The general foundation courses in the undergraduate curriculum comprise approximately 24 credits. These courses play a significant role in enhancing the quality of students' personal lives and academic lives. However, a major past issue has been that we have emphasized teaching for testing and grading (Teach for Test and Assessment). Furthermore, the examinations have tended to measure English language proficiency rather than learning for life quality development or practical application of knowledge. The resulting outcomes have been a large number of students receiving failing or low grades (F/D/C) and many having a GPA below 2.00 upon completing their first year. This causes students to become discouraged and puts them at risk of dropping out or being academically dismissed.
The main proposal is that Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) must be clearly defined. Instructors should announce interim grades at least one month before the final examination and provide remedial instruction until they are confident that students will achieve at least a moderate level of success in these courses, or attain a minimum grade of C+.
Learning Objectives of the General Foundation Courses
Courses in this group aim to promote learning that enables students to apply knowledge to their personal and academic lives, thereby improving their overall quality of life. Instructors must clearly define the expected learning outcomes for each course. Students must be aware of their own status, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and plan their self-development according to the learning objectives. Finally, instructors must monitor or evaluate student progress, provide opportunities for remediation if some students still have significant weaknesses, and leave no student behind. Only when they are confident that every student has achieved success, or has developed moderate or higher improvements in personal and academic life relevant to the course content, should they make a final judgment and assign grades.
Examples of Courses and Their Desired Expected Outcomes
Personality Development:
•Students must understand the meaning of personality, which includes having mindfulness, self-image, mental-emotional balance, social skills, and good analytical thinking.
•Students must honestly and realistically assess their own self-image and emotional-social qualities.
•Students must plan and carry out personality development activities as designed by the instructor or by themselves.
•Students must show clear development and engage in continuous self-improvement practices.
If these objectives are met, the instructor will assign grades based on actual observable change. If any student shows no improvement, they must undergo remediation until clear development is achieved.
Man and Society:
• Students must learn to be good members of society, abide by the law, work as a team, respect individual differences, and respect the rights of others.
• Students must appreciate the value of exhibiting the behaviors described in (1).
• Students must assess their current state, identify their weaknesses, and plan their own development to improve their ability to coexist with others.
• Students must show improvement or continuous development, with better interactions and coexistence within their academic and social peer groups.
If these four criteria are met, the instructor can evaluate and assign grades appropriately, based on a pre-defined rubric.
Learning Skills:
• Students must develop relevant skills such as ICT, communication, analytical reading, information retrieval, and compile their work in a Portfolio.
• Students must evaluate their own weaknesses, then plan and practice developing their skills through assignments given by the instructor or through self-designed tasks.
• Students must present evidence of their development in an E-Portfolio. The expected outcome is improved academic performance in other courses, leading to grades of B/A, or at least a C+ in this course and others.
Current Teaching Problems
• Teaching is focused on rote memorization, comprehension of concepts and theories, and preparation for midterm/final exams. Exam scores reflect English test-taking skills more than actual learning or application for quality-of-life development.
• Students who score high are often those proficient in English, which does not necessarily reflect their actual personality development or learning skills as emphasized by the course objectives.
• When a large number of students fail, it signifies a failure in teaching and leaves many students behind (contrary to the "No Child Left Behind" principle, but rather resulting in "a lot of children left behind").
• The impact is that after just one year of study, students begin to lose motivation, become discouraged, risk dropping out, and this becomes a problem for the institution's overall standing.
Proposed Action Guidelines
• Instructors must clearly define and announce the Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for each course, emphasizing learning for quality-of-life development, and align learning activities with these expected outcomes.
• Instructors must announce interim (continuous assessment) scores before the final examination to allow students to see their progress, screen those who need remediation, and identify at-risk students for timely assistance.
• Establish a remediation system for students who have not yet developed in areas of personality, social skills, or learning skills, or who have not met the course learning objectives, until they are confident of achieving at least a minimum standard of C+ or demonstrate clear quality-of-life development.
• Encourage students to create a Portfolio as evidence of their development and use it as one of the criteria for grade assignment.
• Redefine "good teaching" as: Teaching is considered effective when students can genuinely apply the knowledge and their quality of life improves. Instructors must adopt the perspective that "teaching general foundation courses is about building and developing students, not merely teaching for tests and using assessments to filter them out." This change is expected to reduce repeated failures and the risk of student dropouts.
Conclusion / Future Perspectives
• If we shift from teaching for tests to teaching for practical application, it is expected that we will see greater improvements in students' quality of life and academic success in the future.
• There must be a concrete review of the assessment and remediation systems to reduce the number of students "left behind."
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