The development of personal,intercultural and professional competence in international field experience in initial teacher education

This paper reports a qualitative case study of four preservice student teachers’ professional learning experiences in an international field experience programme situated in the language and cultural immersion component of a PGDE(Primary) Programme in Hong Kong. Two of the student teachers undertook the international field experience in Australia and Canada. The other two had their “non-local” field experience in mainland China1. The findings reveal student teachers' development in personal and intercultural competence in cross-cultural experiences. Their professional learning experiences in the action context, socio-professional context, and supervisory context of the cross-cultural school settings, and their reflection upon these experiences constituted the development of their professional competence. Suggestions for improvement of the international field experience programme and implications for future research are discussed.     

Conceptualising teachers’ assessment literacies in an era of curriculum and assessment reform

Teacher assessment literacy is a phrase that is often used but rarely defined. Yet understanding teacher assessment literacy is important in an international curriculum and assessment reform context that continues to challenge teachers’ assessment practices. In this article situated examples of classroom assessment literacies are analysed using Bernstein’s (Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research and critique, Taylor and Francis, London, 1996; Br J Sociol Educ 20(2):157–173, 1999) theoretical tools of vertical and horizontal discourses, classification and framing. Drawing on a sociocultural view of learning, the authors define teacher assessment literacies as dynamic social practices which are context dependent and which involve teachers in articulating and negotiating classroom and cultural knowledges with one another and with learners, in the initiation, development and practice of assessment to achieve the learning goals of students. This conceptualisation of assessment literacy aims to make explicit some underpinning theoretical constructs of assessment literacy to inform dialogue and decision making for policy and practice to benefit student learning and achievement.     

Identity and social practice in higher education: student experiences of postgraduate courses delivered ‘offshore’ in Singapore and Hong Kong by an Australian university

This paper highlights the complexities surrounding the social practices involved in being an international higher degree student, and the ways in which these practices contribute to the formation of student identity. It reports research in progress aimed at understanding how higher degree students experience studying for a degree delivered ‘offshore’ by an Australian university. In particular, it presents findings of two interpretive case studies, one of a masters degree course delivered in Singapore and another of a doctoral dissertation programme delivered in Hong Kong. The line of inquiry concerns questions about the perspectives of the students: how they understand the dynamics of their particular educational context and their sense of themselves as students in relation to the communities to which they belong.     

Designing for impact: a conceptual framework for learning analytics as self-assessment tools

Abstract

Although it is frequently claimed that learning analytics can improve self-evaluation and self-regulated learning by students, most learning analytics tools appear to have been developed as a response to existing data rather than with a clear pedagogical model. As a result there is little evidence of impact on learning. Even fewer learning analytics tools seem to be informed by an understanding of the social context and social practices within which they would be used. As a result, there is very little evidence that learning analytics tools are actually impacting on practice. This paper draws on research in self-regulated learning and in the social practices of learning and assessment to clarify a series of design issues which should be considered by those seeking to develop learning analytics tools which are intended to improve student self-evaluation and self-regulation. It presents a case study of how these design issues influenced the development of a particular tool: the Learning Companion.     

Teaching large classes in an increasingly internationalising higher education environment: pedagogical,quality and equity issues

Marketisation, increased student mobility, the massification of Higher Education (HE) and stagnating staff numbers in universities have combined to cause a ripple effect of change both in the demography and size of university classes across the world. This has implications for the quality and equity of learning and the need to examine and to transform pedagogical practices. Despite the growing attention of literature on teaching large classes, there is a scarcity of research addressing the twin issues of large classes in an increasingly internationalised context. This paper seeks to contribute towards filling this gap. The paper provides a theoretical exploration of the causes of such classes in HE, reviews the empirical evidence against large class teaching and examines the difficulties associated with teaching demographically diverse classes in HE. The paper identifies eight pedagogical strategies to address the issues of class size and diversity, which relate to increasing student participation and engagement; increasing curricula access and the language of instruction; increasing staff intercultural understanding; increasing opportunities for deep learning for all; on-going monitoring of student satisfaction; increasing opportunities to achieve; diversification of assessment; and the merit of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS). It calls for new research on global learning cultures; reviews of global assessment and promising pedagogical practices and processes.     

The challenges and possibilities of aligning large‐scale testing with mathematical reform: the case of Ontario

In 1997, the Ontario government, like many other jurisdictions, undertook systemic reform of their elementary school mathematics programme, developing a new mathematics curriculum, report card, and province‐wide assessment. The curricular reform embodied a new vision of mathematics learning and instruction that emphasized instruction using challenging problems, the student construction of multiple solution methods, and mathematical communication and defence of ideas. While the design of the original large‐scale assessment incorporated much of the latest research and theory on effective practices at that time, these traditional item development and scoring practices no longer adequately assess mathematics achievement in reform‐inspired classrooms. The difficulties of marrying traditional assessment practices with a reform‐inspired curriculum could be addressed by creating a construct definition from the recent research findings on students’ mathematical development in reform‐inspired classrooms. The importance, challenges and implications of redefining the construct on the basis of existing research on students’ mathematical development, as well as collapsing the traditional content‐by‐process matrix for item development, are explored.     

