Supporting Student Teachers' Professional Learning with Standards‐Referenced Assessment

Professional standards in teaching are developed in many education systems, with professional learning and quality assurance being the central purposes of these standards. This paper presents an initiative in developing a professional development progress map (hereafter, progress map) within a learning‐oriented field experience assessment (LOFEA) framework. The article examines the use of a progress map to support professional learning in teaching supervision in the field experience of a teacher education programme. Views of users, including 16 tertiary supervisors and 21 teacher participants of the in‐service programmes, were collected. Issues relating to supporting student teachers' professional learning with standards‐referenced assessment, are discussed around four themes, namely intention, instrumentation, interpretation and implementation.     

Making the Transition to a Food Science Curriculum Based on Assessment of Learning Outcomes

ABSTRACT: Despite the well-documented advantages of switching to instruction based on assessment of learning outcomes, many academic disciplines, including food science, are still based on the traditional mode of instruction. The problems of converting from traditional to assessment-driven instruction are numerous and change in the university setting is slow. However, certain guidelines can be followed to start the process for change and evaluate the effects on student learning. A partnership between the industry being served and academic instructors is needed to ensure that assessment-based instruction is focused on the proper principles. Methods of assessment of learning outcomes need to be carefully chosen and developed to bring industry standards and student learning together. This can be done only if both direct and indirect assessments at the program level provide faculty with means to answer their most pressing questions about what students know and are able to do as a result of Food Science education.     

Challenges for self‐assessment in religious education

This article explores the place of self‐assessment in religious education in the light of general research into self‐assessment, particularly as part of assessment for learning. In particular, it analyses the problems of ‘enculturation’ of learners into classroom assessment practice in religious education. The distinction between assessment of learning and assessment for learning is described and, applied to the distinction between learning about religions and learning from religion. The four types of self‐assessment are set out, with an analysis of the challenges facing teachers in getting pupils to apply common current assessment criteria to their own work. Overall, four problems arise from pupils using current assessment criteria. They are identified as: (i) the issue of ‘plasticity’, (ii) the timing of self‐assessment processes, (iii) the problem of assessment of affective qualities, and (iv) the confusion between self‐assessment and learning from religion. Finally, the implications of these problems for both further research and for pedagogy are discussed.     

中澳现行教师专业标准的比较分析与启示

中国于2012年颁布了第一部《幼儿园教师专业标准(试行)》《小学教师专业标准(试行)》《中学教师专业标准(试行)》,澳大利亚于2011年颁布《全国教师专业标准》,2018年10月被再版。中澳两国出台的教师专业标准,促进了两国教师教育质量的提高,但两国的标准也都需要实践检验而不断完善。通过对两国现行标准的解读,力图从基本理念、基本内容的横向维度、基本内容的纵向维度、基本内容的横纵向维度等方面进行共性和差异性的比较分析。并在此基础上,提出向澳大利亚学习的三点启示:构建层级性的教师专业标准体系、加强教师专业标准的行动导向、设置全面的教师专业标准内容,以期为我国教师专业标准的进一步完善提供科学借鉴。     

法律事务专业四段式实践教学模式研究

第三产业的发展壮大,为高职高专文科类专业提供了有利的发展契机,同时也给高职专的教学改革提出了新的课题。如何加快教学改革步伐,如何为社会培养出“适销对路”的高质量的管理人才,是当前高职高专文科类专业迫切需要解决的问题。辽宁商贸职业学院法律事务专业,在实践教学模式方面探讨出一种新的实践教学模式——四段式实践教学模式。并对四段式实践教学的内容、评价和保障进行简要阐述。     

What the Student Does: teaching for enhanced learning

Many teachers see major difficulties in maintaining academic standards in today's larger and more diversified classes. The problem becomes more tractable if learning outcomes are seen as more a function of students’ activities than of their fixed characteristics. The teacher's job is then to organise the teaching/learning context so that all students are more likely to use the higher order learning processes which “academic” students use spontaneously. This may be achieved when all components are aligned, so that objectives express the kinds of understanding that we want from students, the teaching context encourages students to undertake the learning activities likely to achieve those understandings, and the assessment tasks tell students what activities are required of them, and tell us how well the objectives have been met. Two examples of aligned teaching systems are described: problem‐based learning and the learning portfolio.     

