澳大利亚博士生教育质量评价框架的构建与启示

随着内外部环境的不断变化,澳大利亚的博士生教育面临诸多现实挑战.为对博士生教育质量进行系统科学的评价,澳大利亚政府支持的研究团队构建了包含入学准备、学习经历、学习成功3个维度以及认知、基础、个人等9项指标的博士生教育质量评价框架,涵盖了从博士生入学前、在学过程到毕业后的人才培养全周期,满足了多重主体的应用需求.该框架对我国完善博士生教育质量评价体系具有一定启示:将学生发展作为评价的核心质量观;综合多元利益相关者视角,探索评价具体要素;促进评价应用主体从宏观向微观"下移",形成多重应用方式.     

Development of the Australasian survey of student engagement (AUSSE)

Student learning and development are the core business of the academy, yet until recently Australian and New Zealand universities lacked data on students’ engagement in effective educational practices. This paper reports the foundations and development of the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE)—the largest educationally focused cross-institutional collection from current students in Australasia. Results from the 2008 AUSSE are analyzed to elucidate the focus and significance of the collection. A review is undertaken of the AUSSE’s approach to stimulating each institution’s continuous improvement. The analysis is expanded, by way of conclusion, to consider the role of the collection as a general agent for encouraging the expansion of evidence-based quality management in higher education.     

The Graduate Pathways Survey: New Insights on Education and Employment Outcomes Five Years after Bachelor Degree Completion

The development of a strong and vibrant knowledge‐based economy is linked in direct ways with successful graduate outcomes. Building evidence‐based insights on such outcomes plays an important role in shaping planning and practice. With this broad objective in mind, this article analyses findings from the Graduate Pathways Survey, the first national study in Australia of bachelor degree graduate outcomes five years after course completion. It begins by discussing key rationales and research contexts to position the study internationally and in terms of research on graduate careers, quality assurance and planning. Focus is then turned to highlighting findings from the study, which involved a census of graduates from all Australian universities. It looks at graduates' perceptions of their degree and of its relevance to their work, their pathways into study and work and their salaries and satisfaction with their jobs. The article concludes by discussing the contribution of the findings for understanding graduates' work and development, and for enhancing higher education quality and planning.     

Inside research,inside ourselves: teacher educators take stock of their research practice

This paper tells the story of how a group of teacher educators in a university education department used action research to examine their research situation, and what conclusions they reached. Some recent historical background puts the study in context, identifying tensions between university expectations and time‐heavy teaching demands that operated as obstacles to research activity. This context is shared by many academics who provide training for practitioners in UK universities that seek substantial funding through their performance in national research quality assessments. The project was initially organised in Spring 2007 by new research staff who had investigated staff perceptions of and interests in research through semi‐formal interviews, observations and documentation. An invited group turned to action research as a possible way forward. They asked the question ‘What kind of research culture do we want, and how can we get it?’ Over a year, all participants gathered at semi‐formal meetings for collaborative reflection and discussion, engaged in a diversity of micro‐researches that experimented with ways of researching around the barriers, and wrote a collaborative paper about what they had learned. This gave rise to a series of national and international conference presentations that drew several of the group members into the wider research community. The group members grew to realise that the kind of research that they perceived the institution to value was not necessarily a kind that was readily built into their identities as teacher educators. But this realisation itself was empowering, exposing previously opaque assumptions that had left a felt irreconcilability that had been difficult to articulate.     

A model of online and general campus‐based student engagement

Knowing how campus‐based students engage in key online and general learning practices can play a central role in managing and developing university education. Knowledge in this area is limited, however, despite recent advances in student engagement research, and widespread adoption of online learning systems. This paper responds to the need to develop such knowledge, by documenting the development and application of a typological model of online and general campus‐based student engagement. It reports the statistical analyses used to develop the model, and analyses the model’s structure and substance. The model is exemplified by considering what it says about how increasingly powerful and pervasive online technologies might be leveraged to enhance campus‐based student engagement.     

Gender & information & communications technology-A 10-year study of new undergraduates

In terms of the University of Edinburgh, there are lessons for us from our data, plus some insights from recent surveys and interviews we have conducted with various groups around the university. New students’ reporting of apprehensiveness with respect to use of ICT in their studies has been falling over the years, but now appears to be reaching a stable baseline, perhaps reflecting a group in our population with general apprehensiveness about university life and studies. The steadily rising temale:male ratio in our undergraduate population will tend to exacerbate this issue. One approach which we could take would he to give more information to prospective students about the extent and types of use of ICT in their courses, and to focus in on this topic in the early days and weeks of the first term. Another approach is to provide more explicit guidance to students about the sorts and levels of skills we expect graduates to achieve. We know that students leaving the university for professions such as teaching, medicine and law are more confident about the match between their future employers’ needs than are other students, probably because the courses leading to professional qualifications are more explicit than are more “academic” subjects. Provision of materials to enable students to self-assess their skills against objective tasks might enable men and women to become more accurate in their self-reporting of skills. The formal demonstration (even to oneself) of one’s ICT skills may be more of a support to the technological confidence of women than of men. Although the point applies equally to any students who are anxious about their skills in this domain: self assessment is more important to those low in confidence than to those high in confidence. An example of such objective testing can be found in the European Computer Driving Licence (www.ecdl.org). At present, the university favours integration of ICT skills development into academic studies, which although good for encouraging engagement by its relevance, may well make wider and generic self-assessment more difficult.     

Enabling positive change in primary school: learner-led research in a Scottish context

The relevance and value of increased learner participation in effect change research is increasing in its significance and importance across the education sector, guided by current national governance and the move of local authorities to implement action research models to drive improvement. This paper reports on a study led by primary seven pupils in a remote rural Scottish primary school, working collaboratively towards planning, developing, implementing and evaluating learner-led research. The pupil researchers created their own initiative, introducing dogs to the classroom, which was designed to increase self-esteem and self-efficacy for all learners in their school. Through the implementation of the initiative, they were observed to develop their own social and emotional well-being as they engaged in the process of interviewing, results analysis and subsequent resource dissemination. This article discusses the collaborative and supportive relationship alongside the desire to bring about positive change that must underpin genuine collaboration.