4. Building a course is the same as writing a paper.

Let's think about the contents of an academic paper. It might start with an introduction about how significant the topic the researcher choose including literature that has been studied so far and specific research questions that the paper goes for. A theoretical or conceptual framework is normally followed to place the paper in a certain academic area since every topic could be approached with different philosophical backgrounds and related methodological ideas. A method comes next, connecting closely to the former part, the theoretical framework, giving clear procedures with trustworthiness. The result is the main part of the research, also called the findings of the pre-set research questions. The discussion and conclusion cover how the presented findings can support, help, and be used practically and academically.

Looking more closely into the outline of an academic paper, I reached the thought that building a course is the same as writing a paper. While I have worked as a teacher, I have done exactly the same procedures that many academic papers have framed themselves. First of all, teaching examples searched as many as possible in order to figure out what cases have been going on based on the national curriculum (in South Korea) or the national or state standards (in America). With the required significance, a teacher used my interests and former experiences, which results in rough class objectives. Second, teaching philosophies were revisited. Even though teachers worked in the same place, every single person has their own perspective on knowledge, students, and teaching. Teaching philosophies put an individual's thoughts into a certain group in an organized way. In many cases, this step is not changing frequently, just the same as a scholar uses a similar philosophical framework repeatedly. Third, detailed and practical physical activities (as a PE subject) are chosen and how evaluations will be performed is organized. There are some arguments about which one comes first to build a curriculum though (eg. backward curriculum). There is no choice but to just visit back and forth several times during the curriculum-building process. When an evaluation plan and course schedule are settled down, it is time to meet students. The whole journey with students will be findings. Sometimes, the findings could not satisfy or go beyond the one a teacher expected. After the semester is finished, discussion and conclusion are left to the teacher and student, which will be another former experience to accept the next classes.

I am not kidding at all. It is almost the same as what I need to do. Even the procedure should be more precise and research-based with tons of literature though, I was doing the same thing researchers have done for a paper. My orientation slides could be evidence of my argument.