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.     

On Teacher Quality in Independent Schools

Independent schools pride themselves on providing a unique educational experience for students, one that is robust and mission-driven and capitalizes on lower student-to-teacher ratios that allow for more personalized learning and high-quality teachers. Numerous studies measure teacher effectiveness in public schools, yet there is little research on teacher quality in independent schools. This study finds that independent schools use four key characteristics to describe high-quality teachers: (a) strong relationships with students, (b) strong pedagogical knowledge and content expertise, (c) a growth mind-set, and (d) the ability to fit well within the school's culture. We also examine school practices and find that some commonly used activities for recruitment and selection are intended to identify the key characteristics of high-quality teachers. Administrators use demonstration lessons and interviews to assess candidates’ abilities to develop strong relationships with students and their pedagogical knowledge and content expertise. However, we find that practices around teacher evaluation are inconsistent.     

The relationship of school-based parental involvement with student achievement: a comparison of principal and parent survey reports from PISA 2012

This paper explores parental involvement using principal and parent survey reports to examine whether parents’ involvement in their children’s schools predicts academic achievement. Survey data from principals and parents of seven countries from the PISA 2012 database and hierarchical linear modelling were used to analyse between- and within- school variance in students’ math achievement. Factor analysis of both principal and parent responses revealed three dimensions of parental involvement with schools: parent-initiated involvement, teacher-initiated involvement and parent volunteerism. Principal reports of parent-initiated involvement positively predicted between-school differences in student achievement. Within schools, parent reports of teacher-initiated involvement negatively predicted student achievement. The paper shows the importance of understanding the source of information for survey measures. Information on parental involvement from the parent surveys of the PISA study is suitable for describing within-school variation in student achievement, whereas principal reports can be used to predict variation between schools.     

Analysing design and technology as an educational construct: an investigation into its curriculum position and pedagogical identity

The hierarchal status of academic disciplines, what defines valuable or legitimate knowledge and what should we teach our children is a topic of much debate. Amidst concerns of an academic decline, tackling the culture of low expectation and anti-intellectualism, the need to address social justice, and its by-product of cultural reproduction, is the focus of current education policy. Set within the UK, this paper presents a critical review of the literature relating to disciplinary knowledge and teaching and learning regimes, specifically seeking to explore the subcultures which exist between design and technology and its associated curricula counterparts that combine to produce science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The purpose being to proffer an explanation that is supportive in developing an understanding as to why design and technology is perceived by many to be of less value than its STEM counterparts. Situation within a functionalist approach to STEM education policy, findings are discussed in relation to design and technology, which as a subject is caught between the identities of academic and vocational exponents, and it is from this perspective that complex nature and perceived value of design and technology is explored.     

Embedded Technical Expression: Code and the Leveraging of Functionality

In this article, I argue that a key problem for understanding the social ramifications of software is an implicit separation of software programs into two separate elements: expressive aspects, which are seen as socially driven and affectual, and functional aspects, understood as scientific and rational. In order to overcome this binary, I develop an alternative framework that examines the ways software expresses best practices, correct behaviors, and social organization. A key element of this framework is an understanding of software programs as simultaneously rhetorical and tangible objects. Given that Western society is dependent on sociotechnical systems in which software plays a crucial role, understanding the complex ways software expresses normative tasks, practices, and social orders is increasingly important.     

Effects of mobile-app learning diaries vs online training on specific self-regulated learning components

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is associated with increased academic achievement and improved learning outcomes for students. Thus, it is import to find ways to improve SRL, such as through training. Face-to-face training, discipline-dependent training, and paper-and-pencil diaries are limited in the number of students they can reach. The current randomised control study implemented discipline-independent online training and novel mobile-app based diaries and tested SRL motivation and perceived strategy use in 73 University students from mixed disciplines and study mode. Results showed that participants in the combined condition (training with diaries) improved more than other conditions. Specifically, they improved on SRL knowledge, metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies (elaboration, organisation and critical thinking), and resources management strategies (time-management and effort regulation). The present study extends previous findings, showing that positive effects can be found for SRL when a discipline-independent approach is used coupled with online training and a mobile-app based daily diary.

     

A developmental theory for Aristotelian practical intelligence

Abstract

In Aristotelian virtue theories, phronesis is foundational to being good, but to date accounts of how this particularly important virtue can emerge are sketchy. This article plumbs recent thinking in Aristotelian virtue ethics and developmental theorizing to explore how far its emergence can be understood developmentally, i.e., in terms of the growth in ordinary conditions of underlying psychological capacities, dispositions, and the like. The purpose is not to explicate Aristotle, nor to assimilate Aristotelian ideas to cognitive developmental moral theorizing, but to draw on both to build an independently plausible theory of practical intelligence and its development. It is argued that one fruitful direction attends to the psychology of virtues Aristotle associates with practical intelligence, including comprehension, understanding, sense, and cleverness, instead of Aristotle’s remarks distinguishing fully virtuous persons from the continent, incontinent and the many.