Social and communicational skills in upper secondary vocational education and training

This article presents the methodology used by the Finnish Education Evaluation Council in the national evaluation of social and communication skills in vocational education and training. The evaluation concentrates on key competences such as learning-to-learn skills, communication skills, social skills and entrepreneurship （Implementation of Education and Stringfellow, 2005; Recommendation of the European Training 2010, 2004; Winterton, Delemare-Le Deist ＆ Parliament and of the Council of December 18, 2006 on key competencies for lifelong leaming, 2006）. The evaluation focuses particularly on skills required in the labour market. These competences are included in all vocational study programmes as a part of accompanying with other key competences. The authors＇ approach follows the principles of developmental and participative evaluation, applying the Common Quality Assurance Framework （CQAF） model, which has been accepted by the European Commission for the quality management and quality assurance framework for vocational education and training in Europe. Additional methods such as interview and statistical data gathering were used to acquire comprehensive data and ensure extensive participation of each partner involved has key competences. The evaluation material was collected from vocational education and training providers by sector （n=8） and by qualification （n=53）. Every sector and type of examination was included in the evaluation. The evaluation was based on a sample （n=130）. The evaluation data were collected from multiple sources by using multiple methods. The material included written self-evaluation reports by vocational education and training providers （n=130 which equals 95% of VET providers）, quantitative information, interviews organized by the National Board of Education and an evaluation seminar for providers as focus groups. Educational administrators, teachers, students, employers and workplace instructors participated in the self-evaluation of the vocational education and training establishments （multi-professional evaluation）.     

Project-based learning as a contributing factor to graduates’ work readiness

This paper explores what work readiness means for two cohorts of graduate engineers, one from a traditional curriculum, the second from a largely project-based curriculum. Professional bodies and employers have defined a set of attributes for engineering graduates so that graduates will be ‘work ready’. Problem-based learning (PBL) is claimed to be a suitable approach to develop such skills. The graduates were interviewed some months after starting work, along with their managers. All the graduates recognised the benefits of taking PBL subjects as well as vacation work, with success in communication attributed more to PBL. Both cohorts had similar learning outcomes, high skill levels in project management, problem solving, communication skills, research and sustainability. A skills gap in ethics was identified for both cohorts of graduates and their managers. Further work is planned to link skill development with undergraduate learning experience.     

建构数学学习发展性评价体系的实践与思考

发展性评价体系中一个重要的工作就是开发多样化的评价工具和方法。在课题研究中我们重点开展了如下七个方面的评价工具的开发与实践:日常观察,等级和分项测试,成长记录袋,表现性任务,通过浓缩孩子成长特点的评价,二次评价,通过家长、学校合作,取得了较好的效果。     

考评概念浅析

考评是一个从评价概念中经过去价值化后拓展延伸出来的新概念。对考评概念产生的过程,考评与评价概念的区别,考评概念产生的背景,以及考评概念的三个方面进行了简要的阐述,以期厘清人们概念上的混乱,深化对评价与考评概念的认识,为课程与教学改革中的发展清除障碍。     

国际视野下的本科生学习结果评估——对“评估什么”和“如何评估”的分析与思考

当前,世界发达国家都很关注本科生的学习结果评估,并陆续开发出各种评估工具,推进评估实践。就评估的内容而言,各种评估工具主要关注学生学习的认知结果与非认知结果,并且因评估形式的不同,在评估内容的指向上存在着差异。就评估的机制而言,各国在组织、频率、参与者及结果使用等方面也表现一些共性与个性的特点。     

Knowing everything from soup to dessert: an exploratory study to describe what characterises students’ vocational knowledge