Curriculum‐embedded performance assessment in higher education: maximum efficiency and minimum disruption

Increasingly, institutions of higher education are required to evaluate student progress and programme effectiveness through implementation of performance assessment practices. Faculty members frequently resist performance assessment because of concerns that assessment activities will increase workloads, reduce time for scholarly activities, eliminate professional autonomy, and reduce faculty work into component parts or discrete technical competences. This paper describes how curriculum‐embedded performance assessment can be used to evaluate student and programme effectiveness without placing an undue burden on faculty. Examples of the use of curriculum‐embedded performance assessment strategies in a graduate‐level educational psychology programme are provided.     

Developing evidence for action on the postgraduate experience: an effective local instrument to move beyond benchmarking

Summative and benchmarking surveys to measure the postgraduate student research experience are well reported in the literature. While useful, we argue that local instruments that provide formative resources with an academic development focus are also required. If higher education institutions are to move beyond the identification of issues and benchmarking practices, the scope of survey results and their reporting need to enable and foster appropriate changes in disciplinary practices. Robust, locally developed instruments can provide detailed, programme-specific information and foster timely changes in practice with direct benefits for postgraduate respondents. Unlike benchmarked surveys, local tools can adapt to explore and examine specific concerns of students, supervisors and academic developers. Coupling high-response rates and follow-on engagement with participant feedback, well-designed local instruments provide clear and irrefutable indicators to programme and university administrators of specific disciplinary strengths and weaknesses in postgraduate pathways. In this paper, we discuss the development of a research student survey specifically designed to support academic development purposes in strengthening and enhancing the postgraduate experience.     

Subjects of Western education: Discursive practices in Western postgraduate studies and the construction of international student subjectivities

This paper focuses on discursive practices of postgraduate research as a crucial element in constructs of international student subjectivities when they undertake postgraduate studies in Australian universities. As such, it focuses on a discursive field emerging within domains of internationalisation, globalisation, and resistance. It examines processes and protocols in a number of Australian universities’ postgraduate divisions’ practices in the conduct of postgraduate supervision, in the context of increasing pressures towards internationalisation within frameworks of globalising influences. It takes issue with Western custom and tradition as privileged within the field of supervision of postgraduate research studies and suggests a model of postgraduate research supervision as intentional and systematic intervention, based on literature deriving from research in postgraduate supervision which acknowledges the problematic natures of cultural relationships as to teaching and learning and knowledge production, and student resistances within these fields. In doing so, it examines issues of discursive practices and the problematic natures of power relationships in supervisor-supervisee protocols and possibilities suggested by alternative models of postgraduate supervision of international students.     

Chinese award-winning tutors’ perceptions and practices of classroom-based assessment

This study examines Chinese tertiary award-winning tutors’ perceptions and reported practices of classroom-based assessment. Seventeen tutors in the final stage of a national university teaching contest were individually interviewed. An interview framework was developed using three process dimensions of assessment for learning (AfL). A sequential and iterative analysis of resulting data was conducted based on Miles and Huberman’s protocols for qualitative analysis. Participants demonstrated a complex set of connections between perceptions and practices around issues of sharing standards, delivering feedback and response to external assessments. Results deviate from widely promoted principles of AfL and classroom-based assessment espoused in the international literature; in doing so, they challenge existing research and assumptions about the standardised and international nature of award-winning instructors’ assessment practices. Findings are discussed in relationship to understanding best practices in tertiary assessment, given emerging tertiary education markets. Practical implications for the further development of learning and assessment practices and theoretical implications for the AfL theory are also discussed.     

Oral communication skills assessment in a synchronous hybrid MBA programme: does attending face-to-face matter for US and international students?

The ability to communicate effectively is an essential skill for graduates of Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programmes; however, as synchronous hybrid learning becomes more common, business schools may find it challenging to assess students’ proficiency in this core area. An additional layer of complexity is added by the burgeoning enrolment of international students in this technology-enriched learning environment. The objective of this exploratory study was to examine the relationships among attendance mode (online vs. on-campus), student nationality (domestic vs. international) and oral communication assessment scores in a synchronous hybrid MBA programme. Quantitative data from 202 hybrid MBA students collected over 12 semesters revealed domestic students were rated as more proficient orators than international students when assessed face-to-face. These results, however, were not replicated when students were assessed in a synchronous online environment. Furthermore, the results indicated that international students received higher scores when their oral communication skills were assessed online compared to face-to-face. Conversely, domestic students who were assessed face-to-face had higher mean scores than the domestic students who were assessed online. The findings are discussed with respect to teaching and learning in hybrid environments, technology-mediated assessment design and accreditation practices in non-traditional programme delivery modes.     

