Contemporary Education: A Condensed Analysis of Teaching Methods for English in the Netherlands

Abstract

This thesis evaluates teaching methods for English that are used in Dutch secondary education, following Thijs and Van den Akker’s (2009) core activities for curriculum development. To this end, a list of requirements was created to analyse two existing textbooks that are used for the fourth year of Dutch Voortgezet Wetenschappelijk Onderwijs1 (4VWO). The framework was based on contemporary theories, including the works of Hulshof, Kwakernaak, and Wilhelm (2015), Kwakernaak (2015), and Swan (2012). The theoretical review revealed, among other things, that teaching methods should be transparent in structure and goals, linguistic features should be combined, and exercises need to allow for diverse interests and levels of ability. The analysis of the two textbooks showed that, though both teaching methods adhered to some of these aspects, neither met all of the requirements. This led to a small prototype for a new type of textbook, which attempted to amend the deficiencies of the analysed textbooks. The prototype was consecutively reviewed by a panel of certified teachers and teachers in training, to determine its value; the questionnaire used for this inspection was composed following Stokking’s (2014) handbook on conducting research in education. The evaluation confirmed that the prototype made good use of literature and necessitates critical thinking. However, comparable to the existing textbooks, the prototype failed to incorporate all requirements, and would require further development to surpass the analysed teaching methods.