Research on the Teaching Reform of Macroeconomics Based on the OBE Concept ()
1. Introduction
Macroeconomics is an important branch of the economic system, taking the overall economic operation of the society and its consequences, and mainly studying employment and unemployment, inflation, economic growth and other issues. It is of great reference significance to our country which is establishing and improving the socialist market economic system. This course has a rising status in the professional courses of economics and management in colleges and universities in China, and has become a basic course of economics and management in colleges and universities. However, in the current teaching process, macroeconomics teaching has been following the traditional teaching mode, teaching methods are single, teaching methods and so on are relatively backward, cannot meet the requirements of quality-oriented education reform and adapt to the development of modern economic society, cannot shoulder the burden of cultivating high-quality creative talents. Therefore, it is particularly important to innovate and reform the macroeconomics teaching mode.
In the spring of 2018, the country’s first national standard for the teaching quality of higher education was promulgated, which clearly proposed that the quality evaluation of undergraduate education majors should highlight the student center, output orientation and continuous improvement. Therefore, in this context, based on the OBE concept, the reform of macroeconomics teaching is of great practical significance to improving the ability of talent training.
2. Problems Existing in the Teaching of Macroeconomics Course under the Traditional Teaching Mode
2.1. Single Teaching Means and Poor Classroom Effect
The traditional macroeconomics course teaching is mainly a single teacher-centered teaching form, teachers mainly rely on the teaching method to directly instill knowledge into students, the lack of communication and feedback between teachers and students, making students in a passive learning state, it is difficult to mobilize the enthusiasm of learning, is not conducive to cultivating students’ interest in learning (Kou, 2022) . Moreover, the traditional teacher teaching often focuses on the pure theoretical learning in the teaching materials, emphasizes the efficiency of knowledge transmission, and ignores the long-term thinking cultivation of students and the development of knowledge transfer and application ability (Jiang, Zhang, & Wu, 2022) . At present, teachers in colleges and universities mostly make PPT courseware according to the content of the textbook, or use the textbook’s own courseware as the classroom explanation materials, and transmit the knowledge points to students through the teacher’s oral expression. Macroeconomics itself is abstract and obscure to understand. However, the courseware focuses on the theoretical introduction, and lacks the specific explanation and expansion of the knowledge points. Therefore, it is difficult for students to rely on their own understanding and practical application, resulting in the disconnection between theory and practice. Students can only rely on rote memorization, unable to flexibly use it, and then deviate from the goal of cultivating students’ ability to use macroeconomic theories and tools to understand and analyze real economic problems. In addition, university teaching is mainly based on large classroom, while the large classroom curriculum environment reduces the immediate communication and feedback between teachers and students, and the lack of interaction has the binding force on students, which seriously affects students’ learning interest and learning effect, and causes obstacles for the interaction between teachers and students and the implementation of diversified teaching methods.
2.2. The Teaching Content Is Highly Theoretical, and Students Have Little Interest in Learning
Macroeconomics originated in the West, and the content of the textbooks is mostly based on the western economic environment, which is seriously divorced from China’s specific economic reality and cultural background (Peng & Wang, 2022) . In addition, the textbook of Macroeconomics mainly focuses on the measurement indicators of national income, unemployment and price level, the theoretical knowledge of national income determination model, IS-LM model and AD-AS model, and lacks the analysis of real economic problems or practical cases. In addition, the teachers centered on the traditional teaching concept, lack of analysis of the real economic environment, the lack of analysis and review of major economic problems in frontier, from reality, so that students in the study of the system cannot deeply understand related theory, unable to use macroeconomics theory and tools to understand and analyze the real economic problems. For example, when learning the IS-LM model, I have little knowledge of the origin of the derivation method and the practical significance of the model, which makes it difficult for students to apply the theory or use relevant models to analyze real economic phenomena, which cannot effectively improve students to use macroeconomic theoretical knowledge to analyze and solve economic and social practical problems.
