Direct Assessment,Direct Validation? An Example From the Assessment of Writing

Complex performance assessments are becoming increasingly popular, at least in part because of the directness with which these assessments are accomplished. As Messick (1992) argued, however, the apparent directness of such measures does not exempt them from the need to marshal validity evidence in support of their use. An example is given of one kind of evidence-assessment users' satisfaction with the performances generated by examinees - that may contribute to the validation of performance assessments. The example is from the realm of the direct assessment of writing in the context of graduate school admissions. The data revealed that the correspondence between score level and faculty satisfaction with the papers was strong but not completely linear. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction were not opposite sides of the same coin.     

Assessment for learning: Why assessment does not always support student teachers’ learning

Numerous studies have dealt with the importance of assessment for learning (AfL) in higher education, arguing that AfL helps to promote students’ learning and supports them in becoming self-directed learners. The majority of the recent literature focuses mainly on the role of individual aspects of AfL. Less attention has been paid to the interrelation of different aspects of AfL. The current study argues that AfL combines authentic assessment tasks given to students, feedback from teacher educators, peer assessment and self-assessment. The aim of the current study is to understand student teachers’ experiences of AfL practices in higher education, focusing on the reasons why student teachers do not always find the practices supportive. The study conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 student teachers and analysed them using an inductive content analysis method. The findings indicate that student teachers have had some experiences with individual aspects of AfL. A critical finding is that, when teacher educators continually dominate in the assessment process, summative assessment remains the principal way of assessing student teachers, thus hindering the supportive role of other AfL practices. The current study also finds that learning in higher education is still quite grade-centred, which affects student teachers’ learning.     

Assessment and learning without grades? Motivations and concerns with implementing gradeless learning in higher education

The relationship between assessment and learning in higher education often comes down to a single thing: a grade. Despite widespread criticism of grades as inexact tools, whose overemphasis undermines student learning and negatively affects student well-being, they continue to be the norm in the assessment of student learning. This paper analyses an alternate form of assessment: so-called ‘gradeless learning’. This study theoretically and geographically contextualises the recent implementation of a gradeless learning policy at a large public university in Asia, and presents findings from a student opinion survey about the policy. The paper shows that respondents overwhelmingly understand and often agree with the central claims of gradeless learning, including its potential to ease students into college life, allow them to make more daring choices in their studies and even develop as lifelong learners. However, the aim of relieving stress among one group of students has increased stress for others. The study explains the circumstances that create this divergence in student stress levels, which are both locally specific and common to all gradeless systems. The paper concludes by discussing the effectiveness of the gradeless system in achieving its aims and suggesting future research avenues.     

Assessment in the Kindergarten Classroom: An Empirical Study of Teachers’ Assessment Approaches

Within the current accountability framework of public education, kindergarten teachers face the challenge of balancing traditional developmental programing and current academically oriented curriculum. Central to this challenge is teachers’ uses of assessment to measure and communicate student learning in relation to their curricular stance. The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth examination of three teachers’ approaches to assessment within the current context of kindergarten education in order to elucidate potential approaches to bridging developmental and academic demands. Based on data collected from teacher interviews and classroom observations, three profiles are constructed that link focal teachers’ curricular stances with their approach to assessment. The paper concludes with a discussion on assessment within kindergarten education and areas for future research in the field.     

What drives m-learning? An empirical investigation of university student perceptions in Pakistan

M-learning is gaining popularity in formal and informal education, both in developed and developing countries. Specifically it can be an effective tool to overcome digital divide in developing countries. The success of m-learning at tertiary level depends on the perception of students towards this form of learning. A scientific approach was used in this study to explore the critical factors responsible for m-learning adoption among university students. The findings of this study, based on 628 valid survey responses, have both theoretical and practical implications for researchers and policy-makers.     

Stimulating professional learning through teacher evaluation: An impossible task for the school leader?

