Promoting the Use of the Outcomes-based Approach in Science Programmes: Development of Learning Outcome Statements and Measurement Instruments

Teaching Development Grants for 2005-08 triennium

1 October 2006 to 30 April 2009

The University Grants Committee (UGC) of Hong Kong encourages institutions to adopt an outcomes-based approach (OBA) to teaching and learning and regards it as important for all institutions to consider strategies for using this approach.

The science community worldwide has been comparatively slow to use educational language (e.g., Challis, Houston & Stirling, 2006, p. 4), and effective ways of implementing OBA measures in the science disciplines still need to be further explored and developed. The Faculty of Science at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a responsible stakeholder in higher education in Hong Kong. Although many concepts that are related to the OBA are already part of its culture, the Faculty would like to take the initiative to strengthen ownership of the OBA by carefully examining how it can be developed in a holistic and systematic way in the science disciplines. Specifically, as effective measurement of the achievement of learning outcomes is regarded as the core of educational quality assurance and improvement (Massey & French, 2001, p. 43), the objectives of this project were fourfold.

1. To provide tangible, practical, hands-on and discipline-specific support to teaching staff with a view to nurturing the culture and strengthening the ownership of an outcomes-based approach.
2. To develop systematically outcome statements for science programmes.
3. To develop questionnaires with valid and reliable multi-item scales to measure effectively student perceptions of their achievements in terms of desired learning outcomes.
4. To promote the consistent use of an outcomes-based approach in science programmes.

The project had secured strong support from enthusiastic teachers delegated by their respective departments/programmes and from the staff in the Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research (CLEAR). The team members very much hope to leverage this support and other resources to achieve a clear understanding of the difficulties encountered by all parties and then develop a set of best practices in this area. The project involved a series of promotion and dissemination activities and placed a great deal of emphasis on enhancing a sense of ownership by the science programmes in the project’s outcomes and deliverables. This were accomplished by facilitating our science educators to comprehend thoroughly, critically assess and progressively internalise OBA concepts and language.

Challis, N., Houston, K., & Stirling, D. (2006). Supporting good practice in assessment in Mathematics, Statistics, and Operational Research. Retrieved 17 August 2007 from http://mathstore.ac.uk/publications/index.shtml#4.

Massey, W. F., & French, N. J. (2001). Teaching and learning quality process review: What the programme has achieved in Hong Kong. Quality in Higher Education, 7, 33-45.