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Bài tóm tắt khoá luận tốt nghiệp ( graduation research) đề tài Evaluating the curriculum (đánh giá chương trình đào tạo). Đây là bản tóm tắt đầy đủ của bản báo cáo hoàn chỉnh gồm tất cả các danh mục introduction , litterature review , data analysis và conclusion. Bài luận văn đạt 9 10 điểm
1 1.1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study In globalization era, English is considered as an international language which plays a vital role to communicate, connect to the world and develop economy In Vietnam, tendency of using English is increasing evidently along with industrialization and integration trend It is the fact that English plays a critical role as the official language transactions in all areas of business, trade, communications, tourism, etc in over the world so that proficiency in English will improve competitive advantages as well as ability to integration with the international labor market Thus, the problem of enhancing the quality of training English becomes a prime target for the present educational system Along with of accessing WTO and other international organization, joining ASEAN Economic Community – AEC 2015, a community in which countries are probably free to exchange skilled labors, has been posing numerous challenges for Vietnam education and human resources “In the near future, the competitiveness for employment opportunities is huge Students graduate from schools during both deep integration and a recovery period of global economic crisis , so the career opportunities for students are not only fiercely competing with domestic students but also confronting the students to from other countries in the ASEAN region” (Tran Dung, 2013) Therefore, Vietnamese students have to possess enough essential knowledge and skills, especially English skills, to assert themselves, because English is considered as a prerequisite to obtain competitive advantages For this reason, the importance of learning and educating English becomes pressing than ever To tackle this statement, the government has had special interest in issues of teaching and learning foreign languages in recently years On September 30, 2008 the Prime Minister signed Decision No 1400/QD-TTg approving the project "Teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system" - referred to as the National Foreign Language 2020 project (NFL2020) The overall objective of the project is “to implement the comprehensive innovation for teaching and learning foreign languages in the education system, including higher education, to ensure achieving significant improvement in the level and capacity of using of foreign language of human resources, especially for some priority areas" Expressing determination to enforce NFL2020, on April 4, 2011, the Minister of Education and Training Department signed Decision No 1400/QD-BGDDT establishing the project “Teaching and learning of foreign languages in the national education system for the period 2008-2020 " Whereby, we find that the government has significant interest in foreign language training strategies for the future generation of the country aiming to satisfy requirement of social and economic development during integration period of the nation It is clear that to achieve these objectives of training English which stated above, having a good curriculum for training English is one of important fundamental steps It leads to the importance of evaluation so as to ensure the success of a curriculum School of foreign languages was established in 2007 with various majors aiming to educating human resource for the midlands and northern mountainous region The curriculum for Bachelor of English is one of important major which enables students to have a proficient knowledge and skills of English Despite the fact that SFL has constant effort to develop the curriculum for Bachelor of English, numerous problems are raised by the rapidly changing of society and the need of learners Moreover, since the program was established, no study has been fulfilled to determine how effective the curriculum implementation is Therefore, evaluating the English Bachelor curriculum is urgent to assess the success of the program in order to attain necessary information for suitable revision decision in methodology, content and other features that keeping up with the reality That has given me a desire to conduct the thesis “Evaluating the curriculum for Bachelor of English Language at SFL-TNU via alumni and employers” Aims and objectives of the study This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum for Bachelor of English at School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University through investigating satisfaction and assessments of graduates and employers Simultaneously, the paper also analyzes data collected from questionnaire and interview on participants to reveal strengths and weaknesses of the current curriculum By means of this study, the author suggests some relevant adaptations in accordance with the reality in order to contribute to the improvement of the curriculum for Bachelor of English The objectives of this study are to: 1.2 1.3 Indicate satisfaction of English Bachelor alumni and employer on the curriculum Study the strengths and drawbacks of the current Bachelor of English Language curriculum Evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum for Bachelor of English Suggest some solutions to improve the current curriculum Significance of the study This paper was conducted to gather comments and feedbacks of English Bachelor graduates on the curriculum they enrolled in order to find out strengths and drawbacks of the program Thus, the results of this study will provide valuable information