2.3. Lack of Innovation in the Assessment Methods, and Neglect of the Cultivation of Students’ Divergent Thinking Ability
The traditional macroeconomics course teaching assessment, mainly through the students’ final examination results and peacetime results for comprehensive evaluation (Pu, Zheng, & Liu, 2022) . The score of the final closed-book examination papers accounted for 60%, and the usual score accounted for 40%. The results are mainly based on the students’ class answering questions, homework completion and attendance. The final examination papers are mainly based on the theoretical knowledge of textbooks, with standardized answers and lack of investigation of students’ divergent thinking. Although this assessment method is convenient to compare students “learning effects horizontally, it is an important means to test teachers” teaching results. However, this set of assessment method ignores the cultivation of students “economic thinking ability and financial literacy in the learning process, and ignores the evaluation and feedback of students” learning process, which cannot effectively play the guiding, feedback and incentive role of teaching evaluation.
In short, the traditional macroeconomics course teaching mode is teachers as the center, teachers “teaching” decided students “learning”, is the teacher of the classroom, students are the passive recipient of knowledge, lack of learning autonomy, belongs to the concept of abstract teaching and students, so students cannot understand the concept itself, these concepts is difficult to integrate into the students’ own knowledge system. In this mode, students often do not understand enough knowledge, only rote, stay in the level of books, lack of critical thinking ability, unable to use the learned macroeconomic methods to analyze and solve the real economic problems. Obviously, the defects of the traditional teaching mode are very obvious, which does not highlight the importance of students, is not conducive to the development of students’ independent learning ability and innovation ability, is not conducive to the all-round development of students, more is not conducive to the improvement of education level. This traditional macroeconomics teaching mode does not meet the requirements of modern society for talent training, and cannot bear the heavy burden of cultivating high-quality creative talents. Therefore, it is imperative to change the traditional teaching mode of macroeconomics and carry out the reform of macroeconomics classroom mode based on the OBE education concept of “student-oriented, achievement-oriented and continuous improvement”. The new teaching mode based on the OBE concept emphasizes the “interaction” between teachers and students, between students and between students. It is no longer a teacher-led indoctrination, but pays more attention to the acquisition of students’ personalized knowledge and the generation of creative knowledge. Only in this way can we effectively solve the problems existing in traditional teaching, significantly improve the teaching effect, and make education face the new era and move towards modernization.
3. OBE Teaching Philosophy
3.1. Origin and Development
The OBE (Outcome Based Education) education concept is called achievement-oriented education, also known as ability-oriented education, goal-oriented education, or demand-oriented education. OBE, as an advanced educational concept, OBE was put forward by Spady et al. in 1981, and soon gained people’s attention and wide recognition, and has become the mainstream concept of education reform in the United States, The United Kingdom, Canada and other countries. The American Institute for Accreditation of Engineering Education fully accepts the OBE concept and runs it throughout the engineering education certification standards. In June 2013, China was admitted as a signing member of the Washington Agreement. This marks that the curtain of the international substantial and equivalent professional certification of engineering education has been opened in China. It is of practical significance to guide the engineering education reform with the achievement-oriented education concept.
3.2. Concept
OBE refers to the goal of teaching design and teaching implementation is the final learning results achieved by students through the education process. It is an educational concept based on learning results or results, which clearly focuses and organizes every link in education, so that students can achieve the expected results in the learning process. The OBE education model focuses on the analysis of students “learning output, and the reverse design of students” educational structure and related evaluation system.
3.3. Comparison between Achievement-Oriented Education and Traditional Education
OBE is student-centered, results-oriented and continuous improvement. Compared with the traditional educational concept focusing on “how to learn” and “when to learn”, OBE education concept believes that “what students learn” and “success” are more important. 1) The curriculum of traditional education strictly follows the prescribed process, and follows the teaching time, content and method of unified subjects. OBE emphasizes that students have clear goals and expected performance from the very beginning of subject learning, students are clear about the connotation of expected learning, and teachers are more clear about how to assist students in learning. 2) Traditional education is subject-oriented, which follows the principle of professional setting by discipline. Achievement-oriented education is goal-oriented, and it follows the reverse design principle, and its “reverse” is relative to the “positive” of traditional education. Reverse design starts with the demand (including internal demand and external demand), and the demand determines the cultivation goal. 3) Traditional education is teacher-centered, and teachers have the final say on what to teach and how to teach it. Students only passively accept the arrangement of teachers to complete their learning. OBE education concept attaches importance to the dominant position of students in the learning process, breaks the traditional education mode of only focusing on what teachers teach but not what students learn, and establishes a student-centered student achievement output education mode. In the teaching process, the teachers change from the classroom leader to the classroom organizer and the students’ learning guide.
