Última revisión realizada: 29/04/2022

Subject Name: Curriculum Planning
Study: Máster Universitario en Educación Bilingüe / Master in Bilingual Education
ECTS Credits: 6
Year and four month period: First year, first four month period
Type of subject: Compulsory

Presentation

CLIL uses the target language for a curricular purpose, so that the language becomes a means to an end rather than an end in itself. In other words, the knowledge of the language becomes the means of learning other subject content. Planning and designing a CLIL curriculum —integrating language-related and content-related goals and outcomes— is one of the most difficult aspects for a teacher enrolling on a CLIL project. An understanding of the core features of CLIL, and how these are related to best practices in education, is instrumental in the CLIL approach, as are building inclusive and constructive relationships with students and other members of the educational community.

The main focus of this subject, which complements the subject ‘What’s CLIL?’ and is directly connected to the subject ‘Evaluation and assessment’, is to teach students how to plan and design curricula and syllabuses in content and language integrated learning environments. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a starting point, students will deal with the principles and practice of syllabus design for courses taught in a foreign or additional language by analysing such topics as CLIL fundamentals, setting objectives, selecting content, lesson planning, scaffolding and assessment. The subject will also consider how CLIL best fits into the total class and school curriculum through task-based and project-based curricula. By means of the analysis of classroom experience (videos, real CLIL units, materials...), students will be shown 1) how tasks and projects should be planned within the third level of curriculum planning; and 2) how tasks and projects can help develop language competence as well as content knowledge through reading, interpreting, producing, analysing and creating.

Basic Competences

  • BC6. Achieve and understand the knowledge that provides a base and an opportunity to be original in the development and implementation of the ideas, often in a research context.
  • BC7. That the students are able to apply the knowledge acquired and their ability to solve the problems in new or not very well known environments among wider contexts (or multidisciplinary) related to their field of study.
  • BC8. That the students are able to integrate knowledge and face the complexity of judging from an information, that being incomplete or limited, includes reflections about the social and ethic responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgements.
  • BC9. That the students know how to communicate their conclusions and knowledge and reasons that support them to specialized and non-specialized audiences in a clear and unequivocal way.
  • BC10. That the students have the abilities to learn that allow them to continue studying in such a way that will be self-directed or self-sufficient.

General Competences

  • GC1. Know the specific problems of teaching in a foreign language both linguistically and culturally, in an environment of bilingual education.
  • GC2. Develop skills to promote an atmosphere that ease learning and interaction among students.
  • GC3. Transmit social and cultural values ​​according to the multilingual and multicultural news.
  • GC4. Know the legislation and regulations regarding the organization and organization of bilingual centers
  • GC5. Understand the usefulness and necessity of fostering the integrated learning of foreign language and contents of the non-linguistic discipline.
  • GC6. Critically analyze the performance of the teaching work, of good practices using evaluation models and quality indicators.
  • GC8. Be competent users of L2 in all the skills necessary for teaching.

Specific Competences

  • SC2. Design an integrated curriculum of your area of ​​knowledge with linguistic contents.
  • SC3. Create and adapt didactic materials for bilingual teaching taking into account the educational stage of the student and his correspondence with the CEFR.
  • SC4. Develop, plan and guideline the contents of discipline in bilingual environments according to the formal format CLIL Module.
  • SC7. Add new teaching strategies and new information technologies to bilingual education for the design of new learning environments in the classroom.
  • SC8. Know the organization of bilingual education centers at all levels and the diversity of actions that includes their operation.
  • SC9. Understand the organization of a bilingual classroom: activities, teaching material, training plan.
  • SC11. Develop and implement teaching methodologies adapted to the diversity of students in a bilingual environment.
  • SC12. Be able to foster the application of different techniques and procedures to develop the students’ abilities.
  • SC13. Know and apply the advantages of the communicative approach and task-based learning for linguistic interaction in two languages

Transversal Competences

  • TC1. Analyze reflexively and criticize the most important issues of today's society for a coherent decision-making.
  • TC2. Identify new technologies as teaching tools for communication exchange in the development of processes of investigation and group learning.
  • TC3. Apply the knowledge and skills acquired by the studies to real cases and in an environment of workgroups in companies or organizations.
  • TC4. Acquire the ability to work independently, promoting the organization and encouraging independent learning.