Educational experiences with environmental farm plans in a case‐study setting

Abstract

One of the higher agricultural education tools being used in Canada is environmental farm plans (EFPs) in a case‐study setting. Initiated in Ontario in the early 1990's, EFPs were developed by farmers in response to growing threats of public intervention to enforce compliance with environmental standards. All farming activities are assessed for their risk of environmental damage within the scope of an integrated stewardship plan for air, soil, water, wildlife habitat and wildlife resources. The Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) at the University of Guelph uses EFPs as a case‐study method of teaching theoretical, practical and experimental aspects of conservation and stewardship. Small groups of students work under the supervision of OAC multi‐disciplinary team staff in close co‐operation with farmers to develop an EFP for a specific farm. The emphasis is on applying the principles of systemic learning pioneered at the University of Western Sydney at Hawkesbury, New South Wales, Australia. Systemic learning seeks to combine learning for knowing (theoretical knowledge), learning for doing (practical knowledge) and learning from devising new ways of solving problems and addressing issues (experiential knowledge, or learning for being). Oral presentations and written reports by the student groups are used for assessment, as well as for case‐study discussions to enrich the learning process.     

计算机科学与技术卓越人才培养体系构建及实践

计算机科学与技术专业卓越人才培养是当前“新工科”建设的重要组成部分。针对人才培养中存在的问题,以云南大学为例,阐述了计算机科学与技术专业卓越人才培养体系的构建思路与具体做法。通过设置3个特色课程群,实现学生个性化分类培养;通过校企合作协同育人项目,让行业企业深度参与培养过程,使学生成为行业认可的人才;通过中国计算机学会组织的计算机软件能力认证（CCF CSP）,实现对计算机专业学生程序设计能力的标准化培养;通过实习基地和创新基地建设,朝着以学生为中心的“做中学”转变,强化培养学生的工程能力和创新能力。经过多年实践,取得了一些经验,可为相关高校提供借鉴。     

Committing to quality learning through adaptive online assessment

With advances in computer‐based technologies and the emergence of e‐learning, there are unprecedented opportunities to reconsider assessment of learning (and, axiomatically, of teaching) and how this can be undertaken. One approach is adaptive assessment. Although it has existed in the tertiary environment since the time of the oral examination, advanced technologies allow much fuller exploitation of the possibilities inherent in a dynamic system of testing that responds to the user. Having described the characteristics of adaptive assessment, this paper considers how it can achieve significant pedagogical aims within the sector. The paper differentiates between adaptive assessment to assist learning and adaptive assessment to assess achievement. How adaptive assessment can be put in place and salient issues, such as security and system integrity, when such assessment is used for credit, are then discussed. The paper concludes that the capability exists but it has yet to be exploited within higher education as a viable approach to assessment and as a contributor to quality learning.     

Teacher educators working on their own professional development: goals,activities and outcomes of a project for the professional development of teacher educators

This article reports on the professional development of teacher educators within the context of a national project, ‘Professional Quality of Teacher Educators,’ where a professional standard and a standards‐based procedure of (self‐)assessment and professional development have been created and effectively implemented. This project offered a unique opportunity to analyze the goals, activities and outcomes of the process of professional development of teacher educators in a situation in which this development is promoted by the professional group as a whole. In our research, we used 25 completed portfolio's made by teacher educators participating in the standards‐based procedure of (self‐)assessment and professional development. We found that teacher educators, participating in this procedure, prefer the development of their knowledge and skills over the development of their attitudes and beliefs. For their professional development, the teacher educators experiment with new activities within the work‐situation and interact with colleagues within their professional community, more than that they study theory or reflect on their work. The participating teacher educators experience a positive impact at the personal level (change in cognition and behavior). More than one‐third of them share outcomes with others. Above, they report a more positive self‐esteem and more enthusiasm for teacher education. This article may motivate other countries or institutions to invest in the professional development of teacher educators. Further research is necessary on the essence of the professional qualities of teacher educators and the relation of their professional development with student learning.     

数字化学习社区创建标准的研究

数字化学习社区的创建已经陆续在一些省市进行,但到目前为止,还没有统一的创建评估标准。建立科学、切实可行的创建评估标准,是大力推动和正确评估数字化学习社区建设的有效途径,也是亟待解决的问题。本文从数字化学习要素和特点出发,通过数字化学习社区的创建实践,对数字化学习社区的创建评估标准进行了深入的研究和探讨,提出了创建数字化学习社区的基本标准。     

Innovation development – an action learning programme for medical scientists and engineers

There is increasing evidence that action learning is valuable in a higher education setting. This paper goes on to report a personal development programme, based on principles of critical action learning, where the aim is to equip early-career scientists and engineers working in a university setting with the knowledge, skills and confidence to approach the management of innovation. After learning about action learning and critical reflection, the participants, all postdoctorate researchers, completed innovation projects at work, meeting in action learning sets as they proceed. We explain a method of critical thinking before reporting results from an evaluation study based on interviews and focus groups. We consider examples of projects undertaken before considering challenges for students with this approach to learning. Challenges included scepticism about the usefulness of management literature, difficulties in finding ‘problems’ within the constraints of postdoctoral work, and the discomfort and intensiveness of action learning. However, through adaptation by the tutors with students, some significant results were achieved.     