Enhanced learning pathways and support for coursework master's students: challenges and opportunities

The focus of this paper is on student learning pathways – with particular reference to the factors motivating coursework master's students to seek entry to a doctoral programme – along with the implications for higher education policy and practice. It is argued nationally and internationally that although a number of challenges continue to confront those with responsibility for teaching and supervising coursework master's students, there are opportunities for renewal especially in terms of the provision of enhanced student support. Located within an international context of postgraduate education, a case study from Australia is provided to highlight the need for more flexible doctoral pathways at a time when calls for revitalised and expanded research workforces are intensifying.     

Alternative placements in initial teacher education: An evaluation

The paper evaluates a programme of short alternative placements for final-year B.Ed. students in Northern Ireland, which aims to broaden student teachers’ experience and develop their transferable skills. The alternative placement programme is set first in an international context of evolving pre-service field placements and then set in a local context marked by a surplus of teachers; a Revised Curriculum that emphasises the importance of employability, lifelong learning, and enterprise and entrepreneurship; and the introduction of the Extended Schools programme. The evaluation is based on feedback from the 2007 to 2008 cohort of students whose comments confirm the value of exposing student teachers to non-traditional educational environments.     

Using email for formative assessment with professional doctorate students

This article reports on aspects of a recent research and development project in doctoral education. It focuses on the use of email for tutor’s formative assessment within the early stages of a Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD) in an English university. Its case study methodology included participant observation of the programme workshops, critical discourse analysis of the email texts, and two series of in‐depth, semi‐structured student interviews. The tutor whose feedback was analysed had previously researched and theorised formative assessment, so the research allowed his previous theoretical insights to be explored and developed in an early doctoral context. The article concludes by discussing the problematic power of feedback at this level, given the culturally constructed associations of feedback with summative assessment, and implications for supervisory practice.     

De-colonising international collaboration: The University of KwaZulu-Natal-Mauritius Institute of Education Cohort PhD programme

This paper explores the setting up of the partnership across the Mauritian and South African higher education contexts with respect to the development of a postgraduate PhD doctoral studies programme. The Mauritian Institute of Education (MIE) aims to develop staffing capacities through engagement with doctoral studies, especially in the context of limited experience in doctoral supervision. The South African model of doctoral cohort supervision at The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) School of Education is a recent alternative model of delivery in the building of these student and staff capacities through shared ownership of the process and products of doctoral education and development. This paper highlights the expectations, constraints and enabling features of the setting up of the UKZN-MIE PhD programme across international boundaries, driven by mutual reciprocity through valuing of indigenous local knowledges, a non-colonising engagement and innovative methodologies for postgraduate education. Adapting the UKZN cohort model for the international context is the subject of this paper. The paper draws on the experiences of the designers and deliverers as well as users of this programme. The paper explores what drives this form of international collaboration for both contracting partners in the context of shifting conceptions of a teacher education institution.     

Situating power potentials and dynamics of learners and tutors within self-assessment models

Many twenty-first century educational discourses focus on including and empowering independent learners. Within the context of five self-assessment models, this article evaluates how these practices relate to the realities of student involvement, empowerment and voice. A proposed new classification of these self-assessment models is presented and theories of power and student voice are utilised to build on the limited existing literature that examines issues of power in self-assessment. The results of the evaluations show that the standard self-assessment model, which has been the default model since the 1930s, is the least empowering for students and also detrimental to producing a dialogic forum with tutors. The other models are far more conducive to permitting a shared understanding of assessment protocols, processes and products and therefore potentially lead to more equitable and transparent assessment communities. The value of this study is that it helps to clarify the possible implications and impacts resulting from the use of each self-assessment model in order to make an informed choice, which will also support the alignment of assessment practices with learning and teaching and curriculum choices.     

Mapping the development of a new MA programme in higher education: comparing privately held perceptions of a public endeavour

After spending a year working on the development of a new online Master’s programme in higher education, members of the development team were interviewed to reveal their thoughts about the nature of the programme. The dialogue of each interview was summarised as a concept map. Analysis of the resulting maps included a modified Bernsteinian analysis of the focus of the concepts included in terms of their semantic gravity (i.e. closeness to context) and the degree of resonance with the underpinning regulative discourse of the programme. Data highlight a number of potential issues for programme delivery that centre around the use of appropriate language to manage student expectations in relation to the process of learning and the emotional responses this can stimulate, as well as the tensions that can be foregrounded between the demands of teaching and research within a university environment.     

Teaching and learning across disciplines: student and staff experiences in a newly modularised system

Within modular degrees it is sometimes possible for students to broaden their education by taking modules from outside their main programme of study. This is one significant aspect of modular degrees which has not been studied. In an effort to better understand this issue, the research reported in this paper explored the experiences: (1) of students taking modules from outside their programme of study and; (2) of staff teaching modules with significant numbers of students from other programmes. In total, 820 undergraduate students responded to an on-line survey; 12 academic staff members participated in interviews. The survey focused on students’ reasons for choosing the module, their experiences of assessment and their perceptions of workload. Interviews with academic staff focused on the influence of non-programme students on teaching and assessment practices. The discussion addresses the implications of student choice and classroom diversity for teaching and assessment in modular systems.