Assessment for learning in the accountability era: New Zealand

The requirements for valid assessment for learning and assessment of learning are reviewed and then the tensions between these two purposes of assessment are explored, first in general and then within two areas of the New Zealand education system. First, the nature of assessment for learning in primary schools is discussed and how it is, or might be, affected by four accountability pressures associated with assessment of learning. The second area is assessment for qualifications in the final years of secondary education. Here, some of the assessment of learning occurs at local level, within schools, and the remainder occurs at national level. These two assessment pathways create substantially different conditions affecting assessment for learning.     

高等教育质量评估体系的有效性:中国的问题与对策

高等教育质量评估体系有效性问题实质上是一个政策评估问题。从宏观层面看,高等教育质量评估体系主要指外部质量评估体系,它包括政府评估、质量认证和大学排名等。根据政府介入程度的不同,外部质量保障体系可分为认可型评估和认证型评估。从问责制的视角看,中国实施的第一轮本科教学评估实质上是一种政府对高校的问责制度安排,属于行政问责。第一轮本科教学评估的有效性被认为"一般",基本上被认可,但改进空间巨大。提高中国高等教育质量评估体系的有效性,必须建立社会问责机制。     

A critical analysis of the use of formative assessment in schools

The literature is replete with exhortations about the need for teachers to use formative assessment. Clearly there are many advantages in doing so. Yet, empirical studies reveal that there is very little evidence that formative assessment is used frequently in classrooms. It is necessary to examine the reasons, why this is the case and to look for possible solutions to the problem.     

School assessment in Thailand: roles and achievement of ONESQA

The 1999 National Education Act emphasizes the importance of quality assurance and national education standards. The main principle of educational provision of high standard lies in recognition of the importance of assessment for enhancing educational quality and raising the standard. Such recognition has led to establishment in Thailand of the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA). The office is an independent body set up to develop the criteria, methods for external assessment and assessment of educational institutions at each level of education as stipulated in the national education law. The ONESQA became operational in November 2000 and it must appraise every school at least once every 5-year cycle. In this paper, the unique and the roles of the ONESQA will be described. The achievement of the ONESQA concerning the first round assessment of 35,134 schools at the basic education level will be reported and recommendations for quality improvements and lessons learned for the second round assessment will be explored.     

Teachers are digikids too: the digital histories and digital lives of young teachers in English primary schools

In this article I consider the digital lives of a number of young teachers. Some are confident, competent movers in digital worlds, some are not. I wonder why, and look back at the teachers' digital histories to see whether ways in which they learned about digital worlds affects their lives now. I identify three different routes to learning about digital worlds, and describe these with representative stories. Two are serious solitary journeys, one self‐taught the other school‐taught. Most teachers in these groups use digital technologies for work and for the business of life. The third route is playful social. Teachers in this group have experienced learning about digital worlds with fellow enthusiasts and in playful contexts. These teachers use digital technologies for pleasure as well as the business of life and work. I argue that it is important that young teachers and student teachers be given time on courses to think about and discuss their own digital literacy histories.     

Assessment for learning in the Hong Kong assessment reform: A case of policy borrowing

This paper describes Hong Kong’s borrowing, primarily from the UK, of the assessment for learning policy, in the context of prolonged use of formal summative public examinations. The narrative review and analysis are guided by a social positivist critique of the assessment for learning policy in the Hong Kong context. This paper concludes that Hong Kong’s attempts to implement assessment for learning are ambitious but somewhat futile because of persistent use of public examinations for important decision-making. Change in Hong Kong may only happen through a gradual implementation of assessment for learning practices that takes into account cultural, societal, and historic norms. Critical issues are identified and recommendations are proposed for further implementation of assessment for learning in Hong Kong.     

“We do investigate ourselves”: figurative assessment practices as meaning-making in English education

ABSTRACT

In this study of microteaching in a secondary English methods course, we intentionally stray from normative assessment practice, instead asking pre-service teachers to provide feedback on their peers’ microteaching using assessment practices designed to orient them figuratively. The term ‘figurative’ refers to ‘figurative language’: the bringing together of multiple, seemingly unrelated things, through associative configurations, and placing them side-by-side in order to reorient thought towards new or unexpected meanings. This study reframes assessment, not as a means of collecting data on what students have learned from a given lesson in order to evaluate and augment learning, but instead figuratively, as providing opportunities to expand and imagine ways of meaning-making through and with assessment. We examine in detail four modes of figurative assessment practices through which we sought to surprise and disorient students, producing new and different kinds of responses to microteaching that went beyond normative feedback practices.     