for the school figures out how the effectiveness of the curriculum for Bachelor of English is Through conceiving of the existing program, it is hoped that the study will causes relevant revisions such as applying new methodologies, techniques in teaching and supplying suitable 1.4 1.5 elements to the needs of learners and employers so as to improve the quality of the curriculum Moreover, the thesis is expected to capture the overall of social needs in order to encourage learners set up their individual studying and practicing plan To this, the administrators also have a vital role in orienting learners Scope of the study The study focuses on investigating the curriculum for Bachelor of English via alumni enrolled the 2009 – 2013 academic year at SFL – TNU and employers of companies and organizations in Thai Nguyen and Hanoi Structure of the study The study consists of five chapters Chapter I, Introduction, deals with general backgrounds, aims, significances, scope of the study, and the organization of the study Chapter II, Literature review, reviews the theoretical literature involving the curriculum development, need analysis and curriculum evaluation Chapter III, Methodology, mentions approaches used in the study Chapter IV, Results and discussion, presents and discusses findings of questionnaire and interview on both alumni and employers about the curriculum for Bachelor of English Language at SFL-TNU Chapter V, Conclusion, identifies, synthesize findings in order to give some suggestions for the recent curriculum and provide recommendations for future research CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Conception of curriculum Curriculum is an essential element of any educational process However, it is not easy to exactly indentify its definition as a single concept During the history, the term curriculum has been broadened from the narrow sense referring to the term syllabus; to the wider sense, a complex component of many elements such as planning, implementation and evaluation an educational program In this paper, the conception of curriculum is considered as a crucial component of four elements which are not independent each other but have a close relationship and mutual interaction: educational purposes, the contents, teaching procedures and evaluation the curriculum’s effectiveness 2.2 Curriculum development In language teaching, curriculum development is “an aspect of a broader field of educational activity known as curriculum development and curriculum studied” (Richard, p.2) It is a cyclic process including various interactive elements which plays an important role as a foundation of any educational process 2.3 Need analysis 2.3.1 Definition In language teaching program, need analysis is an important part of developing curriculum considering as a procedure of gathering information about the need of learners in order to define and validate defensible curriculum purposes that satisfy the language learning requirements of students within the context of particular institutions that influence the learning and teaching situation (Brown, p.35) 2.3.1 Purposes of need analysis In different period of implementing the curriculum, need analysis is used for a variety of purposes In this thesis, I implement a need analysis on alumni and employers in order to indentify whether the curriculum’s objectives as well as the expectation of learners and employer as were achieved or not, also help to consider relevant revision to improve the curriculum 2.4 Curriculum evaluation 2.4.1 Definition and purposes of evaluation Oliva (2012) defined curriculum evaluation is as “the process of delineating, obtaining, and providing useful information for judging decision alternatives The primary decision alternatives to consider based upon the evaluation results are: to maintain the curriculum as 2.4.2 2.4.3 2.4.4 3.1 - 3.2 is; to modify the curriculum; or to eliminate the curriculum” Through this statement, it is can be assumed that the curriculum evaluation is used for judging whether the curriculum should be alternated or not Information gathered from the evaluation process is significant for making decision how to continuously implementation the curriculum: keeping, modifying or eliminating unsuitable elements Thus, evaluating curriculum is a crucial component for ensuring the worth the educational program Summative and formative evaluation CIPP curriculum evaluation model Criteria for evaluation According to the set of criteria published by TNU, the effectiveness of a curriculum is evaluated through eight standards which include total 36 items elaborated to judge the curriculum in detail: Objective and output standard, content, teaching and learning strategies, assessment, staffs and faculties, learners, equipments and materials, and the quality assurance of teaching and learning process However, due to aim of the thesis is to evaluate the curriculum through alumni and employers, I focused solely criteria standing for fundamental components of a curriculum which includes total 23 items CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY Research questions To what extent are alumni and employers completely satisfied with the curriculum for Bachelor of English at SFL? To what extent knowledge, skills and attitudes that the curriculum provided to learners meet employers’ expectation and the requirement of workforces? What are the strengths and drawbacks of the current curriculum for Bachelor of English Language at SFL? Subjects of the study 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 4.1 4.2 4.2.1 To conduct sufficient evidences for “evaluating the curriculum for Bachelor of English at SFL- TNU”, this paper focused on two main subject groups including alumni and