Unit 1. Curriculum planning

  • Introduction & objectives
  • Place of curriculum theory
  • Principles
  • Bibliographical references

Unit 2. Curriculum development levels

  • Introduction & objectives
  • Curriculum (theory) and curriculum development
  • Curriculum development levels in different countries
  • The three levels of curriculum development
  • Bibliographical references

Unit 3. Key components of a curriculum plan

  • Introduction & objectives
  • Key elements
  • Relation of objectives and contents
  • Relation of objectives and learning experiences
  • Bibliographical references

Unit 4. CLIL fundamentals: curriculum integration

  • Introduction & objectives
  • CLIL fundamentals
  • The Four Cs Framework
  • Curriculum integration
  • Scaffolding
  • Bibliographical references

Unit 5. Integrated curriculum design I

  • Introduction & objectives
  • Key considerations before designing an integrated curriculum
  • Bloom’s Taxonomy
  • C for Cognition and Content
  • The role of Content in CLIL
  • Bibliographical references

Unit 6. Integrated curriculum design II

  • Introduction & objectives
  • C for Culture, Community, Citizenship
  • Bloom revisited
  • ICT in CLIL Curriculum Planning
  • Bibliographical references

Unit 7. Integrated curriculum design III

  • Introduction & objectives
  • The role of Lannguage in CLIL
  • C for Communication in CLIL Curriculum Planning
  • Bibliographical references

Unit 8. Integrated curriculum design IV

  • Introduction & objectives
  • How to integrate the 4Cs in the second level of development
  • Exemplification through samples
  • Bibliographical references

Unit 9. The third level in CLIL curriculum planning I

  • Introduction & objectives
  • The CLIL Class Programme
  • Lesson Planning: the CLIL unit
  • Bibliographical references
  • Unit 10. The third level in CLIL curriculum planning II

  • Introduction & objectives
  • Task-based learning (TBL) in CLIL curriculum planning: fundamentals
  • Examples and practice
  • Bibliographical references

Unit 11. The third level in CLIL curriculum planning III

  • Introduction & objectives
  • Project-based learning (PBL) in CLIL curriculum planning: fundamentals
  • Examples and practice
  • Bibliographical references

Unit 12. Assessment in the CLIL curriculum

  • Introduction & objectives
  • CLIL assessment in the curriculum
  • CLIL assessment in lesson planning
  • Examples and practice
  • Bibliographical references

The different tasks and activities programmed during the semester have been developed with the goal of adapting the learning process to the different capabilities, necessities and interests of the students.

The activities included in the subject are:

  • Assignments.In your weekly program you will see the different kind of tasks designed for the course such as practice cases, research, critical thinking and, also, you will find information about how to complete them and when to send them to your teacher.
  • Participation in events. During the course you will be participating in different events. Some of those events are attendance to online classes, forums, self-evaluation tests.
Download program

These activities are combined with the following aspects:

  • Personal Study
  • Tutoring. The tutoring class can be implemented through different tools and means. During the course of the subject, the teacher-tutor plans the individual tutoring on specific days for the resolution of academic-oriented doubts through “Consultation sessions”. Supplementing these sessions, students have also available the “Ask your teacher” forum through which they can formulate questions and check the corresponding answers on general aspects of the subject.  Due to the very nature of the media used, there are no fixed schedules for the students.
  • Final exam presence-based or online modality

The hours dedicated to each activity are detailed as follows:

Assignments HOURS % PRESENCIAL
Attendance to virtual classes 15 hours 100%
Audiovisual resources 6 hours 0
Basic material study 50 hours 0
Additional resources readings 25 hours 0
Task and practice cases and self-evaluation test 29 hours 0
Tutoring 16 hours 30%
Collaborative work 7 hours 0
Final exam 2 hours 100%
Total 150 hours -

You can personalize your study plan choosing the type of activity that best matches your profile. The tutor will advise you and help you elaborate your study plan. S/he will always be available to guide throughout the course.

Basic bibliography

The section Basic Bibliography is essential for the course. If any document (reading, article,…) is not available in the virtual classroom, you will have to find it by other means: UNIR bookshop, virtual library…

Additional bibliography

  • Ball, P., Kelly, K., & Clegg, J. (2015). Putting CLIL into Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Jonsson, A. (2014). Rubrics as a way of providing transparency in assessment. Assessment & Evaluation In Higher Education 39(7), 840-852.
  • Prasetianto, M. (2014). CLIL: Suggested English Materials for Curriculum 2013. Language Circle, 8(2).
  • San Isidro, X. & Lasagabaster, D. (2018). The impact of CLIL on pluriliteracy development and content learning in a rural multilingual setting: A longitudinal study. Language Teaching Research. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362168817754103 
  • San Isidro, X. (2017). CLIL in a multilingual setting: A longitudinal study on Galician students, teachers and families (Doctoral thesis). Vitoria-Gasteiz: Universidad del País Vasco.
  • Tardieu, C. & Dolitsky, M. (2012). Integrating the task-based approach to CLIL teaching. In J. de Dios, Teaching and Learning English through Bilingual Education (pp. 3-35). UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Retrieved from https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00748683