语文综合性学习的课程价值与设计理路——兼论统编高中语文教材活动设计

语文综合性学习有助于实现学科统整逻辑和经验统整逻辑的统一,义务教育统编语文教材和普通高中统编语文教材均高度重视语文综合性学习设计。针对语文综合性学习实践中存在的问题,其设计需要遵循两种理路。一是“逻辑理路”,包括四个步骤:基于课程标准确定学习目标;围绕学习目标设计活动任务;依据活动任务开发评价工具;运用评价工具引领学习活动。二是“要素理路”,包括六个要素:情境、任务、过程、支架、评价、反思。     

Teacher professional standards to support teacher quality and learning in Estonia

In the modern world, teachers are expected to be ‘learning professionals’ who constantly expand their knowledge and skills and share both practical and theoretical insights in a community of colleagues. Teacher professional competence‐based standards could be an instrument to support teachers' professional learning if they are integrated with broader assessment and evaluation frameworks and if their evaluation, professional development and career advancement are in line with the standards. In Estonia, teacher professional standards were first developed in 2005. Currently, they support initial teacher education, the evaluation of teacher competences and the design of continuous professional learning. They also allow teachers to progress to the senior teacher and master teacher qualification level. According to our findings, the standards are successfully used to design pre‐service education and award certificates at the end of the studies. However, they do not support building the teachers' career ladder and only in some schools do they support planning of professional learning. In this article, we give an overview of the changes in the professional standards of teachers in Estonia and analyse why they have not found the desired degree of use in teachers' career advancement and professional development in the school context and why they have not had a significant effect on teacher status in society.     

Condensed Mastery Profile Method for Setting Standards for Diagnostic Assessment Systems

The purpose of this study was to develop a standard‐setting method appropriate for use with a diagnostic assessment that produces profiles of student mastery rather than a single raw or scale score value. The condensed mastery profile method draws from established holistic standard‐setting methods to use rounds of range finding and pinpointing to specify cut points between performance levels. Panelists are convened to review profiles of mastery and specify cut points between performance levels based on the total number of skills mastered. Following panelist specification of cut points, a statistical method is implemented to smooth cut points over grades to decrease between‐grade variability. Procedural evidence, including convergence plots, standard errors of pinpointing ratings, and panelist feedback, suggest the condensed mastery profile method is a useful and technically sound approach for setting performance standards for diagnostic assessment systems.     

Meanings and Consequences in Standard Setting

Standard setting is defined as the identification of certain points on a mark scale with particular performance standards, with the intention of enhancing the inferences that are warranted from the test scores. It is argued that the selection of both the points on the mark‐scales and the performance standards with which they are equated are arbitrary and are driven by a set of values (which are often implicit). In ‘high‐stakes’ settings, it is shown how the values implicit in the standard can come to dominate the values inherent in the domain they represent. The validation of standards must therefore include consideration of their consequences as well as their meanings. It is then argued that standards, where they exist, cannot be accounted for purely in terms of norm‐referenced or criterion‐referenced interpretations, but exist rather by virtue of a shared construct in a community of practice. These theoretical positions are then developed to classify standard‐setting methods along two dimensions, the first relating to the role of performance data in the setting of standards and the second relating to the extent to which the meanings or the consequences of the assessment are emphasised in the process.     

Design,Assessment, and Evaluation of a Problem‐based Learning Environment in Undergraduate Engineering

This article describes the design, evaluation, and results of an innovative undergraduate engineering course at the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA). The course, ENGR 110 — Introduction to Engineering, is a problem‐based learning environment in which freshmen students work in teams to solve problems integral to a “mission to Mars”, that is, getting to Mars, constructing a research site on Mars, and developing a renewable power source there. In addition to traditional knowledge and skill objectives, the course focuses on “higher order” outcomes such as: framing and resolving ill‐defined problems; communicating via multiple media; exhibiting intellectual curiosity; and developing a rich conceptualisation of engineering. The course is described in terms of a set of pedagogical dimensions for problem‐based learning environments. Several cognitive assessment methods were used to assess student achievement and evaluate the effectiveness of the course. Results included statistically and educationally significant differences in “problem‐solving” between two classes of ENGR 110 students and two control classes of sophomore engineering students.