Providing effective feedback through teacher evaluation is a complex task for the school leader. Many authors state that teacher evaluation does not contribute to teachers’ professional learning. Few studies focus on the specific leadership variables that contribute to effective teacher evaluation. This study explores the importance of transformational and instructional leadership for the feedback utility and teachers’ professional learning. The results of regression and path analyses showed that leadership directly influences the feedback utility and indirectly influences teachers’ professional learning. This study demonstrates the importance of school leadership for effective teacher evaluation and highlights its usefulness for teachers’ professional learning.     

An action learning approach to the question: are ambulance response time targets achievable?

In recent years, NHS Ambulance Trusts throughout the UK have consistently failed to achieve their response time targets for both actual and potential life-threatening calls. To avoid a media and public outcry, the NHS response has been to change the basic parameters upon which the response time targets are calculated. An action learning study, which considered patient experience from initial response to outcome, concluded that the ambulance service must move away from the nearest crew response model to one which provides a defined multi-organisational service to specific categories of need. A key issue with the learning sets, which were made up of front-line crews, was understanding the Trust-wide picture and where acceptable new procedures could provide economic benefits to the Trust, benefits to the patients and help achieve the response time targets. A simulation model driven by parameters agreed by the action learning sets provided proof that new procedures would generate the required benefits. The learning sets also identified that the public should adjust their expectations to understanding that an immediate front-line ambulance response would only be despatched in life-threatening cases, but there would be alternative slower responses for all other cases.     

Facebook: An online environment for learning of English in institutions of higher education?

Facebook (FB) is currently considered as the most popular platform for online social networking among university students. The purpose of this study is to investigate if university students consider FB as a useful and meaningful learning environment that could support, enhance and/or strengthen their learning of the English language. A survey was carried out with 300 undergraduate students at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang. It was found that the students believed FB could be utilized as an online environment to facilitate the learning of English. Nevertheless, teachers or language instructors have to integrate FB as an educational project with pre-determined learning objectives and outcomes for the learning experience to be meaningful. It is suggested that future research should focus on the meaningfulness of FB to students' language learning experiences.     

Assessment for learning and Teacher Learning Communities: UK teachers’ experiences

In this paper, I explore the experiences of secondary teachers in four London schools [UK] who participated in Teacher Learning Communities, defined as meetings in which professional learning was supported as they learned about Assessment for Learning (AfL). The claim for these communities is that they lead to sustained improvements in teaching and learning, where the following design principles are adhered to: where leaders respect and value a need that has been identified by participants as of importance to themselves; they are school-based and integral to school operations; there is teacher collaboration; and there is input from within and beyond the school to support teachers’ theoretical as well as practical learning. The findings from this research project suggest that Teacher Learning Communities’ benefits were compromised specifically: where they were imposed on teachers; where they were not accommodated sufficiently within other school commitments; where leaders were too directive; where meeting formats were adhered to inflexibly; and where practice was emphasized at the expense of theories. My conclusion is that both AfL and Teacher Learning Communities rely for their success on sustained critical reflection among their participants, which can be inhibited where the above limitations apply.     

An innovative consensus map-embedded collaborative learning system for ER diagram learning: sequential analysis of students’ learning achievements

Although computer-supported collaborative learning has been successfully applied in educational settings to improve group learning performance, most such systems still lack effective strategies for knowledge representation which could help reduce discussion time. In this study, concept mapping, already applied as a tool to help visualize and organize existing or newly learned knowledge, is incorporated to address this problem in a newly developed concept map and computer-supported collaborative learning system (CMCLS). It was designed as a quasi-experiment study and was carried out with 77 university students. The system was first used by the groups of students to illustrate their knowledge and achieve consensus during a learning activity, after which their performance and feelings of satisfaction with this innovative approach were evaluated. Patterns of learning within the proposed framework were explored. The learning behaviors, including the actions and interactions with peers of the participants during the learning activity were recorded. Finally, lag-sequential analysis was used to compare the interactions and the differences in the behavior patterns of the two groups, one using the newly developed CMCLS consensus map-embedded approach and a control group which did not use this approach. The results showed significant improvement in the learning achievement of students using the novel approach, as well as a higher degree of perceived usefulness and satisfaction. The novel consensus map-embedded approach was useful for knowledge construction and for assisting with integration of the team members’ results to produce the final ER diagram.     

