The Use of Learner-Centered Assessment in US Colleges and Universities

Over a decade ago, Barr and Tagg (Change Mag 27(6):12–25, 1995) declared that a shift had occurred in higher education from an instruction paradigm to a learning paradigm. A central element in this new paradigm is learner-centered assessment. While a growing body of literature suggests that this approach to assessment is a best practice in higher education pedagogy, it is still unclear whether faculty members have embraced it fully. Using data from the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, this study examines the extent to which faculty members employed learner-centered assessments in postsecondary classrooms at two points in time, 1993 and 2004. Findings show similar to higher rates of use for some assessment techniques in 2004 compared to reports from 1993, as well as differences by faculty gender, age, discipline, and institution type. Implications for faculty members, student learning, and institutional policy are discussed.     

Literacy Assessment and Student Diversity: An Australian case study

This article describes the reported practices in literacy assessment, recording, and reporting in 12 Australian schools characterised by populations of diverse learners. The findings indicate the problems and challenges teachers face in providing socially just and inclusive literacy assessment in heterogeneous classrooms. We make a number of suggestions related to enhancing assessment, recording, and reporting at the classroom level and argue for systemic support for teachers.     

Practices of parental participation: a case study

The nature of parental participation in children’s education is changing rapidly. A growing body of research points to the positive effect that parental involvement has on outcomes of schooling and on children’s well‐being. This paper examines parental participation practices in terms of parents working together with a range of professionals, exchanging knowledge and information regarding their child’s SEN, challenging practices, and negotiating SEN provision. The parents in this study exercised agency – that is, they showed resilience and took initiative, within a context of shared responsibility and accountability, and advocated for their child’s right to educational provision. This paper argues for a strengths‐based approach towards enabling active parental participation and advocacy.     

Assessment matters: Moving beyond surveys

Do our students have survey burnout? Vicki L. Wise and Mary Ann Barham share their suggestions for encouraging student engagement in the assessment process and increasing the validity of the data collected as we do so.     

英语分级教学与形成性评价方法的思考与实践

高职英语是高职教育中一门重要课程,与应用型人才培养的质量密切相关.生源的复杂性给高职英语教学带来很大的难度.针对这一实际情况,在英语教学中采用分级教学,并用形成性评价作为教学的考核方式是一项有效的应对措施.     

Bullying and the Postgraduate Secondary School Trainee Teacher: An English case study

This paper reports the findings of a study which investigated primary BEd student teachers' scientific backgrounds, attitudes towards science and towards teaching science, their confidence to teach science, and their scientific knowledge and understanding. The findings are discussed in relation to what primary teachers need to know in order to be able to teach science, and to our developing understanding of how science is perceived, experienced and understood by learners. The paper concludes with a discussion of the effectiveness of a pilot course developed to address the issues raised by the study. It is 'learner centred' and focused on the development of knowledge and understanding rather than process, and on factors likely to promote pupil (and student) understanding. The outcomes of the pilot work raise further substantive issues.     

Constructing Explanations in Science: Informal Formative Assessment Practices Among Science Teachers of English Learners

Research in Science Education - Informal formative assessments (IFAs) are classroom interactions teachers use to gather information about their students’ learning, interpret it, and act on...     

运用案例促进商务英语口语教学

针对商务英语口语教学中出现的学生在商业知识和经验,创新思维和商务氛围欠缺等问题,案例教学法在促进商务英语口语教学中起到的积极作用,并且是一种开放式的教学法,能和其它教学法很好的结合,并有互相促进的作用。     

大学英语文化课合作学习的实证研究

合作学习是以学习小组为基本形式,系统地利用教学中动态因素之间的互动,共同解决和评估教学的一种方式。本文通过大学英语专业《英美概况》课程的教学实践,在建构主义理论、社会互赖理论和动机理论等指导下,探讨合作学习的可行性及其效果。经实践,我们发现合作学习对英语文化课①的教学具有适切性;对培养学生的综合知识能力和提高学生的学习成绩具有实效性;对培养团结协作意识和提高学习兴趣都具关联性。在当今教与学的媒体技术飞速发展的时代,合作学习对英语教学改革和提高跨文化交际能力更具有现实意义。     

形成性评价（Formative Assessment）的本质及其对教与学的影响

长期以来,很多学者一直倡导指导教学的评价,即通过评估学生需求和监测其学习进展,适当地设计学习顺序,调整教学策略,改良学习计划,以便有效地促进学习目标的完成。本研究调查了形成性评价在美国中学科学课中的实施情况,并分析其对学生学习进步的影响。研究表明,教师都在努力使用形成性评价来指导教学,而学生取得的成绩各不相同。     

Assessment of severe emotional impairment: Practices and problems

The basic purpose of this study was to determine: (a) how school psychologists operationally define severe emotional disturbance as outlined in PL 94–142 (SED), and (b) the extent to which assessment procedures are in compliance with PL 94–142. A total of 83 school psychologists from two north central states participated in the study. Results indicated that a typical battery for assessing SED consisted of the WISC-R, WRAT, Bender-Gestalt, an incomplete sentences test, a behavior-rating scale, classroom observation, and informal interviews. A high correlation was found between the frequency with which psychologists use a type of data and the importance ascribed to that data source. Psychologists generally relied on only one or two criteria when considering severity of emotional disturbance. Special education placement often was contingent upon program availability. Implications for training and practice were presented.     