The evaluation system is based on the following numerical chart:

0 - 4, 9 Suspenso (SS)
5,0 - 6,9 Aprobado (AP)
7,0 - 8,9 Notable (NT)
9,0 - 10 Sobresaliente (SB)

The grade is made up of two components:

Final exam (60%). At the end of the semester, you need to assist a compulsory final exam either in presence- based or online modality. You need to pass the final exam so the grade obtained from the assignments (continuous assessment) is summed up to the final grade of the subject. 

Continuous assessment (40%): this type of assessment will be measured through the different assignments you need to complete during the course:

    • Active participation and involvement in forums, online classes.
    • Tasks. The completion of the different activities the students need to send through our virtual classroom such as research, critical thinking, practice cases.
    • Self-evaluation tests. At the end of each unit, students will find a short quiz which will help the students to check the knowledge acquired during the course.

Remember that you can check the points (value) of each assignment in the weekly program.

Take into account that the sum of the grades of the assignments included in the continuous assessment is 6 points. You can do as many as you want to until a maximum grade of 4 points (which is the maximum grade you will be obtaining in the continuous assessment)In the weekly program, you can find the grade of each assignment.

Assessment method
SCORE min - max
Participation in forums, classes, etc. 0% - 10%
Task, practice cases and activities 10% - 40%
Self-evaluation test 0% - 10%
Final exam 60% - 60%

Mercedes Querol Julián

Education: Graduate in English Philology. PhD in English Applied Linguistics. Certified Associate Professor by ANECA (National Agency for Quality Evaluation and Accreditation).

Professional experience: Prof. Dr. Mercedes Querol is a long-experienced professor in teaching English in different undergraduate, graduate and engeneering studies. She has also taken part and directed more than 15 educational innovation and research programmes in the field of EES teaching, E-learning and CLIL.

Lines of research: CLIL, multimodal discourse analysis, personalized learning, mentoring and Custom Learning in the Digital Age.

Studying online means you can organize your study as you wish, as long as you meet the due dates of the different assignments (activities, tasks and tests). In order to help you, we propose the following steps:

  1. From our online platform you will have access to each of the subjects you are enrolled. Apart from this, the virtual classroom of Lo que necesitas saber antes de empezar (All you need to know before starting). In this section, you have available all the documents on how to use the different tools included in the virtual classroom, how a subject is organized and you will also have the possibility to organize your study plan with the tutor.
  2. Do not forget to check the weekly program. You will see which part of the content of the course you have to work on every week.
  3. After knowing your work for the week, go to Temas in your virtual classroom. There, you will have access to the study material (theory and practice) from the unit you need to study throughout the week.
  4. Start by reading the Key ideas of each unit, there you will find the specific study material and it will help you understand the most important points of the unit. Afterwards, check out the sections Specially Recommended and More Information where you will find more resources in order to deepen on the topic of the unit. .
  5. Devote some time to the practical cases and tasks in the subject (assignments and test). Remember that in your weekly program you find all the information related to the schedule for each assignment and the maximum grade you can obtain in each of them.
  6. We strongly recommend you to participate in the Events of the course (online classes, forums….). To know the precise schedule of the events, you need to check the communications tools in the virtual platform. Your teacher and tutor will inform you on the updates of the course.

In the virtual classroom of Lo que necesitas saber antes de empezar (All you need to know before starting) you will always find available information on the structure of the units and information on their sections

Remember that in Lo que necesitas saber antes de empezar (All you need to know before starting) you can check how the different tools of the virtual classroom work: email, forum, online classes, sending the tasks, etc.

Please, take into account the following tips…

  • Whatever you study plan is, go often to the virtual classroom so that you are always up to date about the course and you are in contact with your teacher and your tutor.
  • Remember you are not alone: send an email to your tutor if you have any doubt. If you attend the online classes, you can also ask your teacher about the contents of the unit. Also, you can always write your doubts and questions about  the contents in the Forum of each subject (Ask the teacher).
  • Be active and participate!  Whenever it is possible, attend the online classes and take part in the forums. The exchange of information, opinions, ideas and resources enrich us and the course.
  • And, remember, you are studying online: your effort and perseverance are the key element to obtain good results. Don’t leave everything to the last minute!!!