Syllabus Design Analysis

With regard to the class this Syllabus Design is addressed to, it is a 2nd ESO (13 years old) one that belongs to the bilingual group. Hence, not only is their level of English considerably higher than the rest of their classmates from regular 2nd ESO, but they are also more disciplined and have a higher pace of work. As we have stated above, this 28-student class is a very diverse one in sociocultural terms, which has not caused any problems at all. In fact, the atmosphere of mutual respect and camaraderie that reigns in the classroom helps students construct their own learning by profiting from individual and collective contributions. The class tends to be very participative and cooperative, making unnecessary the implementation of curricular
Students usually sit next to the classmate they feel most at ease with, although the teacher encourages them to swap with other pupils from time to time. Before the beginning of the lesson, each couple of students goes one desk backwards in relation to the desk they last occupied, returning those from the last row to the very first one. Even though the class remains attentive through the course of the lesson, at times it reaches a point in which, either by difficulty or disinterest, certain couples avoid participation and start muttering. Two student profiles can be consequently identified: hardworking and indifferent students. Those labelled as hardworking share some common features, that is they are always willing to take part, ask questions, show interest and worry about their learning. Some are more interested in standing out over the rest of the class, whereas others that happen to be seated in the last row get frustrated as they do not have as many chances to participate. The so called indifferent students often disconnect from classroom affairs. They reveal their disinterest by drawing, showing boredom, throwing paper balls or whispering to other
This theory, which started to be developed in the first quarter of the 20th century, is very broad indeed since it studied children from birth through adolescence and deals with concepts such as scientific reasoning, moral development, language and memory (Piaget et al., 1969). Piaget assumed that children construct their own knowledge in response to their experiences, learn many things on their own without the intervention of older children or adults and are intrinsically motivated to learn and do not need rewards to motivate it. It is during our students’ stage in life, that is, from 12 years on, that hypothetico-deductive reasoning and abstract thought emerge. This is referred to as the stage of formal operations, and it is the moment in which “the adolescent also learns to think logically about such abstract concepts as truth, justice, fairness and morality” (Littlefield Cook et al.,