As an advanced educational concept, OBE has been in theoretical and practical exploration in some countries such as the United States for many years, and has formed a relatively complete theoretical system and implementation mode. In order to make China’s higher engineering education to better adapt to the needs of the country and economic and social development, to meet the challenge under the trend of economic globalization, we need to support in OBE concept and the concept, booster college professional education quality, promote college education teaching change, realize college education of three important changes: from course orientation to achievement oriented, from teacher center to student center, from quality control to continuous improvement.
4. Curriculum Reform of Macroeconomics Based on the OBE Concept
At present, the traditional macroeconomics course teaching has obvious defects, and the single teaching method is relatively backward, which cannot meet the requirements of quality-oriented education reform and adapt to the development of modern economic society. Combined with the training mode of economics talents in local colleges and universities, “Macroeconomics”, as a basic course of economics and management, determines the main training objectives: comprehensive knowledge application ability, independent thinking ability, team cooperation ability, comprehensive analysis ability, communication and expression ability and innovation ability. In order to achieve the above ability training goals, we take students as the center, ability-oriented as the core, adopt teaching methods such as combining case teaching, distinguishing online teaching and offline teaching priorities, carry out the curriculum reform of Macroeconomics based on the OBE concept, and gradually achieve the ability training goals.
4.1. Take the Ability Orientation as the Core and Implement the Teaching Content
Based on the concept of OBE to guide the teaching reform of Macroeconomics. First of all, teachers should clarify the ability and teaching objectives according to the talent training program issued by the Ministry of Education and the course nature of macroeconomics, so as to design and implement the teaching content. Macroeconomics has an increasing status in the professional courses of economics and management in colleges and universities in China, and has become the basic professional course of economics and management in ordinary colleges and universities. This course needs to master the basic principles and main research methods of macroeconomics, understand the different models of national income determination theory, and correctly understand the macroeconomic policies in different historical periods. Therefore, when teaching the course content of macroeconomics, we should not only pay attention to the teaching of theories, but also pay attention to the economic and social environment connected with the reality. For example, let the students use theories to explain and analyze the economic phenomena around them, and put forward their own opinions and suggestions on the relevant hot economic issues. On the one hand, the basic concepts and models should be thoroughly explained to lay a good foundation for students to analyze practical problems and learn the following courses; on the other hand, students should be guided to pay attention to the major macroeconomic problems at home and abroad, pay attention to the interpretation of macroeconomic policies by experts, cultivate students “economic thinking mode, and improve students” basic ability to analyze and solve real social and economic problems.
4.2. Distinguish between Online Teaching and Offline Teaching Priorities, and Enrich the Teaching Forms and Content
The traditional classroom teaching of Macroeconomics is closed, that is, the fixed teaching content is completed in a fixed place and within a fixed time. In this closed mode, teaching activities revolve around three centers: teachers, classrooms and textbooks. The teaching of Macroeconomics based on the OBE education concept distinguishes between online teaching and offline teaching. Teachers should determine the focus of online teaching and offline teaching according to the talent training program. According to the current social education environment survey, the current teaching goal of macroeconomics is offline teaching as the leading and online teaching as the auxiliary. Offline teaching focuses on curriculum theoretical knowledge learning, while online teaching focuses on the integration of high-quality resources. Online resources are rich, and online teaching is presented to students by integrating high-quality resources. For example, the changes in the international economic environment and various economic cases can be displayed through online teaching. The macroeconomics teaching mode based on OBE education concept emphasizes the transformation from teacher center to student center, with the participation of teachers and students. Therefore, teachers need to make use of “Internet+”, Tencent Classroom and other teaching platforms to reasonably set up online learning resources, stimulate students “interest and enthusiasm in learning, and improve students” participation in the course. Students should actively adapt to the macroeconomics teaching mode based on OBE concept, actively cooperate with teachers to complete teaching tasks, make full use of online teaching resources, improve offline learning consciousness, and strive to cultivate students’ ability to use macroeconomics theories and tools to understand and analyze real economic problems.
