Social justice and the changing directions in educational research: the case of inclusive education

Inclusive education has established itself as an important element within the general field of educational research. While the increasing attention to social inclusion is apparently consistent with the general aspiration for social justice, this paper reasserts the fragility of inclusive education as a vehicle for arguing against traditional notions of special educational needs in favour of educational disablement as identity politics. It is important that in a general consideration of education research and social justice space be afforded to interrogating the shortcomings of social justice research in education with regard to disabled students. This brief discussion aims to introduce a range of issues pursuant to the intersection of education and disability politics.     

Noncredit Program Data Collection at Community Colleges: A Scoping Review

ABSTRACT

Noncredit enrollment at community colleges has grown significantly over the past two decades. However, unlike credit bearing programs, noncredit programs are seldomly empirically examined and evaluated, particularly those that are not grant funded. The lack of data results in a gap in knowledge about program effectiveness, as well as the students who participate in noncredit programs, it is difficult to objectively discuss the effectiveness of programs and develop valid policies to support them. This paper specifically aims to: (a) map the relevant literature regarding noncredit program data collection; (b) summarize existing knowledge about data collection processes; and (c) identify existing knowledge gaps in what is known about noncredit data collection. An established five stage process for conducting a scoping review guided the process: (a) identifying the research question; (b) identifying the related body of literature; (c) study selection; (d) presenting of data; and lastly, (e) collating, summarizing, and reporting results. The majority of data collected were head counts, types of courses offered and minimal demographic information. The results also show that, despite higher enrollments and the popularity of programs, there is a lack of comprehensive information on student needs. Thus, it is crucial to develop a standardized data collection system for all noncredit programs; collect data at a student level; and provide more detailed information regarding enrollment, completion, and outcomes such as employment and wage gains, as well as qualitative factors such as student satisfaction.     

Improving assessment tasks through addressing our unconscious limits to change

Despite widespread recognition of the need to improve assessment in higher education, assessment tasks in individual courses are too often dominated by conventional methods. While changing assessment depends on many factors, improvements to assessment ultimately depend on the decisions and actions of individual educators. This paper considers research within the ‘heuristics and biases’ tradition in the field of decision-making and judgement which has identified unconscious factors with the potential to limit capacity for such change. The paper focuses on issues that may compromise the process of improving assessment by supporting a reluctance to change existing tasks, by limiting the time allocated to develop alternative assessment tasks, by underestimating the degree of change needed or by an unwarranted overconfidence in assessment design decisions. The paper proposes countering these unconscious limitations to change by requiring justification for changing, or not changing, assessment tasks, and by informal and formal peer review of assessment task design. Finally, an agenda for research on heuristics and biases in assessment design is suggested in order to establish their presence and help counter their influence.     

Education,the Free Market and Post‐Communist Reconstruction

This paper offers a number of comparative observations on economic restructuring and education reform in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It will be argued that there are powerful social and political forces which are making free market’ educational reforms, such as those being pursued in Britain, an increasingly attractive model of educational development in the CIS and Eastern Europe. It will be suggested that such a basis for reform not only leaves the tension between political and economic change unresolved, but threatens to undermine the process of post‐communist reconstruction.     

Bias and the intended use of student evaluations of university faculty

This study examines whether the intended use of data obtained from student evaluations of university faculty biases the ratings. The paper reviews and critiques previous research done in the area. Previous studies produced contradictory results, but the results were confounded by several methodological problems. The research reported here remedied some of the problems in previous studies. The findings indicated that, while students are aware of the intended use of ratings as stipulated in written directions, different uses do not result in statistically significant differences in the ratings. Implications for the use of student ratings in the evaluation of faculty are discussed.     

Support for assessment practice: developing the Assessment Design Decisions Framework

There are many excellent publications outlining features of assessment and feedback design in higher education. However, university educators often find these ideas challenging to realise in practice, as much of the literature focuses on institutional change rather than supporting academics. This paper describes the conceptual development of a practical framework designed to stimulate educators’ thinking when creating or modifying assessments. We explain the concepts that underpin this practical support, including the notions of ‘assessment decisions’ and ‘assessment design phases’, as informed by relevant literature and empirical data. We also present the outcome of this work. The Assessment Design Decisions Framework. This provides key considerations in six categories: purposes, contexts, tasks, interactions, feedback processes and learning outcomes. By tracing the development of the Framework, we highlight complex ways of thinking about assessment that are relevant to those who design and deliver assessment to tertiary students.