Revitalizing a textile merchandising course using student-centric problem based learning system

As parts of the curriculum for a textile marketing and management programme at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, technical management subjects has long been challenged in the point of teaching and equipping students with analytical thinking skills to handling interdisciplinary problems. In the light of rapid transformation towards globalization, the scope of skills and knowledge in textile merchandising tremendously expands. Conventional teaching and learning methods however are much characterized by what is so-called surface learning skill that students are simply required to recall pieces of theory or even surface understanding to handle assessment requirement. Students feel much difficult and abstract to applying concepts from a variety of management and technology disciplines into real life practice. This paper discusses the issues in designing and revitalizing teaching and learning in textile merchandising subject. The authors illustrate an example of the use of student centric problem solving pedagogical methods and present a framework describing the course of the pedagogy development. At last, the authors conclude with a discussion of the validity of the methods and the effectiveness.