The ‘truth’ of academic development: how did it get to be about ‘teaching and learning’?

The nature of academic development in contemporary universities has been a recent focus in the literature. Highlighting the diversity of practices that exist under its name, ‘academic development’ has been described by some as an ambiguous project and a fragmented field, while others suggest a more coherent project, pointing out a near universal concern with, in particular, teaching and learning. Through an exploration of the practices of the first academic developers in New Zealand, and a consideration of the particular institutions in which they were operating, this article draws on the work of Foucault to consider the modalities of power that were available to them. This exploration is used as a basis from which to consider the systems of truth that began to emerge as a result of the early appointees' practice, in particular their original and enduring concern with teaching and learning as objects of knowledge.     

Assessment for learning in constrained contexts: How does the teacher’s self-directed development play out?

This qualitative case study explores how a teacher directed himself in implementing assessment for learning (AfL) among his students in a constrained context (i.e., a lack of institutional support in offering effective teacher education programs). The data included a Chinese college English writing teacher’s reflections over two courses, interviews, and dialogues with the students, coupled with field notes. The qualitative analysis shows that in a constrained context, self-directed AfL was buttressed by the teacher's existent pedagogical knowledge. In the process, the teacher’s self-agency empowered him in synergizing existent knowledge with external resources and revamping his teaching based on the students’ needs as reflected through AfL. These student-centered practices contributed to reduced complexity of AfL implementation, and yielded a more or less beginning cycle: the students echoed the teacher’s purpose of assessment, which considered knowledge appropriation as pivotal, and the teacher felt professionally rewarded from self-directed development using assessment-based information to improve his instruction and benefit his students.     

Do personality and learning climate predict competence for learning? An investigation in a Greek academic setting

The effects of personal characteristics (e.g. personality, aptitude, gender) on student performance, such as Grade Point Average (GPA) and course grades, have been systematically researched, with the emphasis being mainly on outcomes rather than the processes leading to them. The purpose of this paper is to shift the focus to students' perceived competence for learning and examine how this is affected by personality characteristics and learning climate. Data were collected from students enrolled in an elective economics course at a Greek public university. Results indicated that all Big Five traits, except emotional stability, and learning climate were significantly related to students' perceived learning competence. Finally, only conscientiousness interacted with learning climate to predict learning motivation. Limitations and future research initiatives are discussed in light of these findings.     

UNESCO’s utopia of lifelong learning: An intellectual history

International Review of Education -     

Self-regulated learning by writing learning protocols: Do goal structures matter?

Having students write learning protocols is an established follow-up task to course work that elicits processes of self-regulated learning. To date, a wealth of research has focused on optimizing the learning protocol task itself by integrating instructional support measures such as prompts. By contrast, research that focuses on optimizing the context in which learning protocol writing is embedded is widely missing. In the present study, we approached this gap by focusing on the role of the contextual factor goal structure. Specifically, in an experiment with N = 166 high school students we tested whether embedding the learning protocol task in a mastery goal structure would be more beneficial than embedding it in a performance goal structure. The mastery goal structure fostered metacognitive processes, learning outcomes, and learning efficiency. We conclude that considering contextual factors such as the goal structure is crucial for understanding and optimizing the effects of learning protocols.     

Learner managed learning: managing to learn or learning to manage?

A central assumption behind innovations in education and training over the last 20 years has been that learners need to take greater responsibility for the direction and pace of their own learning. The rationale for this is provided by an analysis of the contemporary social and economic order which highlights instability and change as core conditions. A discourse of ‘learner-management’ has emerged, linked with techniques of personal development planning and recording achievement, which appears to offer learners the possibility for individual autonomy and control. The article examines some of the assumptions embedded in this discourse, questioning the relevance of the rational decision making model, and the origins of the ‘character’ of the self-managing learner. ‘Learner management’ is viewed as a discursive form of power, shaping subjective understandings of what it means to be a learner, a manager, a person. It is suggested that this is not the only discourse of learner management available, and that education has a role to play in mapping more creative and diverse forms of learner identity.