Whose knowledge counts in international student assessments: examining the AHELO epistemic community of economics experts

International student assessments have become the ‘lifeblood’ of the accountability movement in educational policy contexts. Drawing upon Stuart Hall’s concept of representation, I critically examined who comprises epistemic communities responsible for developing the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes economics strand. Through my analysis, I identify homogeneity among test-makers, missing voices, and western concepts as represented ideas that become fixed and circulated through policy channels. In an era of accountability and comparison, comparative international student assessments are becoming increasingly normative in educational settings. As scholars, policymakers, and educators use these test results, we must critically examine who is responsible for producing these tests.     

An assessment of the role of Hong Kong schools in promoting civic learning

Hong Kong underwent tremendous changes after the transfer of its sovereignty to China in 1997. This study attempts to explore the changing role of schools in preparing students for future democratic citizenship in the post-colonial era. Different researchers have postulated that schools play a crucial role in the political socialization process in meeting the developmental needs of adolescents. A mixed-method sequential explanatory research design was adopted to assess the effectiveness of Hong Kong schools in promoting civic learning. The significance of the present study was to analyse the school context by using the assessment framework from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Civic Education Study (CivEd) to generate citizenship education studies. An extensive review of research related to the role of schools through formal and informal curricula was conducted. This process helped extend the current understanding of the effectiveness of the political socialization in secondary schools in Hong Kong and contributed to the further development of the research on political socialization in the Chinese context. The findings from this study would help educators or policy makers rethink the future role of schools in citizenship education.     

Towards a change in the role of the support teacher in the Spanish education system

This paper presents a research study carried out in Murcia, Spain. The research explores the way support teachers understand their role and how they carry it out. We have analysed certain aspects of the schools studied, the students with special educational needs who attend these schools and the support teachers' training. This information allows us to assess their role and to determine the changes necessary to understand it from the curricular model characteristic of an inclusive school.     

Assessment in the Evaluation of Self-Regulation as a Process

The role of assessment is central to the current work in the field of self-regulation research, to the conceptualizations derived from empirical work, and to the operationalisation of its concepts in individual and classroom implementations. The various instantiations of the concept of self-regulation, all presuppose a detailed accounting of many different components, with each of them being represented by a variety of proxy variables which can be measured to establish the appropriate level at which the individual or group in question is functioning or performing. A review of the literature reveals a very diverse set of models and assessment instruments, many attempting to establish constructs with serious definitional problems, and conceptual overlaps. It is necessary then to establish their validity and the exact nature of their participation, as well as a clear differentiation between them. The assessment instruments which have been used so far are equally diverse, addressing the demands of the various components of the self-regulation models used and the different aspects emphasized in the research, including socio-cultural, cognitive, and volitional aspects. It is essential, to study carefully the relationship between assessment and the elements of the self-regulation process. This careful analysis will lead to a refinement of the instruments used, to the development of appropriate assessment methodologies and strategies, and to a richer conceptualization of the self-regulatory process (SR) based on empirical assessment data to inform the theory and model construction.     

Headship as policy narration: generating metaphors of leading in the English primary school

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how doing headship may be considered as a form of policy narration. A key role of the headteacher as policy narrator is to tell/sell a story about their school to themselves, their staff and the outside world of parents, inspectors and other stakeholders. The accounts they construct will depend to some extent on their perspectives, commitments and personal-professional identities as well as an interplay between national priorities and situated contexts. They will also depend on who they are speaking to and what they take to be a ‘professional’ response in relation to their policy work in school. Drawing on in-depth interviews with two experienced English primary school headteachers, Hazel and George, and Lakoff and Johnson’s claim [1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] that metaphors are not just linguistic devices, but technologies of reasoning and understanding, this paper explores the ways in which headteachers deploy different tropes to explain what it is that they do. Metaphors of leadership explored include headship as branding, persuasion and not dropping the ball as well as fighting and parenting although there is an absence of any direct political critique in these two accounts.     

Power relations in the enactment of English language education policy for Chinese schools

The scale of English language education in China is astounding, but recent research has shown that the latest national English education policy for Chinese schools has not been implemented successfully due to various reasons. One reason given for the lack of success is the impracticability of the top-down policy itself excluding teachers’ involvement and neglecting the contextual constraints. Building on the theoretical framework of multi-levelled actors in language planning and language policy, and drawing on some key concepts in relation to power in Critical Language Policy research, this paper explores how a national English language curriculum that emphasizes the international standards and norms in curriculum design has been enacted, ineffectively, by the key stakeholders through analysing the specific roles of three groups of key stakeholders involved in the English as a foreign language curriculum policy implementation.     

