Formative and shared assessment in higher education. Lessons learned and challenges for the future

Formative assessment is the process by which teachers provide information to students during the learning process to modify their understanding and self-regulation. An important process within this is shared assessment, which refers to student involvement in the assessment and learning practice, a process of dialogue and collaboration between teacher and students aimed at improving the learning process, both individually and collectively. The purpose of this paper is to review the current state of affairs in depth. This paper therefore highlights, on the one hand, the lessons learned through research and development in higher education (i.e. providing clear learning goals and feedback, guiding learning, involving students in learning and assessment, promoting feedback as a process of dialogue, and making processes viable). On the other hand, these lessons also suggest some challenges and difficulties that must be addressed in the future in order to further improve formative and shared assessment in higher education. These include the need for more research on its effects, further conceptual clarification, the intersubjectivity of the process, recognition of the divergent processes and ethical principles, students’ involvement not only in assessment but also in determining academic grades, and broading learning goals and objetives in FA & SA.     

Lessons from the field: computer conferencing in higher education

Abstract

This article explores the tensions between the potential of computer conferencing as represented by theoretical models and its actual uses in higher education. An overview of the literature highlights major themes that run throughout this body of research, including claims that the medium: 1. provides a democratic environment due to the equal access afforded to participants; 2. enhances active learning and collaboration; 3. shifts the role of the teacher from classroom leader to facilitator of learning; and 4. encourages more thoughtful participation due to the text-based, asynchronous nature of interaction. Against this backdrop, case studies of courses taught through The New School for Social Research's on-line programme provide empirical data that challenge many of these claims. A discussion of teaching practices related to student participation and perceptions of computer conferencing is also offered to serve practitioners and teacher education efforts.     

对高校公共体育教学改革的思考

分析高校公共体育教学的培养目标和存在的问题,提出了要以“终身体育”作为高校公共体育教学改革发展的方向以及进行高校公共体育教育改革的具体措施。     

Participatory democracy in schools and higher education

This article is a personal interpretation of the findings of a cooperative enquiry by commissions set up by the Federal Republic of Germany and by Sweden to investigate the problem of democratization and participation in the educational and research systems of the two countries. The enquiry took place between 1971 and 1973 and detailed reports are being published in German and Swedish (see Appendix II).     

论高师环境教育

随着科学技术的飞速发展，环境保护和可持续发展问题已成为人类社会关注的焦点。在培养21世纪高素质的人才时，人们逐渐认识到生态意识、环境知识物环保能力已成为合格人才的重要素养之一。以培养中学教师为已任的师范院校更应该具有战略眼光和超前意识，把环境教育作为素质教育的重要组成部分列入教学计划之中，并结合学校不同学科和专业的实际，不断探索、总结环境教育的有效途径和方法。     

Holocaust education in Polish public schools: Between remembrance and civic education

This article analyzes the historical and political context of Holocaust education, and its implementation in Polish schools. Perceptions of the Holocaust continue to change, influenced by Poland’s social and political situation. The Polish historical context is quite specific; it includes the long history of Poles and Jews as neighbours, with local resentments and animosities, and the Polish sense of being special victims of World War II and observers of the Nazis’ “final solution to the Jewish question”. These different types of social awareness have neutralized the remembrance of the Holocaust and its presence in school education. Similarly, the perception of the Holocaust in Polish schools has changed. Initially seen as just one element in the Nazis’ crimes against everyone in Poland, it is now understood as a singular phenomenon, the unparalleled mass extermination of the Jewish nation. From this perspective, I analyze Holocaust education, and its status in the curriculum and in pedagogical practice. I also report on my own research on the practice and meanings of Holocaust education in Polish public schools. Holocaust education should not be limited to the pedagogical transfer of remembrance but should also be associated with transforming social awareness and modern civic education.     

Electronic assessment in higher education

Assessment is an important cornerstone of education. A world trend in staying abreast of the latest developments in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) has led to an increased demand for electronic assessment in education circles. The critical need and responsibility for higher education to stay on par with the latest techniques regarding assessment subsequently led the University of Johannesburg (UJ) to implement electronic assessment in some departments in 2004. Several challenges led to this exploration into the use of one e‐assessment tool within the University.     

美国高校的学术反思与学术评价

20世纪 80年代末以来 ,美国高教界对美国高校中存在的学术评价日益窄化和教师奖励制度越来越片面的倾向进行了深刻反思。尤其是博耶在 90年代初发表的两篇文献 ,提出了包括发现的学术、综合的学术、应用的学术和教学的学术四种形式在内的新学术观 ,并构建了包括学者的品质、学术工作的标准、学术证明和过程的可靠性四条原则的新的学术评价体系。博耶的新学术观拓展了学术概念的内涵 ,涵盖了现代大学日益丰富的使命。他提出的学术评价四原则 ,对于纠正当前我国高校学术评价中普遍存在的简单化、公式化、数字化倾向具有重要的现实意义     

论我国多样化大众高等教育体系建设

推进高等教育大众化的关键是建立多样化高等教育体系.为此,要克服传统社会心理障碍,树立多元化的思想观念;大力发展非学术性高等教育;对多样化高等教育体制进行合理建构.     

论师范院校教育类专业课程结构设计

根据教育专业自身发展的需要，师范院校教育专业课程结构和目标必须重新构建。为了实现课程内容的系统化、综合化和开放化，实现学生整体素质与全面能力的提高，实现科学的课程内容与先进的教学方法的统一，实现课程建设、教材建设、师资建设的同步发展，在课程结构的设计上，要建立多样分层的立体结构，组合纵横交错的网状结构，创造吐纳有序的开放结构，形成详略得当的召唤结构。     

Financing public higher education in developing countries

The financing of education has emerged as a major topic of discussion among policy makers in recent years. There is evidence that in many developing countries, governments can no longer continue to increase spending on education at the high rates characteristic in the 1960s and 1970s. The macroeconomic environment has worsened, and there is keen intersectoral competition for public funds. Thus unless educational development moves away from its present heavy dependence on public funds, the expansion of education would be frustrated. One policy option is to increase the private financing of education. In this paper, we evaluate the potential effectiveness of loans schemes as a cost recovery instrument in higher education. Essentially, loans permit students to finance the cost of their education from future income. So the effectiveness of loans would depend on the relation between costs and students' future income. It also depends on the incidence of repetition, dropout, and default, as well as on whether or not a grace period is incorporated in the loan scheme. Our simulations show that in Asia and Latin America, the potential rate of cost recovery is substantial under what appears to be bearable terms of repayment. In Francophone Africa and Anglophone Africa, however, loans schemes are unlikely to perform as well, but they would still permit a shift toward greater private financing of higher education.     

A low-subsidy problem in public higher education

With an exogenous public subsidy and a break-even restriction on university net revenue, tuition discrimination supports a quasi-efficient departure from marginal-cost pricing. In contrast, when the legislature and university interact in their subsidy and tuition decisions, the public subsidy becomes endogenous. With an endogenous public subsidy, support by legislatures is affected by the same factors that influence tuition; this leads to a situation where higher tuition revenue is accompanied by a lower public subsidy. The welfare of students declines when this “low-subsidy” case develops. The university's ability to address this issue depends on its being able to commit to a tuition policy, and credible commitment appears consistent with existing institutional conditions.     

Beyond rhetoric: reinventing the public mission of higher education

Tertiary Education and Management -