Students’ vocational knowledge can be defined as all knowledge students require performing within occupational practice. In the context of vocational education and training, students’ vocational knowledge is often discussed from a perspective of either what should be taught and learned in schools or different kinds of knowledge students should gain in occupational practice. Much less focus is on students’ vocational knowledge itself. This exploratory in-depth study aims to describe what characterises students’ vocational knowledge. To explore students’ vocational knowledge, an analytic framework is used to describe vocational knowledge characteristics specifying: (1) occupation-specific knowledge components, and (2) qualities. Results show the framework provides a structure to gain insight into the nature and meaning of vocational knowledge, and is valuable to describe characteristics in terms of knowledge components such as technical procedures or the social and occupational environment, and qualities such as richness, complexity and specificity. Additionally, to use an existing framework – originally developed in the contexts of ICT and Social Work – its usefulness is explored in a new context, namely, the hospitality industry. Recommendations about the framework serving as a potential tool to support students’ learning processes are provided.     

Enhancing Force Concept Inventory diagnostics to identify dominant misconceptions in first-year engineering physics

This work presents the results of a study whose aim is to detect systematic errors about the concept of force among freshmen students. The researchers analysed the results of the Force Concept Inventory test, which was administered to two different groups of students. The results show that, although there were significant performance variations between the two groups, they, nonetheless, shared common incorrect answers that were consistently triggered by the same misconceptions. The analysis proposed in this paper could also be applied in other universities to reveal the students’ a priori mindset in Newtonian mechanics and serve as a guideline for developing effective computer simulations or other tools.     

教育评价的几大问题及发展方向

本文探讨教育评价必须面对的几大问题,包括教育目标的多重性、教育评价的完整性、教育目标的非兼容性及矛盾性,以及教育目标的个性化等。这些问题是教育评价中不可避免但又必须恰当处理的。因此,教育评价的发展方向应该是更加关注长期的教育性目标,减少对短期的教学性目标评价的依赖;更加注重个性化评价,找出个体学生的价值和发展方向。     

Linking Assessment and Intervention for Developmental/Functional Outcomes of Premature,Low-birth-weight Children

Prematurity and low birth weight (LBW) are two major biological factors that put infants and young children at high risk for developmental delays or disabilities. While survival rates for premature and LBW children have improved, incidence figures have changed little over the past 20 years; in fact, the incidence of LBW has increased. Although the vast majority of LBW children have normal outcomes, as a group, they have higher risk for subnormal growth, illnesses, and neurodevelopmental problems. The purpose of this article is to examine the factors that influence the effectiveness of early intervention for premature, LBW children and to describe a strategy for linking assessment and early intervention. Linking assessment and intervention involves comprehensive assessment; a team approach to both assessment and intervention; empowering and enabling families; and the development of functional goals and objectives.     

Assessing learning in a sociology department: what do students say that they learn?

Assessment plays a central role in evaluating and strengthening student learning in higher education, and sociology departments, in particular, have increasingly become interested in engaging in assessment activities to better understand students’ learning. This qualitative study builds on previous research on assessment by asking what students in one American university department see themselves learning in the sociology major. Rather than asking students to reflect on what we think they are learning, we asked open-ended questions about skills, topics and modes of education they considered most significant to their learning. The 25 sociology majors in our study included second-year students, graduating fourth-year students and alumni who had graduated five years prior, enabling us to compare what students have learned or are learning across cohorts. Our findings demonstrate that students emphasise a common collection of skills, topics and – especially – modes of learning in the major, despite their various course selections and interests within the discipline, and also that majors’ orientations to sociology vary as they move through, and beyond, the undergraduate curriculum.     

Quantitative skills as a graduate learning outcome: exploring students’ evaluative expertise

In the biosciences, quantitative skills are an essential graduate learning outcome. Efforts to evidence student attainment at the whole of degree programme level are rare and making sense of such data is complex. We draw on assessment theories from Sadler (evaluative expertise) and Boud (sustainable assessment) to interpret final-year bioscience students’ responses to an assessment task comprised of quantitative reasoning questions across 10 mathematical and statistical topics. The question guiding the study was: do final year science students graduate knowing the quantitative skills that they have, and knowing the quantitative skills that they do not have? Confidence indicators for the 10 topics gathered students’ perceptions of their quantitative skills. Students were assigned to one of four categories: high performance-high confidence; low performance-low confidence; high performance-low confidence; or low performance-high confidence – with those in the first two categories demonstrating evaluative expertise. Results showed the majority of students effectively evaluated their quantitative skills as low performance-low confidence. We argue that the application of evaluative expertise to make sense of this graduate learning outcome can further the debate on how assuring graduate learning outcomes can enhance student learning.     

