Exploring the Possibilities of Using an Outcomes-based Approach in English Teacher Education

Abstract

The new school curriculum in South Africa, ‘Curriculum 2005’, is outcomes-based. The writer of this paper considers how to prepare her students to teach in an outcomes-based curriculum. She describes how she has used genre theory as a means to understanding outcomes-based education, and reports on the way in which genre theory has informed the Higher Diploma in Education curriculum at Rhodes University. Emphasis is placed on the centrality of assessment in outcomes-based education, and the ways in which genre theory can deepen understanding of assessment procedures.