employers Alumni Seventy graduates attending the Bachelor of English program in the academic year 2009 at SLF is the first group to gather information for the thesis Employers The questionnaires were also sent to eight companies, organizations located at Thai Nguyen and Hanoi including four companies in Thai Nguyen (International School – TNU, Masan JSC, AMA English Center, Pyramid JSC) and four companies in Hanoi (Langmaster, Hanaro TNS, Childfund International, Templaza JSC Data collection instruments Data in this thesis were simultaneously collected by using a combination of questionnaires and interviews procedures in order to guarantee the thesis’s objectiveness Procedures of data collection Data analysis The data from questionnaires and interviews was collected with the help of Google Docs program To judge qualitative data, frequencies (f) and percentage (%) value were demonstrated The percentage value is also illustrated by charts and tables in order to conduct descriptive statistics CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Overview of the survey The questionnaires were designed and carried out in convenient way for respondent to respond by the online form provided by Google Docs The number of respondents was 70 alumni and employers The qualitative data were analyzed via content analysis Findings and discussion data from questionnaire Questionnaires for alumni a Seven criteria of curriculum evaluation Criterion 1: Output Standards and Objectives Through data from alumni questionnaire, it can be assumed that the objectives and output standard of the curriculum were not as completely effective as it is expected Criterion 2: Program structure and content Over 40% of respondents who slightly agreed that the curriculum’s content is balanced This figure was approximate double higher than that at level (21.4%) and level (23.2%) Of these items, coherence of all subjects in the curriculum framework accounted for the highest proportion of agreement (60%) The content’s depth and breadth, by common consent, was at somewhat level (51.4%) Thereby, over half of alumni slightly agreed that the curriculum provides sufficient insight into the content and fully satisfy learners and employers Criterion 3: Teaching and learning strategies 57.1% of respondents strongly agreed that the university used the learner - centred teaching method during the curriculum implementation This figure is double higher than the proportion of alumni who agreed (28.6%) Virtually the percentage of respondents who agreed this statement accounted for 30% while just eight alumni had neutral opinion (11%) and not a single respondent to the survey totally disagreed opinion For the second item, 28.6% of alumni agreed with that the institution counseled students about how to learn effectively The percentage of those who strongly agreed was 24.3% However, the proportion at level (disagreement) was slightly higher than that at others level, made up 30% A remarkable proportion (43%) was disagreement with the statement that the curriculum set up a variety of activities for learners to learn and exchange knowledge, experiences in order to improve their own capacities while just 15% of graduates agreed with this statement Criterion 4: Student assessment To brief, over half of alumni positively evaluated that a range of assessment methods was relevant to the objectives and was explicit, valid and reliable to assess student’s performance Assessment schemes and standards were clearly presented for learners Beside, the result complaining procedure is available for students and all results were stored sufficiently Criterion 5: Instructors It is apparent from the data supplied that more than half of alumni (55.7%) agreed that academic staffs of the university had master knowledge, teaching skills and experiences in professional work The percentage of alumni who strongly agreed with this statement accounted for a fifth of total proportion With regard to the quantitative of instructors, the significant number of respondents, 44 alumni, agreed that the quantity of academic staffs is adequate for the curriculum Just 10% of respondents somewhat agreed while the percentage of those who strongly agreed is over double higher, 24.3% Criterion 6: Learners About half of respondents had neutral opinion that essential information about content, objectives, output standards or assessment methods were presented obviously and sufficiently Almost two – fifth of respondents reported that the university has given guidance or advices for student in order that they could choose their specialized major which is sufficient to their abilities This figure was just slightly higher than proportion of those who expressed their somewhat agreement (33%) Half of respondents agreed that regulations and social policies were provided adequately for students More than a – fourth of total 10 percentage expressed their strongly agreement with in this evaluation item The proportion of respondents who agreed accounted for the highest one, 47.1% The last item showed the noticeable figure (55.7%) of respondent who agreed with the effectiveness of activities which are supported for learners Beside, the number of those who agreed with this statement slightly higher than that of those who somewhat agreed (21.6%) Criterion 7: Infrastructures 55.7% of alumni asserted that learning materials are sufficient to deliver the curriculum while only 8.6% disagreed with this statement The proportion at the level of totally agreement was also higher than that of totally disagreement (almost 13%) Virtually 53% of graduates thought that the number of facilities is adequate for the needs of curriculum In the last item of this criterion, 58.6% of respondent agreed that the