect how a course will be held. From the first one that is environment analysis, it finds
some factors that can influence the decisions in designing a curriculum of the
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I.S.P Nation John Macalister, Language Curriculum Design, New York: Routledge, 2010, p. 14
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Ibid., p. 1
course such as goals, method, materials, and evaluation. Furthermore, it is also necessary to know what should be taught at a course and it should reflect what the
studentslearners want to learn or what they need. So, it is important to analyze the student’s objectives in learning a language. The last is the availability of principle.
Principle takes a role as a monitor in which the application is applied. They also give a greatest support for a course that they have designed.
According to David G. Armstrong, “at one level, curriculum acts as a
filtering mechanism, which allows some content to survive to be included in instructional programs and other content to be eliminated. At another level, it
functions as an ordering mechanism. ”
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It means that the curriculum identify which one the instructional content that should be included in a course. Ornstein
Hunkins add a definition of curriculum, they say that a curriculum is “… a plan
for action or a written document that includes strategies for achieving desired goals and ends.”
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Littlewood, in a book edited by Bowers and Brumfit, defines the curriculum into a broad sense and a narrower sense. In its broad sense the
curriculum us ed to refer to “all the learning experiences that a person encounters
at school, including those aspects which influence them only subconsciously. And in its narrower sense it refers to a person’s experience in one specific subject on
the school timetable, such as the foreign language curriculum’ or the science
curriculum.”
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Looking at those definition above, the writer conclude that curriculum is a design or organization of what should be taught from the first time a course begins
to the end and what the objective that should be achieved for a period of time.
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David G. Armstrong, Curriculum Today, New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall, 2003, p. 4
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Allan C. Ornstein Francis P. Hunkins, Curriculum: Foundations, Principles, and Issues Second Edition, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998, p. 9
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Roger Bowers Christopher Brumfit, Applied Linguistics and English Langauge Teaching, London: Macmilan Publishers Limited, 1991, p. 11
2. School-Based Curriculum KTSP
Indonesia has changed the curriculum for several times. It happens because the changes of the students’ needs in Indonesia to follow the changing of
the globalization. Since Indonesian government designs the School-Based Curriculum, all of schools in Indonesia should apply it. Either school in the
village or in the town, the government obligates all school to follow the decision in applying the School-Based Curriculum. All levels of education, from
elementary school to university level, have to implement this curriculum. In this year 2014, the School-Based Curriculum is used in the second and
third grade in Junior High School. The first grade of Junior High School has implemented a new curriculum that is Kurikulum 2013. Based on the Minister of
Educational and Culture decree No: 81A 2013 dated June 27, 2013 states that the implementation of curriculum in all school level is held in several phases which
started from 20132014 of academic years. For the first academic year 20132014, the first grade will be the target of the implementation. Next academic year
20142015, the first grade and the second grade will be the target of implementation. The academic year 20152016 will be the perfection of the
implementation of the curriculum. Therefore, the School-Based Curriculum is still used in Junior High School because the students have already used it.
The government also chooses the school which can implement the Kurikulum 2013 with some criteria. The first criterion is the school is should get
qualified rank A because the school must be have good facilities. The second criterion is the school should be ready in distributing the textbook of Kurikulum
2013 although the school does not get A in accreditation. So, the implementation is not only for school that is qualified rank A, it is also for all school. As what the
Minister of Education and Culture says that all school which has the criteria should try to implement it in order to know the weaknesses of each school.
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