Nine senior teachers from the UJED (Universidad Juarez del Estado de Durango)language center, CUAAL collaborated with the Senior English Language Fellow, Brigitte Miller to revamp their general English curriculum. Over the course of five days, from March 5th to 9th, in the quest for a dynamic, more learner-centered curriculum, this team developed and implemented needs assessments of students and teachers, developed an outline of their new approach, defined the syllabus structure and started designing themes and tasks that reflected students' responses and the competencies of the Common European Framework.
The process was a considerable learning experience for everyone involved. Feedback from the CUAAL teachers indicates that what they liked most was listening to the multiple view points and the collaborative nature of this project. They found that the two most helpful tasks were creating the needs analysis and defining the syllabus structure and the two most difficult tasks were articulating the program philosophy and writing goals and objectives. Thanks for all your dedication and hard work Kay, Roxana, Tico, Cecilia, LuzMa,Carmen, Rosa Maria, Gabriel and David!