大学英语课堂教学评估方式分析

课堂教学评估的目的是监控学生的学习，利用评估信息指导学生的学习。本文分析了大学英语课堂评估在大学英语教学中的重要性，以及如何运用多种评价工具及评价方式开展大学英语课堂教学评估，目的是通过对学生英语课堂学习表现行为、学习过程进行评估，教师可以深入的反思自己的教学，以便有效地开展大学英语教学，提高教学质量。     

The prediction of private demand for education: An Indonesian case study

A number of methodologies, including the estimation of manpower needs and of the rate of return to investment, offer ways and means by which governments in the third world can define an appropriate level of supply of formal education. However, in practice, the desires of individual families for education for their children determine the actual level of utilization of the education supplied by government, and, acting through the private sector, also directly influence the level of supply. This study, based on a survey of rural families in several provinces in Indonesia, is an attempt to search for variables, and combinations of variables, which predict the actual utilization of schooling by individual families. The analysis suggests that the following are useful predictors: variables indicative of the provision of educational opportunity, some structural characteristics of the family, the family's economic status and the value orientations of the family toward education. A number of variables, more directly related to family demand, and of a more complex nature, are identified for investigation in further research.

---

Zusammenfassung Verschiedene Methodologien einschliesslich der Schätzung des Bedarfs an Arbeitskräften und des Ertrags von Investitionen bieten Regierungen in der Dritten Welt die Möglichkeit, den Bedarf für Schulerziehung festzustellen. In Praxis bestimmen jedoch die Wünsche der einzelnen Familien bezüglich Ausbildung ihrer Kinder das Ausmass, in dem von den Bildungsmöglichkeiten, die die Regierung zur Verfügung stellt, Gebrauch gemacht wird. Über den privaten Sektor beeinflussen sie auch direkt den Umfang des Angebots. Diese auf einer Erhebung bei ländlichen Familien in mehreren Provinzen Indonesiens beruhende Studie stellt einen Versuch dar, Variable und Kombinationen von Variablen zu finden, mit deren Hilfe die tatsächliche Benutzung schulischer Einrichtungen durch die Familien vorausgesagt werden kann. Die Analyse ergibt, dass die folgenden dafür nützlich wären: Versorgung mit Bildungsmöglichkeiten, Familienstrukturmerkmale, wirtschaftlicher Status der Familie und Einstellung der Familie zur Bildung. Eine Anzahl komplizierterer und direkter auf die Familienwünsche bezogener Variablen werden zum Gebruach in weiteren Untersuchungen empfohlen.

---

Résumé Plusieurs méthodologies incluant l'estimation du besoin en main-d'oeuvre et du taux de rentabilité de l'investissement permettent aux gouvernements du tiers monde de déterminer un niveau approprié d'offre de systèmes d'enseignement. Cependant dans la pratique les désirs de chaque famille particulière pour l'éducation de ses enfants déterminent le niveau réel d'utilisation de l'enseignement dispensé par le gouvernement, et, agissant par l'intermédiaire du secteur privé, ils influencent directement le niveau de l'offre. Cette étude basée sur une enquête sur les familles rurales dans plusieurs provinces d'Indonésie, est une tentative de recherches de variables et de combinaisons de variables prédisant l'utilisation réelle de l'instruction par chaque famille particulière. L'analyse suggère que les facteurs suivants sont d'utiles éléments de prédiction: les variables indiquant la présence d'opportunités éducationnelles, les caractéristiques structurales de la famille, le statut économique de la famille et la valeur qu'accorde la famille à l'éducation. Plusieurs variables en relation plus directe avec les demandes des familles et d'une nature plus complexe ont été établies pour faire l'objet de plus amples recherches.

     

Assessment at the boundaries: Service learning as case study

This article explores the value systems which inform assessment practices in higher education, specifically how particular forms of knowledge valued in the curriculum shape and constrain assessment practices. The data for this article is drawn from two courses which participated in a service learning research and development project at the University of Cape Town. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein, the article argues that the location of these courses—within the field of higher education and a particular kind of institution, faculty and department—shapes their assessment systems, practices and outcomes in certain ways. What is valued in this field (Bourdieu) is a form of knowledge production which requires students ‘to step out of the particularities’. This form of knowledge operates as a regulative discourse, constituting what counts as legitimate. Using the assessment system as a ‘window’, this article explores how these service learning courses constitute and are constituted by the regulative discourse of the field. While the constraints of the field are powerful, this project offers some hopeful signs of forms of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment that, at the very least, name and challenge these underlying value systems.