Not playing the game: student assessment resistance as a form of agency

Within self-regulated learning, learners exercise agency by setting targets, formatively monitoring progress, and evaluating results in ways which inform their own goal attainment. However, in real-world classroom situations, assessment processes can elicit behaviours that are more ego-protective than growth-oriented. Resistance to teacher expectations in assessment can arise from the individual’s need to protect his or her own identity or ego within the psychosocial context of the classroom. In addition, resistance can arise from strategic choices learners make to cope with competing demands on their time and resources. Thus, students may exercise their agency by not following assessment expectations or protocols (e.g. lying, cheating, or failing to give their best effort). These choices seem to undermine assessment validity. This paper shares student voice data from the Measuring Teachers’ Assessment Practices (MTAP) project (n = 46 students in seven focus groups) in New Zealand and the Supporting Student-assessment Success (SSAS) Project (n = 108 first-year university students) in Australia. Both highlight the different ways students resist, subvert, or act in contention with assessment. These data show that students in both sectors do not always act in the growth-oriented ways that educators envision. Students reported exercising potentially maladaptive assessment agency via Assessment dishonesty, Purposeful underperformance, and Doing it alone. These categories were underpinned by three differing rationales: Protection, Strategic prioritisation, and Mini-max. Educators must be mindful of these potential student actions and motives, working to establish psychological safety within the learning environment, and making sure links between learning and assessment are clear.     

Using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate cross-cultural research: identifying and understanding non-invariance

Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) allows researchers to determine whether a research inventory elicits similar response patterns across samples. If statistical equivalence in responding is found, then scale score comparisons become possible and samples can be said to be from the same population. This paper illustrates the use of MGCFA by examining survey results relating to practising teachers' conceptions of feedback in two very different jurisdictions (Louisiana, USA, n?=?308; New Zealand, n?=?518), highlighting challenges which can occur when conducting this kind of cross-cultural research. As the two contexts had very different policies and practices around educational assessment, it was considered possible that a common research inventory may elicit non-equivalent responding, leading to non-invariance. Independent models for each group and a joint model for all participants were tested for invariance using MGCFA and all were inadmissible for one of the two groups. Inspection of joint model differences in item loadings, scale reliabilities, and scale inter-correlations established the extent of non-invariance. This paper discusses the implications of non-invariance within this particular study and identifies difficulties in using an inventory in cross-cultural settings. It also provides suggestions about how to increase the likelihood that a common factor structure can be recovered.     

Orientation Effects in the Development of Linear Object Tracking in Early Infancy

Infants' oculomotor tracking develops rapidly but is poorer when there are horizontal and vertical movement components. Additionally, persistence of objects moving through occlusion emerges at 4 months but initially is absent for objects moving obliquely. In two experiments, we recorded eye movements of thirty-two 4-month-old and thirty-two 6-month-old infants (mainly Caucasian-White) tracking horizontal, vertical, and oblique trajectories. Infants tracked oblique trajectories less accurately, but 6-month olds tracked more accurately such that they tracked oblique trajectories as accurately as 4-month olds tracked horizontal and vertical trajectories. Similar results emerged when the object was temporarily occluded. Thus, 4-month olds’ tracking of oblique trajectories may be insufficient to support object persistence, whereas 6-month olds may track sufficiently accurately to perceive object persistence for all trajectory orientations.     

Promoting Self-Regulation in Science Education: Metacognition as Part of a Broader Perspective on Learning

The purpose of this article is to review recent research on self-regulated learning and discuss the implications of this research for science education. We draw on examples of self-regulated learning from the science education literature to summarise and illustrate effective instructional methods and the development of metacognitive understanding (Gunstone; 1999a; Rickey & Stacy, 2000; White & Mitchell, 1994). We also focus on the crucial role that metacognition plays in self-regulation (Baird & White, 1996; Nichols, Tippins, & Wieseman, 1997; White, 1998). We divide our discussion into two main parts. The first focuses on three components of self-regulated learning, including cognition, metacognition, and motivation. We relate these aspects of self-regulation to current practices in science education. The second section focuses on six general instructional strategies for improving self-regulation in the science classroom. We focus on the use of inquiry based learning, the role of collaborative support, strategy and problem solving instruction, the construction of mental models, the use of technology to support learning, and the role of personal beliefs such as self-efficacy and epistemological world views. These instructional strategies are selected because they reflect extensive research agendas over the last decade within the science education literature and are essential to metacognition and self-regulation (Butler & Winne, 1995; Gunstone, 1999b).     

Tensions between knowledge transmission and student-focused teaching approaches to assessment purposes: helping students improve through transmission

This study surveyed 1064 Chinese school teachers’ approaches to teaching and conceptions of assessment, and examined their inter-relationship using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Three approaches to teaching (i.e. Knowledge Transmission, Student-Focused, and Examination Preparation) and six conceptions of assessment (i.e. Student Development, Teaching Improvement, Examination, Control, School Accountability, and Irrelevance) were identified. Teachers indicated they used Student-Focused most frequently and this positively predicted the assessment purposes of Student Development and Teaching Improvement, while loading negatively on Control, School Accountability, and Irrelevance. The Knowledge Transmission teaching approach, in contrast, positively predicted the assessment purposes of Examination, School Accountability, Control, Student Development, and Teaching Improvement. Thus, despite a predominantly student-focused approach to teaching, knowledge transmission was seen as a teaching approach that contributed positively to student learning. Possible explanations for this anomalous result are discussed.     

Liberal arts student learning outcomes: An integrated approach

Researchers completing a study of liberal arts education sought to identify learning outcomes associated with both wisdom and citizenship. They have synthesized these themes into seven outcomes that facilitate effective student learning and development.     

‘The teacher said I'm thick!’ Experiences of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder within a school setting

Children and young people who have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can often experience difficulties within an education setting. ADHD can impact upon their educational achievements and subsequent future employment. This paper draws upon data gathered from a small scale study and has sought to elicit the ‘voice’ of young people who have ADHD and their experience within a school setting. Findings of this study indicate that there is a need for teachers to be more informed about the impact that ADHD can have on a pupil and teachers need to develop positive strategies to support these individuals within the classroom. Ideally, adequate training around ADHD should begin within initial teacher training prior to entering the teaching profession.