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Teaching and Learning Enhancement and Research Group

UGC 2015

Title

Developing, Assessing and Providing Direct Evidence of Student Learning in Generic Skills in the Context of Engineering Higher Education in Hong Kong.

Project Overview

The proposed project aims to develop a systematic process and an effective mechanism for documenting and analyzing direct evidence of student generic skills competency within a specific discipline – Engineering, in Hong Kong universities is timely. In order for education practitioners to gain a deeper understanding on how to facilitate students’ learning, direct and indirect evidence of student learning will be triangulated, such that survey data on students’ perception of generic skills development in their university learning experience will be collected in addition to direct evidence of their generic skills competency. A framework on how to collect and evaluate evidence to enhance the quality of student learning for generic skills competency will be investigated and developed. This project will also build and strengthen a community of practice for fostering and advancing the development and assessment of generic skills in Hong Kong higher education.

Project Objectives

There are two main objectives in the proposal.

Objective I: Develop a Framework for the Evidence of Student Learning of Generic Skills

  1. To investigate teaching and learning approaches for the development of generic skills in Hong Kong higher education, which are perceived to be more successful in terms of skills transferability, student engagement, and the feasibility of adding value to student learning, and to further develop these approaches into a curriculum framework to suit Hong Kong higher education. Approaches include in-class (e.g. projects, presentations, and laboratories) and out-of-class activities (e.g. experiential community service learning, internships, and capstone experiences) which are related to the discipline; and university extra-curricular activities (e.g. common core courses and general education) that are unrelated to the discipline.
  2. To investigate how generic skills have been and should be assessed from the value-added teaching and learning approaches identified in (1) above for Hong Kong higher education. This study will examine explicit and implicit, formative and summative, embedded, integrated and bolt-on, and valid and reliable assessment.
  3. To investigate how generic skills competency should be measured to provide evidence of student learning in Hong Kong higher education based on the teaching and learning approaches and assessment of generic skills.
  4. To develop a framework for institutions to review the evidence for student learning from the assessment and use the information to affirm or improve the development of generic skills competency within the Hong Kong higher education setting.

Objective II: Build and Strengthen a Community of Practice and Disseminate Resources in Generic Skills

  1. To build and strengthen a community of practice for fostering and advancing the development and assessment of generic skills among teachers and scholars in Hong Kong higher education.
  2. To disseminate generic-skills information resources and to establish a generic skills contact point which: (i) investigates the different areas of generic skills such as pedagogies, assessment, evidence of student learning on generic skills competency, and the types of skills that are deemed to be important for different disciplines; and (ii) acts as the contact/resources/delivery point for HK universities in relation to generic skills.
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Principal Investigator

Dr. Cecilia Chan