Research On English Unit Integrity Instructional Design Based On Big Ideas In Senior High Schools

The English Curriculum Standards for General High Schools(2017Edition and 2020 Revision)advocate to emphasize thematic meaning and integrate unit contents.Integrating and organizing unit contents based on big ideas are conducive to realize the general goals of moral education and discipline education,avoiding inefficient teaching that is divorced from the theme,fragmented or rote learning.However,previous studies focused on survey research.There is little qualitative research involving unit integrity instructional design based on big ideas.In view of the fact,under the guidance of Gestalt theory and Constructivism learning theory,the thesis studied fifty exemplary teaching designs related to unit integrity instruction and big ideas selected from CNKI journals including Foreign Language Education in China,Curriculum,Teaching Material and Method and etc.The data was encoded by Nvivo and visualized by Excel software.In addition,twenty English unit integrity instructional designs from three senior high schools and six teachers’ interviews were collected in Hohhot to solve the following research questions by employing qualitative research methods:(1)What is the status quo of English unit integrity instructional design based on big ideas in senior high school English course?(2)What problems do senior high school English teachers have on conducting English unit integrity instructional design based on big ideas?(3)What are the suggestions for improving English unit integrity instructional design based on big ideas in senior high schools?The research results reveal that: 1.The elements of teaching design are relatively complete.However,a majority of teachers ignored students’ analysis,teaching evaluation and teaching reflection.2.Most unit integrity instructional designs from CNKI deeply analyzed the curriculum standards.While a few teachers in Hohhot cited the curriculum standards by copying them.3.Some teaching material analysis failed to extract big ideas.4.In term of learner analysis,teachers focused on the knowledge level,ignoring students’ cognitive style,learning interests,learning motivations and learning difficulties.5.The cultivation of thinking quality and learning ability still needs to be strengthened.6.There is a lack of teaching activities developing students’ ability to transfer and innovate.7.The subject and method of evaluation are relatively simple.8.Reflection on teaching is ignored.After summarizing the overall situation of English unit integrity instructional design based on big ideas,the study sorts out five major problems in current instructional design,such as the lack of integrity and systematicness.Based on the five problems,the thesis puts forward nine teaching suggestions for the three stages of design process and illustrates by applying the teaching case of unit 3,book one for senior high schools from Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.In view of the above problems,this study puts forward suggestions and strategies for unit integrity instructional design from the perspective of big ideas:Firstly,teachers should design a complete teaching plan,including curriculum standard analysis,teaching material analysis,student analysis,teaching objectives,teaching activities,teaching evaluation and teaching reflection.Secondly,teachers should analyze the curriculum standards,teaching materials and students’ situation,and extract big ideas.It is recommended that teachers design teaching objectives that cultivate students’ core competencies,develop learning ability and higher-order thinking ability,design multi-level teaching activities and pay attention to cultivating students’ transfer and innovation ability.Last but not the least,teachers are advised to evaluate and test the teaching effect by combining students’ self-evaluation and students’ mutual evaluation,and attach great importance to reflection,revision and improvement of teaching design.This study not only enriches the relevant theoretical research and research methods of unit integrated teaching design from the perspective of big ideas,but also provides implications and inspirations for the first-line English teachers in senior high schools to explore unit integrative teaching based on big ideas.