综合素质评价：智能化时代学习评价的变革与实施

基于大数据的智能化学习评价既是教育评价对时代发展做出的回应,更是评定学生综合素质的需要。评价出传统纸笔测试评价不出的学生素质、促进学习与评价一体化是基于大数据的智能化学习评价的主要目标与功能诉求。个性化评价标准、伴随式数据采集、实时生成的评价报告,是智能化学习评价的主要方法。在此过程中,建设全域的数据终端、建立科学的评价模型、较强的算力支持以及保护学生信息隐私等,则是实施智能化学习评价的关键要素与保障条件。     

历史中的“失踪者”:傅秉鉴事迹考述

傅秉鉴作为清末一名中下层官员,由科举起家,从中央到地方,历经庚子国变、清末新政等清末重大事件,其丰富的经历对于我们认识晚清社会复杂面相,理解历史进程中人物的复杂与多样性,具有重要价值。     

The changing role of international cooperation in developing countries (as they develop): A case study of skills development policies in Peru

A focus on the changes in the relationship between international cooperation and local actors in the skills development field in Peru as the country strengthened its financial position in the last two decades allows us to examine the role of the economic factor in these changes. The paper argues that indeed there is an association between the two. Peru's strengthened financial position has limited reliance on IC funding to carry out policy innovations, which has led IC to abandon the top-bottom approach to reform of the early nineties for a bottom-up approach that focuses in key actors at the middle level of the public sector entities and on sub-national governments. However, a second important factor has been institutional reform. Peru has developed a national policy towards IC and thus created a new setting for IC work, producing a more orderly environment for collaboration, while boosting information sharing among local agencies expecting international cooperation. The analysis stresses local factors conditioning changes and identifies lessons for the actors involved, particularly for international cooperation (IC), regarding possible strategies for a more effective role in skills development policies.     

The effect of the research assessment exercise on organisational culture in English universities: collegiality versus managerialism

The purpose of the study is to identify the effect of the research assessment exercise (RAE) on the balance between collegiality and managerialism in English universities. The article examines the institutional strategies for the 2001 RAE and its effect on organisational culture, identifying change in governance, management and leadership in English universities. The study is based upon case studies of four selected English universities.Website: Higher Education and Research Opportunities in the United Kingdom     

元宇宙+教育:未来虚实融生的教育发展新样态

"元宇宙+教育"为未来教育发展提供了新方向,其深度沉浸体验、具身社交网络、群体自由创造、社会生态文明以及虚实融生共在等特征为构建虚实融生的未来教育形态提供了新可能。教育元宇宙为教育新基建建设提供了新方向,为高质量教育教学提供了新支持,为学习过程提供了新场域。在人工智能、区块链、物联网以及学习分析等技术的加持下,教育元宇宙将会构建成以资源生态、社会交往、探究学习和评价系统等为核心的智慧学习空间,形成虚实融生和跨界探索的学习模式,最终实现以现实物理世界为核心的教育元宇宙与星际文明共在的未来教育形态。教育元宇宙将会在泛在可验证的智慧学习、深度沉浸的体验性学习、跨时空的深度协作发现式学习以及虚实融生的协同知识生成学习等方面对现有教学产生重要影响。教育元宇宙的未来发展需要制定通用技术标准、构建研发共同体、探索教育元宇宙教育模式以及规避"缸中之脑"风险。     

Child-centred education and the promise of democratic learning: Pedagogic messages in rural Indian primary schools

Global and national agendas to achieve universal primary education and improve the ‘quality’ of school provision in developing countries have identified the need to reform classroom pedagogy. Since the 1990s, child-centred ideas in particular have been utilised in teacher-training programmes and school reforms across many parts of Africa and Asia with the intention of creating more child-friendly, democratic learning environments. Analysing episodes from classroom observations conducted in a rural Indian primary school, this paper reveals the tensions experienced by one teacher in handing over greater classroom control to pupils. It provides insight into the complex processes of pedagogic interaction, and sheds light on some of the possibilities and conditions for achieving child-centred pedagogic change in such development contexts.     

Future developments of educational research in the Asia-Pacific Region: Paradigm shifts, reforms, and practice

In facing up to the challenges and impacts of globalization, high technology, economic transformation, international competitions and local developments in the new century, there have been numerous educational reforms and initiatives in many countries in the Asia-Pacific Region (Cheng, 2005a, A new paradigm for re-engineering education : Globalization, localization and individulization. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer). Unfortunately, many of these educational reforms with good intentions and huge resources investment have been found ineffective and unsustainable if not totally failed. One of the major reasons for this is lack of a comprehensive knowledge base for policy development and implementation supported by sophisticated and relevant educational research. From the waves and trends of educational reforms in the Asia-Pacific Region, this article aims to draw implications for future developments of educational research in supporting paradigm shifts, policy formulation, and practice of educational reforms in the Region and other parts of the world in an era of globalization and transformation. This article was adapted from the president address at the International Conference of Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association held on 28–30 November 2006, Hong Kong.