Teachers' Curriculum Planning and Accommodations of Innovation: Three Case Studies of Adult ESL Instruction

Abstract

How do experienced ESL instructors plan and organize their teaching practices to make curriculum innovations? The present research sought answers to this question in three different educational contexts, attempting to document the curriculum concepts, pedagogical knowledge, and processes of instructional planning that eight teachers used to create novel courses for adult ESL learners. Findings describe (1) four modes of planning and twelve cycles of information-gathering in the ESL curriculum planning of one teacher, (2) verification of this framework among four additional teachers, as well as (3) an additional framework for documenting teachers' orientations to curriculum content in second language writing instruction, accounting for three teachers' processes of accommodating an instructional innovation into their usual teaching practices.