國中英語資優彈性課程之實施探討

Abstract

因為人才發展的需求以及區分性教學的推廣，資優教育逐漸在臺灣獲得關注。本研究旨在調查桃園市英語資優彈性課程的實施，藉以探討課程綱要與實際實施的異同。研究地點選在桃園市係因研究執行時，桃園市有最多的英語資優班與英語資優學生。本研究對象來自三所不同國民中學，共有三位新手英資班教師與三位英資班資深教師參與研究。透過63小時的教室觀察、48次半結構式訪談以及教材和學生作品的蒐集，探討國中英資班教師實施彈性課程時使用的原則和架構以及所遇到的困難和可能的解決方法。研究結果顯示多數的教師營造舒適、放鬆並且高度移動的學習環境。英語資優彈性課程以內容為本、意義導向並且強調思考技巧。教學內容多為閱讀材料，以及未經編輯、與日常生活相關的教材。教學歷程中，教師善用提問，並且引領開放式討論來激發學生的高層思考能力。區分性的教學步調主要靠不同的提問方式、不同的任務要求、科技輔助、以及安排與學生的個別討論時間等方式來達成。大多數的學習成果與布魯姆的認知金字塔相關，少與克拉斯霍爾的情意金字塔有關。此外，教師幾乎沒有以明確的規準評量學生的學習成果。在實施彈性課程的過程中，教師遇到的困難有三：時間限制、難以提供多元彈性課程以及難以融入英語語言成分。教師建議應訂定明確指標以規範彈性課程中英語的使用與學習，並期望相關單位能提供諮詢與研習，協助教師在彈性課程中融入英語學習。本研究顯示國中英資班在區分性的學習上仍有改進空間，需再加強，且政府應對英語資優班之彈性課程規劃，提供更明確的指引。另外，應重新思考並且釐清英資班彈性課程的角色。

Gifted education has gradually gained attention in Taiwan because of the needs of talented human resources development and promotion of differentiated teaching. This study investigated implementation of the alternative curricula for English gifted students practiced in Taoyuan City, which had the largest number of English gifted classes and students at the time of study. Six junior high school English teachers from three different junior high schools were recruited. Half of them were novice teachers and half of them were experienced teachers. Data were collected from 63 hours' classroom observations, 48 semi-structured interviews, and copies of teaching materials and students' assignments. The results showed that most of the participants tended to create a comfortable and relaxing learning environment. The curricula were content-based and meaning-oriented and focused on facilitation of thinking skills. For the teaching content, the participants mainly used "raw" reading materials related to everyday issues. In the teaching process, the participants made inquiries and led open-ended discussion to boost the students' higher-level thinking skills. Though not commonly used, differentiated learning pace was occasionally observed through adopting different ways of inquiry, setting different task requirements, turning to technology for assistance, and conducting individual discussion with students. The participants mostly expected students to show performances at different levels of Bloom's cognitive taxonomy, while they hardly required students to show affective skills or performances. Also, the participants rarely used explicit rubrics for assessments.In implementation of these alternative curricula, the obstacles the participants met were time limitation, difficulty of offering multiple alternative curricula, and difficulty in incorporating English language components into the curriculum. The participants required guidelines for determining the proportion of English use and learning in the alternative curriculum; they also demanded consultation and training on integrating English learning into the curriculum.The findings suggest that there is a need for improving teachers' skills of implementing various pacing in English gifted classes and the government should help clarify what is important to teach in alternative curricula. Moreover, the role of alternative curricula for the English gifted students should be reconsidered and clarified by the government.