The Study of Chinese Curriculum Development in Accordance with the OBE Guidelines: A Case Study of Chinese for Business Communication Program, Prince of Songkla University, Surat Thani Campus

Abstract

The objective of this research is to study the development of Chinese curriculum in accordance with the OBE guidelines to meet the needs of learners, local entrepreneurs and society by collecting data from 1) 527 questionnaires from secondary school students from 14 provinces in the southern region; 2) 112 questionnaires regarding the competencies of graduates from entrepreneurs in various fields in the southern region of Thailand; and 3) comments and suggestions obtained from 8academic and entrepreneur representatives at the meeting of Chinese curriculum development. The results showed that 1) Chinese curriculum should be the integration between Chinese language and business; 2) the structure of the curriculum is 3 +1, with students studying for 3 years in Thailand and 1 year in China; 3) the curriculum needs to develop in accordance with the OBE guidelines, with at least 70% of all courses in the program using Active Learning techniques, at least 50% of  the number of credits regarding those being categorized as area-specific courses in the program using Work Integrated Learning (WIL) approaches, including ongoing program support to promote graduates’ excellence in Chinese in various fields; 4) Chinese language proficiency level of the graduates must at least be equivalent to the HSK Chinese Proficiency Test level 4 prior to graduation.