An analysis of the primary English curriculum: Mismatches and implications

In view of the implementation of the current mandatory Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) initiative at the junior primary levels, it is significant for teacher educators to be able to identify the existing constraints and problems facing teachers, who are the key implementers in the curriculum innovation. In so doing, appropriate teacher development programs could be designed to cater for their professional needs in order to facilitate the curriculum renewal. This chapter reports the findings of a study involving a survey (N=60) and semi-structed interviews (N=6), of which was conducted to investigate the problems encountered by English teachers in the process of curriclum change, that would ultimately reveal the explicit gaps and mismatches found between the intended and the implemented curriculum at various levels of conceptualization and organization. Such findings are useful information for policy makers, teacher educators, curriculum developers, and teachers if effective curriculum implementation is sought. This chapter reports the preliminary findings from the qualitative data collected and discusses implications in relation to curriculum development strategies. The authors also argue for a dynamic model of curriculum initiative in language teaching as proposed by Cheng (1994). Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.