Assessment in education : principles, policy and practice

The English examination system provides a market in which a limited number of providers are accredited to offer curriculum-based examinations in many subject areas and at several levels. The most significant are the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the General Certificate of Education, Advanced (A level). Because these examinations are used for high-stakes purposes, including higher education and employment selection for individuals and programme evaluation for institutions, it is desired that scores from various exams be ‘comparable’ in several respects: across syllabuses and examination boards within a subject area, across years, and even across subject areas. Just how to accomplish this goal has been a topic of continual research and debate for over 50 years, through many changes of examination and institutional structures. But ever year, tens of thousands of scores must be reported, and every year, users expect them to ‘be comparable’ and use them as if they are.

Quality assurance in higher education : for whom and of what?

Over the past two decades the quality assurance of higher education institutions has captured a growing interest as evidenced by the increasing number of national and transnational bodies engaged in this area. Yet as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, higher education systems and thus the regimes designed to ensure their quality are faced with significant complexity. Issues of accountability, authority and responsibility are paramount when responding to industry bodies, to globalisation and the transnational provision of higher education and to the use of market mechanisms. In this paper we raise some of the challenges for quality assurance for higher education presented by this growing complexity through the question, quality assurance in higher education, for whom and of what, highlighting our concern for a need to expand the centrality of accountability to include authority and responsibility as part of the quality assurance regimes for higher education

Aligning school reform and teacher education reform in the middle years : an Australian case study

This paper discusses the development of a new Bachelor of Education (Middle Years of Schooling) at The University of Queensland, Australia. The middle years of schooling have increasingly been the focus of education reform initiatives in Australia, but this has not been accompanied by significant increases in the number of teacher education institutions offering specialised middle schooling-level teacher preparation programmes. Considering the rapidly changing social and economic context and the emergent state of middle schooling in Australia, the programme represented a conceptual and practical opportunity and challenge for The University of Queensland team. Working collaboratively, the team sought to design a teacher education preservice programme that was both responsive and generative: that is, responsive to local school contexts and to current education research and reform at national and international levels; and generative of cutting-edge theories and practices associated with middle schooling, teachers' work, and teacher education. This paper focuses on one component of the Middle Years of Schooling Teacher Education programme at The University of Queensland; namely, the practicum. We first present the underlying principles of the practicum programme and then examine "dilemmas" that emerged early in the practicum. These issues and tensions were associated with the ideals of "middle years" philosophy and the pragmatics of school reform associated with that approach. Within this context, we explore what it means to be both responsive and generative, and describe how we as teacher educators negotiated the extremes these terms implied.

Modernity and the 'failure' of crime control

Rather than understanding the recurrent failure of various attempts at crime control as unfortunate and undesirable aberrations, all too familiar glitches an otherwise uninterrupted teleological march to a better society, such failures are instead positioned as part of the fabric of late modernity itself. That is, society changes not according to a predetermined logic along neatly defined and clearly reasoned tracks, rather it hurtles from crisis to crisis, from failure to failure, and it is the regulation of that failure which produces new initiatives and new forms of governance. Utilising the example of the modern prison, this chapter contends that too great an emphasis upon this institution’s ‘failure’ results not only in a neglect of the many other functions that it serves in the regulation of difference, but also, and more generally, it results in an underestimation of the importance of failure in providing new impetus for social transformation.

Southern theory and its dynamics for postcolonial education

This paper discusses how the exploration of social texts and historical contexts from the global 'South', as put forward in Raewyn Connell's study 'Southern Theory' (2007), can improve the theoretical tools used in postcolonial education analysis. Connell analyses a selection of excellent and compelling social theory texts written by scholars in Africa, India, Iran, Latin America and Australia to show how they challenge and counter the silences, distortions and plain lies of dominant Western social theory. These texts of the global South do not mince words in laying bare the role of the institutions and elites of the West in the destruction, dispossession, and bloodshed involved in creating the world in which we live, and in perpetuating its catastrophes. The texts also reveal intense debates between scholars over their conceptualisations of local, national and global society. My paper argues that this kind of work is of vital importance to postcolonial studies in education. It helps education scholars to uncover the problematic assumptions and distortions of dominant education thought, and understand different ways of seeing. Postcolonial educators could use this to help both students and teacher unlearn many of our taught perceptions of the world, whether in the global North or the global South. Developing a countervailing social theory in education would sharpen our questioning of the structures of schooling as they relate to society, and tease out new dimensions of postcolonial leadership for education.

