Pedagogical Methods Analysis

This paper is aimed at addressing an awareness of some universals followed in the process of curriculum development that teachers and learners of ELT should have cultivated in the study of ELT Methodology as well as in making decisions regarding educational management. Depending on the ethos of the institution; the aspirations of the clientele; the demands imposed by the social, cultural, academic, and professional situation where the clients are supposed to move about in reality; the subject knowledge aimed at to be introduced in the course; the academic levels aimed at to be achieved in the course; the academic and professional background of the teachers; the facilities available within the institution; the methods of teaching aimed to be applied in classroom management, etc., the shape of one curriculum may differ from another though they both concentrate on a similar type of course in English. This implies that the rationale for a curriculum is circumstantial to these factors. Yet there are some universals which govern the process of curriculum development and the adherence to them is meant to preserve the systematicity of a course of study. By “universals” the paper introduces some principles and practices that are followed universally in curriculum development. As it is realized that the knowledge of them is fundamental for an upcoming teacher, in order to benefit the teachers, teacher educators, and teacher trainees who would use this book, the paper attempts to make a systematic presentation of these universals.

The linguistic aspects as well as stylistic features of course books matter as much as their contents and place in the curriculum. In the Ottoman lands, scientific education was made in Arabic and the course books were prepared accordingly. This was as well the case for mathematics. However, some manuals in this field were prepared in Turkish, the foremost vernacular language. Turkish must have been used especially as a medium for the initiation to the subject matter while its use must have been related to students’ linguistic capacities in Arabic and/or Persian. In this article, Cāmìʿü’l-Ḥisāb, written by Yûsuf bin Kemāl el-Bursevî, a former student of İskender Çelebi, a renowned defterdar of Suleiman the Magnificent which was completed in Muharrem 934 (October/November 1527) is analyzed. Our focus here is the examination of the stylistic features of the text as well as the use of Turkish as a pedagogic medium.