infrastructure of computer and information technology is set up to keep up with the needs of learning and researching of learners and faculties b Subjects of the curriculum It can be assumed that alumni highly evaluated the importance of Informatics and Second foreign language subjects in their career due to these subjects provided crucial abilities to deal with professional tasks Meanwhile, many alumni considered that Philosophy and Introduction to language subjects were two subjects which had not met their expectation and the job’s demands One particularly interesting fact highlighted by the figure is that perception of alumni on foundational knowledge was very high Virtually all respondents replied that these subjects were extremely important for their work This proves that the institution 11 implemented an effective framework of basic knowledge which adequate to the career orientation learners Not surprisingly, the vitally importance of specialized knowledge was emphatically asserted by the substantial percentage of almost respondents (from 85 – 95.5%) It is noticeable that the proportion of alumni agreed with the extremely importance of English for specializes was the highest one, made up 98.5%, and the rest of percentage was at level (important) Thus, it can be asserted that English for specialize should be paid attention so as to satisfy the learners’ specific purposes 4.2.2 Questionnaire for employers a Identification employers’ characteristics b The quality of skills and attitudes which the curriculum equipped for students 62.5% of respondents asserted that English Bachelor graduates from SFL could use English well, at least C1 level of CEFR while the rest percentage, 25% of the employers evaluated the quality of English proficiency of alumni is excellent Meanwhile, ability of using second foreign language of SFL English Bachelor graduates was not evaluated as great as ability of using English Similarly capacity of applying knowledge to resolve professional tasks in the work environment also accounted for the highest proportion at scale Creative thinking evaluated as the most impressed skills of SFL graduates with 62.5% of votes at excellent level Ability to manage time and resource was also rated at the highest level by 50% of respondents The second professional skill was evaluated at level (good) Two alumni’s skills had not effective according to employers, are critical thinking and analytic reasoning and problem solving with 12.5% of respondent thought that these skills of SFL graduate were very poor 12 In general, employers evaluated highly the attitudes of SFL graduates With third - fourth of total percentage, professional behavior was considered as the best attitude of graduates of English Bachelor from SFL Likewise, proactively planning for orientation career, trust and loyalty attitudes of SFL graduates were also judge very highly with 75% c Importance of subject in the curriculum for the work’ requirements It is evident that a majority of subjects in the set of generic knowledge were rated at either unimportant or somewhat important level, except Informatics and Second Foreign Languages were expected to the most important subject because of its practical application in the reality It is surprising to notice that English phonetic was rated as very importance level by 100% of respondents Most of subject also rated at this with a significant proportion, however, three subjects, English oral proficiency, English written proficiency and Cross – cultural communication English were considered as extremely important subjects to supply crucial knowledge and abilities for learners All five subject of specialized knowledge were judged as very important, in which, English for specialties and internship were judged as the most extremely important by 100% respondents 4.2.3 Satisfaction of stakeholders Figure : Satisfaction of stakeholders on the curriculum It is evident from the information that the curriculum for English Bachelor met satisfaction of over 60% of both two group of stakeholders including alumni and recruiters A quarter of employers asserted that they very satisfied with the quality of the curriculum This figure was just approximate 4% higher than the figure of alumni Meanwhile, the percentage of alumni who rated the effectiveness of the curriculum at somewhat level accounted for 13 4.3 4.3.1 4.3.2 14.3% and slightly higher than that of employers Through this analysis, it can be assumed that the curriculum for Bachelor of English at SFL satisfied the requirement of alumni and employers Findings from interviews The effectiveness of knowledge, skills and attitudes which the curriculum provided for learners Through the data collected from the interviewees, it can be affirmed that the curriculum for Bachelor of English at SFL met the labor market’s requirements but not high According to Alumni 1, SFL students lost competitive advantages due to miss some essential skills such as writing curriculum vitiate, interview responding when they apply for a job It can be assumed that soft skill, professional abilities, IT and computer skills were skills which the curriculum had not equipped sufficiently to learner in order to well undertake their vacancies Strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum Employers highly evaluate attitude of graduates from SFL They asserted that SFL graduates were very active, creative, curiosity to learn and explode knowledge However, their specialized knowledge was not great Their teamwork skill, sometime, was not really effective Also, IT and computer skills especially skills of using office programs such as MS Words, Excel, Power Point need to be equipped more effective to meet the work’s requirements According to alumni’s