A pilot test on the differences between domestic and international students’ perceptions towards online learning in a Malaysian institution (Part I)

Teaching to an international audience online can be significantly different as compared to a traditional classroom setting. In a traditional classroom setting, the students are usually removed from their own cultural context and required to operate in the lecturer’s context. International students coming to Malaysia to study are implicitly expected to, and often do, become familiar with the Malaysian culture and style of education. The use of educational technologies as a blended strategy in higher education programs offers challenges and opportunities for all students but this may be different for international students who come from varied backgrounds. With an increasingly competitive global demand for higher education, Malaysian institutions strive to be the hub of educational excellence and a preferred option for international students in coping with the challenges of studying abroad in a different culture. This research will evaluate how undergraduate students perceive their online learning experiences in a Malaysian university. The OLES (Online Learning Environment Survey) will be used to explore the international and domestic students’ perception on e-learning and the findings of the first six OLES scales varying from (Computer Usage, Teacher Support, Student Interaction & Collaboration, Personal Relevance, Authentic Learning, and Student Autonomy) will be reported in this research. An in-depth study will be conducted to compare and contrast the challenges of international students with domestic students. Major difficulties encountered and how these students actually cope with e-learning, as well as the strategies and tools used to overcome the challenges will be investigated.

A pilot test on the differences between domestic and international students' perceptions towards online learning in a Malaysian institution (part II)

Teaching to an international audience online can be significantly different as compared to a traditional classroom setting. In a traditional classroom setting, the students are usually removed from their own cultural context and required to operate in the lecturer’s context. International students coming to Malaysia to study are implicitly expected to, and often do, become familiar with the Malaysian culture and style of education. The use of educational technologies as a blended strategy in higher education programs offers challenges and opportunities for all students but this may be different for international students who come from varied backgrounds. With an increasingly competitive global demand for higher education, Malaysian institutions strive to be the hub of educational excellence and a preferred option for international students in coping with the challenges of studying abroad in a different culture. This research will evaluate how undergraduate students perceive their online learning experiences in a Malaysian institute. The OLES (Online Learning Environment Survey) will be used to explore the international and domestic students’ perception on e-learning and the findings of the last six OLES scales varying from (Equity, Enjoyment, Asychronocity, Evaluation & Assessments, Online Learning Tools, and Interface Design) will be reported in this research. An in-depth study will be conducted to compare and contrast the challenges of international students with domestic students. Major difficulties encountered and how these students actually cope with e-learning, as well as the strategies and tools used to overcome the challenges will be investigated.

Whither culture? Australian horror films and the limitations of cultural policy

Cultural policy that attempts to foster the Australian film industry’s growth and development in an era of globalisation is coming under increasing pressure. Throughout the 2000s, there has been a substantial boom in Australian horror films led by ‘runaway’ horror film Saw (2004), Wolf Creek (2005), and Undead (2003), achieving varying levels of popularity and commercial success worldwide. However, emerging within a national cinema driven by public subsidy and valuing ‘quality’ and ‘cultural content’ over ‘entertainment’ and ‘commercialism’, horror films have generally been antithetical to these objectives. Consequently, the recent boom in horror films has occurred largely outside the purview and subvention of cultural policy. This paper argues that global forces and emerging production and distribution models are challenging the ‘narrowness’ of cultural policy – a narrowness that mandates a particular film culture, circumscribes certain notions of value and limits the variety of films produced domestically. Despite their low-culture status, horror films have been well suited to the Australian film industry’s financial limitations, they are a growth strategy for producers, and a training ground for emerging filmmakers.

