Page 452 - confbook2022

The Tenth International Arab Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education ﻲﻟﺎﻌﻟا ﻢﯿﻠﻌﺘﻟا ةدﻮﺟ نﺎﻤﻀﻟ ﺮﺷﺎﻌﻟا ﻲﻟوﺪﻟا ﻲﺑﺮﻌﻟا ﺮﻤﺗﺆﻤﻟا

Total Quality Standards for Evaluating English Curricula

Dr. Ali Arif Fadhil
College of Languages, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
dr.aliarif2@gmail.com

Abstract:

It is undeniable fact that evaluation of English curricula represented by textbooks at schools and coursebooks at
university level comprise vital significant procedure in modern trends of ELT methodology. This will help both
textbooks/coursebooks designers and ELT teachers to highlight the most salient features of both weakness and
strength points that would lead to conduct modification needed at any time and phase to cope with the recent
updates in education as a whole. Thus, the researcher has translated and modified a questionnaire based on Total
Quality Standards for English Language Curriculum that suits both curricula at schools and universities.

Key Terms: English curricula, English Language Curriculum, Total Quality Standards.

1.1 Introduction:

The field of the total quality criteria occupies an important and outstanding position in the scientific field
especially in education. Accordingly, the total quality criteria have appeared together with their models and
parameters that do enrich and sustain the quality of educational products, such as Baldrige criteria in America and
Deming Awards in Japan. Moreover, there appeared the distinction and quality contents, academic and vocational
accreditation institutions as well as International Standardization Organization (ISO) with its various ramifications.
Furthermore, there also appeared the control panel on total quality in addition to applied models of the committee
of quality or quality assurance at universities in many countries (Mohammed,2000, p.4). Thus, the total quality has
been conducted on the schools textbooks because large attention is given when developing these textbooks in the
light of the total quality criteria (Al-Tameemi ,2013, p.216).
The assessment and evaluation of the textbook is a very important trend in the field of curriculum design and
description, since is a major component of education and a source that involved in all educational units for
building up learners or students together with their competencies and capabilities and so it is considered the most
important document among teachers, students and schools as a whole (Saady,2017, p.489).Thus, the textbooks have
utmost importance according to the scientific criteria and educational specifications through which the educational
process can be improved and developed. Besides, the contexts of the textbooks can measure the strengths and
weaknesses and then can be reviewed, verified and revised regularly according to the prerequisites of the society.
Many educationalists have stressed (Yaseen ,2008, p. 424) (Badawi, 2009, p. 256) the fact the it is very necessary
to adopt total and total educational systems in terms of suitable criteria, specifications and conditions that must be
subsumed textbooks because it is the starting point on which the textbooks are based. Furthermore, they enable
those educationalists and textbooks designers to develop new criteria that can cope with the virtual and actual
reality together with new strategies, activities and sources of learning. That is, all the educational textbooks should
keep pace with everyday needs and must be in harmony with the changes of modern era in the field of language
learning, namely English.
As said above, the educational experts and specialists have unanimously agreed upon the fact that the total quality
became a comprehensive or total tool of measurement and evaluation to develop the educational system in every
country; that is why the educational institutions have laid down criteria and specifications to evaluate English
curricula. In other words, quality criteria are the major component of judgment on the total quality of any
educational curriculum in which these institutions have introduced many projects that are concerned with
developing textbooks and curricula on the Arabic and international levels in the light of what is called total quality
(Majeed,2012, p.136).

1.2 Curriculum Evaluation:

It is not a denied fact that curriculum evaluation to curriculum development, implementation, maintenance,
ideally, evaluation determines the value of some action or program, the degree to which it helps students meet
standards, and importance. In fact, evaluation reflects value judgments about previous curricula and actions
(Freechthings,2007,p.104).
Having surveyed available literature, it gives the impression that evaluation is synonymous with assessment. Some
would object, noting that assessment refers to primarily to technical procedures that determine how much

٤٣١