Education Commons^™

Assessing The Research Process Improves The Product: Results Of A Faculty-­Librarian Collaboration, Divonna M. Stebick, Janelle L. Wertzberger, Margaret E. Flora, Joseph W. Miller

Janelle Wertzberger

When an education professor and a reference librarian sought to improve the quality of undergraduate student research, their partnership led to a new focus on assessing the research process in addition to the product. In this study, we reflect on our collaborative experience introducing information literacy as the foundation for undergraduate teacher education research. We examine the outcomes of this collaboration, focusing on the assessment of the process. Using a mixed methods approach, we found that direct instruction supporting effective research strategies positively impacted student projects. Our data also suggest that undergraduate students benefit from not only sound research strategies, …

Implementing A Qep That Encompasses All Campuses In A Varied Focused Distributed University, Kelly Whealan George, Aaron Clevenger

Kelly Whealan George

No abstract provided.

Implementing A Qep That Encompasses All Campuses In A Varied Focused Distributed University, Kelly Whealan George, Aaron Clevenger

Aaron D. Clevenger

No abstract provided.

Pisa In Brief : Highlights From The Full Australian Report : Pisa 2012 : How Australia Measures Up, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Sarah Buckley

Dr Sue Thomson

PISA is a survey that measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds, who are near the end of compulsory schooling in most participating education systems. PISA in Brief summarises the results from the PISA 2012 assessment of students’ mathematical, scientific and reading literacy skills. It tells us about how students performed in the assessment and describes some wider findings about what lies behind their results.

Pisa In Brief : Highlights From The Full Australian Report : Pisa 2012 : How Australia Measures Up, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Sarah Buckley

Dr Sarah Buckley

PISA is a survey that measures the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds, who are near the end of compulsory schooling in most participating education systems. PISA in Brief summarises the results from the PISA 2012 assessment of students’ mathematical, scientific and reading literacy skills. It tells us about how students performed in the assessment and describes some wider findings about what lies behind their results.

Pisa 2012 : How Australia Measures Up : The Pisa 2012 Assessment Of Students’ Mathematical, Scientific And Reading Literacy, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Sarah Buckley

Dr Sarah Buckley

PISA seeks to measure how well young adults at age 15 (and, therefore, near the end of compulsory schooling in most participating education systems) are prepared to use their knowledge and skills in particular areas to meet real-life challenges. PISA’s orientation reflects a change in the goals and objectives of curricula, which increasingly address how well students are able to apply what they learn at school. This report presents the results of the PISA 2012 assessment for Australia. It presents the results for Australia as a whole, for the Australian jurisdictions and (where relevant) for the other participants in the …

Implications Of Implementing A Hybrid Learning Approach At The University Of Guyana, Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

Online learning and teaching is pervading higher education (HE) and many Universities are faced with the challenge of incorporating technology in education to meet the needs of students. The objective of this paper is to examine the implications of introducing a hybrid learning approach at the University of Guyana. A rationale has been established as to why this need is so germane. Literature has been reviewed and discussed, concerning face to face (F2F), online and blended instruction and the pertinence of these in current HE pedagogies. Special emphasis is paid to the transformative potential of blended learning to confront HE …

Higher Education Enrolment Growth, Change And The Role Of Private Heps, Daniel Edwards, Ali Radloff

Dr Daniel Edwards

This paper offers a mapping of change in higher education enrolments through the 2009 to 2012 period. It examines the massive growth in the system during this time and the extent to which this growth was distributed – by student enrolment characteristics, demographics and importantly by type of higher education provider (HEP). The authors provide a snapshot of the higher education sector captured using the most recently available data, and contextualise the potential role that could be played by non-university higher education providers in future expansion of the system. The work draws on data from the Commonwealth Government’s Higher Education …

Higher Education Enrolment Growth, Change And The Role Of Private Heps, Daniel Edwards, Ali Radloff

Ali Radloff

This paper offers a mapping of change in higher education enrolments through the 2009 to 2012 period. It examines the massive growth in the system during this time and the extent to which this growth was distributed – by student enrolment characteristics, demographics and importantly by type of higher education provider (HEP). The authors provide a snapshot of the higher education sector captured using the most recently available data, and contextualise the potential role that could be played by non-university higher education providers in future expansion of the system. The work draws on data from the Commonwealth Government’s Higher Education …