Graduate Attribute Mapping With the Extended CDIO Framework

The CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) Initiative has been globally recognised as an enabler for engineering education reform. With the CDIO process, the CDIO Standards and the CDIO Syllabus, many scholarly contributions have been made around cultural change, curriculum reform and learning environments. In the Australasian region, reform is gaining significant momentum within the engineering education community, the profession, and higher education institutions. This paper presents the CDIO Syllabus cast into the Australian context by mapping it to the Engineers Australia Graduate Attributes, the Washington Accord Graduate Attributes and the Queensland University of Technology Graduate Capabilities. Furthermore, in recognition that many secondary schools and technical training institutions offer introductory engineering technology subjects, this paper presents an extended self-rating framework suited for recognising developing levels of proficiency at a preparatory level. A demonstrator mapping tool has been created to demonstrate the application of this extended graduate attribute mapping framework as a precursor to an integrated curriculum information model.

An extended CDIO syllabus framework with preparatory engineering proficiencies

The CDIO Initiative has been globally recognised as an enabler for engineering education reform. With the CDIO process, the CDIO Standards and the CDIO Syllabus, many scholarly contributions have been made around cultural change, curriculum reform and learning environments. In the Australasian region, reform is gaining significant momentum within the engineering education community, the profession, and higher education institutions. This paper presents the CDIO Syllabus cast into the Australian context by mapping it to the Engineers Australia Graduate Attributes, the Washington Accord Graduate Attributes and the Queensland University of Technology Graduate Capabilities. Furthermore, in recognition that many secondary schools and technical training institutions offer introductory engineering technology subjects, this paper presents an extended self-rating framework suited for recognising developing levels of proficiency at a preparatory level. The framework is consistent with conventional application to undergraduate programs and professional practice, but adapted for the preparatory context. As with the original CDIO framework with proficiency levels, this extended framework is informed by Bloom’s Educational Objectives. A proficiency evaluation of Queensland Study Authority’s Engineering Technology senior syllabus is demonstrated indicating proficiency levels embedded within this secondary school subject within a preparatory scope. Through this extended CDIO framework, students and faculty have greater awareness and access to tools to promote (i) student engagement in their own graduate capability development, (ii) faculty engagement in course and program design, through greater transparency and utility of the continuum of graduate capability development with associate levels of proficiency, and the context in which they exist in terms of pre-tertiary engineering studies; and (iii) course maintenance and quality audit methodology for the purpose of continuous improvement processes and program accreditation.

How current pedagogy methods in games teaching in the UK, Australia and the US have been shaped by historical, socio cultural, environmental and political constraints

Crucial to enhancing the status and quality of games teaching in schools is a developed understanding of the teaching strategies adopted by practitioners. In this paper, we will demonstrate that contemporary games‟ teaching is a product of individual, task and environmental constraints (Newell, 1986). More specifically, we will show that current pedagogy in the U.K., Australia and the United States is strongly influenced by historical, socio-cultural environmental and political constraints. In summary, we will aim to answer the question „why do teachers teach games the way they do.‟ In answering this question, we conclude that teacher educators, who are trying to influence pedagogical practice, must understand these potential constraints and provide appropriate pre-service experiences to give future physical education teachers the knowledge, confidence and ability to adopt a range of teaching styles when they become fully fledged teachers. Essential to this process is the need to enable future practitioners to base their pedagogical practice on a sound understanding of contemporary learning theories of skill acquisition.

From cultural studies to cultural science

This paper, first presented at a symposium on the 'past, present and future of cultural studies,' traces disciplinary changes in the study of culture from the perspective of 'cultural science', a term that was used by some of the earliest practitioners of cultural studies, including Raymond Williams. The paper goes on to describe some of the present moment, including work on the creative industries, show that a new version of cultural science is needed, based on evolutionary principles, in dialogue with the evolutionary approach in economics that was called for a century ago by Thorstein Veblen. This evolutionary turn, or 'cultural science 2.0,' it is argued, offers a radical and challenging future for cultural studies.