interview, knowledge and skills which involved in the curriculum was not specific but too general so that they could not meet career orientation of learners Also, the university has not provided opportunities so that learners can approach reality and practice skills instead of learning solely theory The curriculum‘s strengths, were considered that “the curriculum equipped a strong foundation of knowledge for student” “The curriculum is flexible so that students could choose their suitable course and learning process”, Alumni stated 14 5.1 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS Summary of the findings The aims of this study are to identify satisfaction alumni and employers with the curriculum for Bachelor of English, then determine its strengths and drawbacks Thereby, the author evaluates the effectiveness and suggests recommendations to help the institution improve the current curriculum for English Bachelor in the near future It is evident from the thesis that the curriculum for Bachelor of English at SFL –TNU was partially effective Thus, it has not met completely satisfaction of stakeholders From the data gathered through this study, it can be affirmed that the curriculum for Bachelor of English has not only a lot of strengths but also numerous drawbacks need to be overcome It is noticeable that the curriculum for Bachelor of English was designed and implemented well Firstly, the curriculum framework is accurate that covers a wide range of essential knowledge and skills which learners should attain Also, the curriculum framework is flexible for learner to select suitable learning process In addition, the quality and quantitative of faculties, according to alumni, is quite good A large number of alumni who participated the questionnaire survey asserted that faculties and instructors of SFL are enthusiast and have master knowledge and skills However, there are numerous of weaknesses remaining during the implementation of the curriculum First of all, the curriculum did not present the depth and width of contents and activities to meet educational standards Furthermore, some subjects of specialized knowledge such as Translation theory, English for Specialties have not been focused on sufficiently for learners’ expectation In addition, the range of English for specialties has not assured the multiplicity for a variety of learners’ specific career orientations 15 5.2 Beside, as noted by some alumni, teaching methods has not totally effective to encourage and motivate learners Lastly, the curriculum has not created opportunities in order that learners could exchange and explode knowledge, improve their personal and interpersonal skills as well as practice theory into reality Implications Based on the result of the thesis, it is expected that the curriculum needs to be modified to tailor the higher quality The following recommendation and suggestions might contribute to the improvements For the administrators, I would like to suggest that the curriculum should be added more subjects for special purposes of learners Also, it needs to focus on orientation career at the beginning of the program and divided into typical specialties in order to offer intensive training for learner In addition, it is necessary to provide more soft skills and professional skills to help students achieve competitive advantages when they apply for a job Lastly, aiming to help the curriculum meet the social needs, the institution should draw up program linking with company, organization for internship term or outside activities and practicing activities in the real life This is considered as one of effective methods to investigate strengths and weakness of students so as to make relevant revision For students, I would suggest that they should continuously improve their own abilities, broaden knowledge and practice more As many alumni suggest that students at university should self – study, take part in extra curriculum and be active to learn about the reality as well as discovery their own characteristic to decide relevant career orientation and set up effective learning plan to achieve objectives Limitations of the study and directions for future research 16 The paper aimed to evaluate the English Bachelor curriculum based on alumni and employers However, because of limitation of time, capacity of the author and some difficulties in contacting with alumni and employers, the author only gathered data from 70 graduates enrolling the academic year 2009 – 2013 and employers at Thai Nguyen and Hanoi Thus, this paper had a limited number of subjects Therefore, the further studies about this topic need to investigate data from a larger number of participants to make the results more valid and reliable [...]... analytic reasoning and problem solving with 12.5% of respondent thought that these skills of SFL graduate were very poor 12 In general, employers evaluated highly the attitudes of SFL graduates With third - fourth of total percentage, professional behavior was considered as the best attitude of graduates of English Bachelor from SFL Likewise, proactively planning for orientation career, trust and loyalty ... to modify the curriculum; or to eliminate the curriculum” Through this statement, it is can be assumed that the curriculum evaluation is used for judging whether the curriculum should be alternated... Thus, evaluating curriculum is a crucial component for ensuring the worth the educational program Summative and formative evaluation CIPP curriculum evaluation model Criteria for evaluation According... Criterion 1: Output Standards and Objectives Through data from alumni questionnaire, it can be assumed that the objectives and output standard of the curriculum were not as completely effective