Evaluating student perceptions of learning processes and intended learning outcomes under inquiry approaches

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is promoted as a teaching approach that can enhance student learning outcomes. IBL can be categorised according to scale (e.g. tasks, course/module/paper, degree), mode (structured, guided, open) and framing (information or discovery-oriented). Our research used a survey instrument to determine how student perceptions of learning processes and intended learning outcomes (ILOs) varied in response to courses with different modes and framing of IBL. The survey was completed by 940 students in 15 IBL courses across a range of disciplines and levels. All types of IBL courses were well rated by students for encouraging learning processes and ILOs congruent with a well-designed inquiry experience. Regarding modes of IBL, there was a clear hierarchy from open (most highly rated) to guided and then structured inquiry. For the framing of IBL, courses using discovery-oriented IBL were more highly rated than information-oriented IBL. Overall, the most highly rated course design was open, discovery-oriented IBL, but other types of IBL remained important in terms of developing research and inquiry skills. To determine whether all types of IBL courses are promoting enhanced ILOs compared to more traditionally taught courses, a comparative study should be undertaken.     

Assessing teamwork in undergraduate education: a measurement tool to evaluate individual teamwork skills

Effective teamwork skills are essential for success in an increasingly team-based workplace. However, research suggests that there is often confusion concerning how teamwork is measured and assessed, making it difficult to develop these skills in undergraduate curricula. The goal of the present study was to develop a sustainable tool for assessing individual teamwork skills, with the intention of refining and measuring these skills over time. The TeamUp rubric was selected as the preliminary standardised measure of teamwork and tested in a second year undergraduate course (Phase One). Although the tool displayed acceptable psychometric properties, there was concern that it was too lengthy, compromising student completion. This prompted refinement and modification leading to the development of the Team-Q, which was again tested in the same undergraduate course (Phase Two). The new tool had high internal consistency, as well as conceptual similarity to other measures of teamwork. Estimates of inter-rater reliability were within a satisfactory range, although it was determined that logistical issues limited the feasibility of external evaluations. Preliminary evidence suggests that teamwork skills improve over time when taught and assessed, providing support for the continued application of the Team-Q as a tool for developing teamwork skills in undergraduate education.     

创业教育课程发展性评价研究与实践

针对高校创业教育课程存在的学生主动参与意识差,教学效果不明显等问题,本文通过分析高校创业教育课程教学目标、教育目的和评价目标,通过对发展性评价理论的研究来提高高校创业教育课程的教育教学水平,尝试创建一套适合于我院的创业教育课程评价体系。     

视听结合是培训高职高专学生英语听力技能的有效途径

高职高专学生英语听力技能的培训与发展,关系到他们的语用能力即运用所学语言知识进行实际交际的能力的提高。对于这一层次的学生来说,听力技能始终是教学的重点,贯穿整个学习过程。运用视听结合的策略训练学生听的能力,能够有效地提高学生的听力技能以及说、读和写的能力。     

加拿大高校学生学习成果评估的内容、方法及启示

作为全球第二个实现高等教育普及化的高等教育强国,加拿大高校学生学习成果评估体系富有特色:在评估内容方面,构建起了高等教育系统、院校以及学科(专业)等不同层面的学生学习成果体系;在评估方法方面,形成了由标准化测试、评价量规、表现性评估以及问卷调查等四种类型构成的多元化学生学习成果评估方法体系。其对我国的启示是:构建和完善高校学生学习成果评估的内容体系,为学生学习成果评估奠定共识基础;开发多元化的学生学习成果评估方法与工具,提高评估活动的科学性;加强以结果为导向的评估制度建设,促使学习成果评估常态化。