Public invited to seminar on Open Book exams on 5 December

Miri – 1 December 2014 – Members of the public are invited to a seminar entitled ‘Open-Book Examinations and the Outcome-Based Approach’ organised by Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) on 5 December 2014.

It will be from 10.00 am to 11.00 am in the university’s Council Room and will be facilitated by Professor Tony T.N. Hung, Honorary Professor from the Language Centre of Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU).

The seminar is part of the Curtin Sarawak Office of Teaching and Learning’s 2014 seminar series.

It aims to provide a detailed justification and illustration of Open Book exams, and will show how it can work hand-in-hand with the Outcome-Based Approach (OBA) to assess higher-level cognitive outcomes, where knowledge and information are a means rather than an end in itself.

According to Professor Hung, examinations traditionally take place in strictly supervised, ‘closed book’ sessions, where students are denied access to books and other sources of information. These conditions are imposed on the assumption that the main purpose of an examination is to test the students’ ability to recall and regurgitate a body of knowledge unaided.

Such assumptions and practices are at odds with the goals of modern education, which aims to produce graduates who can think critically, analyse and solve intellectual or technical problems, access and use information effectively, and become independent lifelong learners.

Professor Hung, who is also an Adjunct Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak, holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of California, M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Lancaster, B.A. (Honours) in English from McMaster University, and B.Ed. from Queen’s University.

He was a Senior Lecturer in the English Department of the National University of Singapore from 1981 to 1997, and Head of the Language Centre at the HKBU from 1997 to 2011.

His publications include eight books and over 90 journal articles, book chapters and conference presentations in the fields of World Englishes, English Grammar, Phonology, Language Teaching and Chinese Linguistics.

For details on the seminar, contact Curtin Sarawak’s Dean of Teaching and Learning Associate Professor Beena Giridharan at 085-443 847 or email beena@curtin.edu.my.

Professor Tony T.N. Hung, Honorary Professor, Language Centre of Hong Kong Baptist University.