From teaching to learning

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at the idea of teacher assessment and its history in relation to the English and Welsh National Curriculum since 1987. The author argues that the way it has been understood and used is ‘almost infinitely flexible’. Furthermore, he suggests that government attempts to cement in place one accepted definition have simply caused confusion. In particular, he shows how some definitions conflate formative and summative purposes. As a result assessment which is central to teaching and learning has become a disputed area of classroom practice and teachers are therefore less positive about its usefulness.     

Librarians in the Woods Hole Biomedical Informatics course

What has come to be known as the "Woods Hole course", Biomedical Informatics, is a week-long course sponsored by the National Library of Medicine which has been offered since 1992. Its participants include librarians, clinicians, educators, and administrators. This article discusses the content of the course and its applicability to medical librarians.     

From Mao to the Marketplace: storying an educational community

This paper is an edited version of a lecture in celebration of the twenty‐fifth anniversary of the Cambridge Journal of Education given at the Cambridge Institute of Education on 12 February 1996. The author, who was editor of the Journal for it's first eleven years, recalls the features of the East Anglian educational community for which the Journal initially provided a platform and the overlapping sets of professional values which, he claims, underpinned much of its educational practice. The Journal provides a source for the history of this community and of the issues and concerns which dominated it particularly in those early years. The paper focuses in particular on the issues to do with teacher education which concerned contributers twenty‐five years ago and reflects on the ways in which these have developed. The author suggests that there has been a loss of intellectual vitality over this period and places the blame for this squarely on government policies including, centrally, the extension of market principles to education. Finally he suggests an agenda for the educational community and perhaps for the Journal which is aimed at re‐establishing ‘the intellectual capital’ of the teaching profession     

Does Grading Method Influence Honours Degree Classification?

Variation in mark-spread is very evident in degree classification data provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Previous empirical investigations suggested that, at the level of the module, the spread of results might, in some subjects, be influenced by the method of grading (percentage marking or shorter grade-point scale). The availability of degree classification data from HESA made it possible to test whether the effect perceived at module level carried through to the honours degree classification. The empirically-generated hypothesis was that subjects characterised by a relatively narrow spread under percentage marking would show a wider spread when a grade-point scale of around 20 divisions was used, with the effect being detectable in honours degree classification data. The hypothesis was tested, using HESA data for academic years 1994-95 to 1998-99, on those new universities in England and Wales for which the existence of an institution-wide grading approach could be established. Tests were undertaken at the level of the HESA subject area, and at the more fine-grained level of the individual subject where numbers permitted. Results from the analyses are mixed. The analyses have probably been influenced by weaknesses in the way that HESA has collected award data, but nevertheless suggest lines for further inquiry into a matter that is of importance for equity within institutions (especially where modular schemes are being operated) and more broadly across the higher education sector.     

Correlates of mastery-related behavior: a short-term longitudinal study of infants in their second year

The present study examined correlates of mastery-related behavior across the infant's second year of life. Maternal control style was quantified on a control to support-of-autonomy continuum, infant-mother attachment was assessed in the Strange Situation, and mastery-related behavior was observed in a toy play session at 12 and 20 months. Infants whose mothers were supportive of their autonomy displayed greater task-oriented persistence and competence during play than did infants of more controlling mothers; securely attached and avoidant infants tended to exhibit greater persistence at tasks than anxious-ambivalent babies, and ambivalent babies were the most negative in affect.     

The Common Core’s promises and pitfalls from the perspectives of policy entrepreneurs and ground-level actors

The Common Core State Standards Initiative (Common Core) was spearheaded by policy entrepreneurs, unveiled nationally in 2010, and initially received strong support from leaders in state and federal government, philanthropic foundations, the business sector, and teacher unions. However, the reform came into the crosshairs of an ideologically wide set of politicians and interest groups. What is less well understood about the controversy are the responses the reform encountered within states, particularly from ground-level actors, such as parents, local educators, school boards, and community members, as well as their elected representatives. This study uses two data sets to examine how the promises and pitfalls that the reform’s policy entrepreneurs anticipated in 2011 were received by ground-level actors in 10 states between late-2013 and early-2014. The findings suggest ground-level responses to the anticipated promises and pitfalls both spurred and resonated with interest groups to disrupt the reform’s support among state-level leaders. The findings also suggest that political and implementation lessons may be gained from further study of the adoption and implementation of the Common Core in California. Whether the Common Core in California or other states may improve achievement or equity is considered in light of third-wave reforms.     

THE PRACTICE OF HIGHER EDUCATION: IN PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE AND OF EQUITY

A bstract .  In this essay, David Bridges explores the notion of practice with particular application to the practice of higher education. He considers whether some of the changes in practices linked to the massification of higher education have in fact resulted in the breakdown of higher education as a practice , at least on Alasdair MacIntyre's definition of the term. Specifically, Bridges examines whether higher education has lost its sense of the forms of human excellence around which its life is constructed. Finally, he points to issues of equity raised by the huge variety of forms that higher education now takes and asks whether this variety might mean that students are winning entry to some very different qualities of experience when judged against the requirement that they should contribute to the development of human excellence.     

Peer assessment in the digital age: a meta-analysis comparing peer and teacher ratings

Given the wide use of peer assessment, especially in higher education, the relative accuracy of peer ratings compared to teacher ratings is a major concern for both educators and researchers. This concern has grown with the increase of peer assessment in digital platforms. In this meta-analysis, using a variance-known hierarchical linear modelling approach, we synthesise findings from studies on peer assessment since 1999 when computer-assisted peer assessment started to proliferate. The estimated average Pearson correlation between peer and teacher ratings is found to be .63, which is moderately strong. This correlation is significantly higher when: (a) the peer assessment is paper-based rather than computer-assisted; (b) the subject area is not medical/clinical; (c) the course is graduate level rather than undergraduate or K-12; (d) individual work instead of group work is assessed; (e) the assessors and assessees are matched at random; (f) the peer assessment is voluntary instead of compulsory; (g) the peer assessment is non-anonymous; (h) peer raters provide both scores and qualitative comments instead of only scores; and (i) peer raters are involved in developing the rating criteria. The findings are expected to inform practitioners regarding peer assessment practices that are more likely to exhibit better agreement with teacher assessment.