A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE MASTER OF TESOL PROGRAM’S LEARNING OUTCOMES AND THE NATIONAL FRAMEWORK OF QUALIFICATIONS AND THE SMART PRINCIPLES

Abstract

Learning outcome formulation is one of the first and most essential stages in program development. Previous research has acknowledged the importance of this stage and the benefits of outcome-based education. Outcome-based program development is becoming popular in Vietnam, especially after the promulgation of Circulars that instruct institutions to formulating program learning outcomes. As Vinh University gives priority to educational quality, it has periodically reviewed and adjusted learning outcomes of not only undergraduate programs but also graduate programs. This process has been done on the basis of the National Framework of Qualifications and the SMART principles (Doran, 1981). However, we have found that although the National Framework of Qualifications has met a couple of SMART principles, program developers need to flexibly incorporate the framework into their program learning outcomes. Flexibility application will allow us to design learning outcomes that meet the SMART principles and include the so-called knowledge, attitudes, skills and attributes in the National Framework of Qualifications. In this paper, we have also proposed a Framework of Competency Level to help program designers formulate ‘smarter’ learning outcomes.