4.3. Promote the Improvement of Macroeconomics Teaching When Combined with Case Teaching
Positioning Macroeconomics takes a series of assumptions as the premise to explain various practical economic phenomena, the theoretical knowledge is abstract, and the content is relatively difficult to understand. At present, the general situation is that after teachers finish class, students are difficult to understand and understand the theoretical knowledge system framework, can only memorize by rote, cannot really cultivate students’ ability to use macroeconomic theoretical knowledge to analyze and solve practical economic problems. However, the forms of case teaching are flexible and diverse, and case teaching can allow students to analyze and make decisions by simulating reality. Therefore, macroeconomics can use domestic and foreign cases to reveal the generality and particularity of China’s economic operation. For example, the difference in investment effect can be explained by comparing the difference in the marginal propensity for consumption at home and abroad. In this way, it can not only promote students to understand the theoretical knowledge of macroeconomics, but also enable students to understand the international economic environment, broaden students’ vision, stimulate their enthusiasm and interest in learning, and promote students to understand, master and flexibly use the knowledge they have learned.
4.4. Innovate Assessment Methods and Enrich Assessment Indicators
The OBE educational philosophy emphasizes the assessment of learning outcomes and continuous curricular improvement. In order to overcome the problems existing in the traditional macroeconomics course teaching, fully mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of students in learning, gradually establish the teaching assessment method with ability orientation as the core, and realize the diversification and whole process of course evaluation. On the basis of summarizing the past assessment methods, we should further adjust the course assessment methods of macroeconomics, so as to truly realize the goal of “whole-process education and all-round education”. The traditional course assessment indicators of “Macroeconomics” are mainly based on the final exam results with standard answers. At the same time, we strengthen attendance to ensure the quality of class, and lack other assessment indicators. Therefore, based on the OBE education concept, the course assessment method of “Macroeconomics” should be innovated with the help of “Internet+”. Assessment methods can choose closed volume, open volume, defense, oral examination, literature review, project (scheme) design, small papers, survey report, or adopt the above method, so that the assessment method to diversification, assessment content to pay attention to the ability assessment of comprehensive, performance evaluation to scientific, diversified, the whole transformation. In addition, the assessment indicators of Macroeconomics should be enriched, the classroom performance score should be increased, the final examination methods should be diversified to reduce the proportion of attendance, and students can stimulate their enthusiasm in class and their interest in learning with teaching quality. We can also adopt the method of “taking the examination with certificate and recognizing credit”, or add additional items to encourage students to participate in competitions and projects related to the course, and implement the “promote learning through competition and promote learning by project” to promote students’ all-round development.
5. Conclusion
Macroeconomics is a basic course of economics and management in colleges and universities. Combined with the OBE concept of student-centered, achievement-oriented and the principle of continuous improvement, it can effectively overcome the defects and deficiencies of the traditional macroeconomics teaching mode and improve the teaching quality of macroeconomics. Of course, the teaching improvement of macroeconomics guided by the OBE concept has high requirements for teachers. Therefore, teachers need to be strict with themselves, timely evaluate, summarize and reflect on their own and students “conditions, dare to learn and study the theoretical knowledge and practical application of macroeconomics with a critical attitude, and constantly improve students” comprehensive quality, so as to really improve the teaching effect and teaching quality.
Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the support of the project from Xu Yanli being selected in the introduction of shortage top talent of “Yangfan (Sailing up) project” in Guangdong Province in 2014. The project is Leading Industry Development Strategy Research in Emerging Areas in Western Guangdong for Accelerating the Economic Development of Western Guangdong.
It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the support from the talents introduction project of universities in Guangdong Province.
It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the support from the following projects: 1) Excellent Course “Macroeconomics” in Teaching Quality and Teaching Reform Project in Lingnan Normal University in 2017 (Grant No. 114961700227). 2) Comprehensive reform experiment of International Economics and Trade major in Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology. 3) International Education Department in Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology. The project is Research on Teaching Quality Evaluation for the major International Economics and Trade in English in the Background of International Education (Grant No. 2014GDUPTGJ-07).
This research was financially supported by Scientific Research Project of Lingnan Normal University. The project is Research on Economic Growth in Underdeveloped Areas (Xu Yanli, Grant No. ZW1807).
This research is supported by Guangdong Coastal Economic Belt Development Research Center, Lingnan Normal University (Grant No. 20223L08, Grant No. 20191L01).
NOTES
*Corresponding author.