OBL with its merits and demerits is now being practiced in the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIED) as well as other local tertiary institutes. Some demonize it as a "controller" type of mechanism that focuses on the effectiveness and accountability issue of programme and practice in higher education. Others support it as saying that it builds on the assumption that all learners call learn and succeed (Schwartz (1994). The approach can help give learning clear directions and serve as a basis for determining what learning has taken place. Also as teacher educators, we can use this information only at the end of a course but also during a course to improve further teaching and learning. Nevertheless, the process for creating outcomes at different levels needs to be collaborative and open. Ideally speaking it needs to involve a broad range of stakeholders. In the reality world, whether such opportunity or mechanism could exist is of critical importance. In this paper, the case concerns the implementation of an OBL programme that is developed form top down and in a post hoc manner in the Institute. From our student questionnaires and interview findings, we found great discrepancy between teaching team's and student's preference for and expectation in the CILOs and the assessment modes. These inevitably lead us to think of some philosophical and pedagogical issues like "How to decide what is most important to learn for students? By our professional judgment? Through students' voices? How to resolve the divide?' Some solutions and other issues are also presented for stimulating academic dialogue.

This paper investigates the implementation of outcome-based learning (OBL) in a core course entitled Enhancing Teaching in Small Classes of the Professional Development Course for Small Class Teaching in Primary Schools and makes recommendation based on an effective OBL implementation. The course is introduced to in-service primary teachers as a response to the policy on small class teaching which has come to effect in Hong Kong primary schools since 2000. Originally designed in a non-OBL Format to meet the needs of the local primary teachers, the course objectives and contents are prepared with reference to the relevant literatures, overseas as well as local studies on small class teaching. The course has then been revised according to the principles of OBL and then offered to the in-service primary teachers. Near the completion of the course, data were collected from the teachers using questionnaires and individual interviews. . It was found that the teachers were highly motivated to learn and they agreed that the course intended learning outcomes (CILOs) could enrich their knowledge and skills of a professional teacher, and the teaching and learning activities and assessment tasks could help them to achieve the CILOs. The result suggests that learners' needs are significant to the effective implementation of OBL.

Since the launching of outcome-based learning (OBL) in higher education in Hong Kong, institutional reforms are evident and have aroused various concerns of the stakeholders. The major elements of OBL identified as tile intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessments are assumed to be the areas of change in the curriculum contest. This paper reports the findings of the implementation in teacher education courses. Through the implementation f OBL in the courses of curriculum and teaching, it was found that various factors have contributed to the degree of success in the actual implementation. Although the OBL implementation is at its beginning stage, its rationale and value needs to be recognized by both the teachers and students.

In response to the open invitation of the University Grants Committee's (UGC) to adopt Outcome-based learning (OBL) in higher education sector, universities and institutes have started reforming their curriculum by using the outcome-based approach in Hong Kong since 2004. In the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) since 2007, seven generic outcomes expected of graduates were generated for learning outcomes to be further developed at different levels, such as faculty and department. In the following years, learning outcomes of various formats were formulated within departments under a "bottom-up" approach. The Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) succeeded in constructing a set of six departmental learning outcomes after gaining the consensus of faculty members within the department. In the process, key features of the department and desired attributes of the graduates among thirteen core modules from Bachelor degrees and Postgraduate Diplomas were identified and reviewed and main principles of OBL were considered at the same time. This paper examines the puzzles and challenge we faced in the reform process and shares our experiences and insights gained from such curriculum reform in teacher education.

In recent years, Outcome-Based Learning (OBL) has gained increasing prominence in many parts of the world and, since 2008, has been formally promoted among all higher education institutions in Hong Kong by the University Grants Committee (UGC) of Hong Kong. A key concept of OBL is that teaching should be driven by outcomes that are desirable for students, and that greater clarity in relation to what is to be achieved simply involves adjusting teaching and assessment. This article reports on a project on Outcome-Based Learning in the English Department at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), and an OBL adaptation framework that has been developed. First, the development of a set of Programme Intended Learning Outcomes (PILOs) for the Bachelor of Education (English Language) Programme at HKIEd will be introduced. Second, the design of Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs) in the programme will be discussed. Third, the alignment of teaching and assessment strategies with learning outcomes will be illustrated through a sample course. It is hoped that this study will inspire some reflection on how effective teaching and learning among students in higher education institutions can be achieved through an outcome-based learning approach.
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Since the 1980 s, Outcome-Based Learning (OBL) has been gaining popularity around the world. In 2006, the University Grants Committee (UGC) of Hong Kong decided that all higher education institutions in Hong Kong should adopt OBL formally stage by stage to enhance learning and teaching quality. As OBL is new to most Hong Kong higher education institutions, there is an urgent need for a close study of the design and implementation of OBL in the Hong Kong context. This paper reports on a case study of designing and implementing OBL in a linguistics course in the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd).
[Copyright of Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences.]