Contribution Of Information And Communication Technology (Ict) In Country’S H-Index, Maryam Farhadi, Hadi Salehi, Mohamed Amin Embi, Masood Fooladi, Hadi Farhadi, Arezoo Aghaei Chadegani, Nader Ale Ebrahim

Nader Ale Ebrahim

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development on country’s scientific ranking as measured by H-index. Moreover, this study applies ICT development sub-indices including ICT Use, ICT Access and ICT skill to find the distinct effect of these sub-indices on country’s H-index. To this purpose, required data for the panel of 14 Middle East countries over the period 1995 to 2009 is collected. Findings of the current study show that ICT development increases the H-index of the sample countries. The results also indicate that ICT Use and ICT Skill sub-indices positively …

Theory Guided Professional Development In Early Childhood Science Education, Soo-Young Hong, Julia Torquati, Victoria J. Molfese

Soo-Young Hong

The importance of early and developmentally appropriate science education is increasingly recognized. Consequently, creation of common guidelines and standards in early childhood science education has begun (National Research Council (NRC), 2012), and researchers, practitioners, and policy makers have shown great interest in aligning professional development with the new guidelines and standard. There are some important issues that need to be addressed in order to successfully implement guidelines and make progress toward accomplishing standards. Early childhood teachers have expressed a lack of confidence in teaching science and nature (Torquati, Cutler, Gilkerson, & Sarver, in press) and have limited science and pedagogical …

Head Start Classrooms And Children’S School Readiness Benefit From Teachers’ Qualifications And Ongoing Training, Seung-Hee Claire Son, Kyong-Ah Kwon, Hyun-Joo Jeon, Soo-Young Hong

Soo-Young Hong

Background Teacher qualifications have been emphasized as a basis of professional development to improve classroom practices for at-risk children’s school readiness. However, teacher qualifications have often not been compared to another form of professional development, in-service training. Objective The current study attempts to investigate contributions of multiple types of professional development to school readiness skills of low-income preschoolers. Specifically, we examined the significance of teachers’ education level, degree, teaching certificate, teaching experiences as well as specialized in-service training and coaching support as these teacher trainings are linked to preschoolers’ school readiness through proximal classroom practices. Method We used a multi-level …

A Comparison Of School-Based And Community-Based Adherence To Wraparound During Family Planning Meetings, Philip D. Nordness

Philip D. Nordness Dr.

Recently a number of studies have begun to examine how the wraparound approach is adhered to during family planning meetings in community-based settings. However, no studies have compared wraparound family planning meetings across community-based and school-based settings. The purpose of this study was to examine adherence to the wraparound approach during family planning meetings across school-based and community-based settings to determine if there is a difference in the participants, domains discussed, and key characteristics of wraparound. Over the course of 9 months, observations were conducted on community-based (N = 85) and school-based (N = 109) wraparound family planning meetings. Results …

Confusing Achievement With Aptitude, Dave Powell

Dave Powell

My wife and I read and reread the words several times, allowing them to sink in. "Being in an academic class would cause him harm," the principal wrote about our son, "as the rigor would be too great." The report continued, "He would be the lowest-ability student in the class and by a large margin." It is a day you don't soon forget when the principal of your son's school tells you—in an email, no less—that your child simply is not capable of managing academic work. [excerpt]

Improving Consistency In Teacher Judgements : An Investigation For The Department Of Education, Victoria, Marion Meiers, Clare Ozolins, Phillip Mckenzie

Marion Meiers (1941-2018)

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) was commissioned by the Department of Education in Victoria to undertake an investigation of current best-practice approaches to ensuring consistency of teacher judgements against P-10 state-wide standards. The investigation encompassed national and international approaches that had been implemented or were under development. A key objective of the investigation was that the approaches identified should be based on current information, research and best practice, and that they should be supportive of the continued development of a learning and assessment culture in Victorian schools. The report of the investigation was required to provide key baseline …

Networking Young Citizens : Learning To Be Citizens In And With The Social Web, Suzanne Mellor, Terri Seddon

Suzanne Mellor

Many claims are made, both in the popular press and the professional education literature, about the significance of the social web in enabling civic participation. However empirical evidence supporting these claims is sparse and contested rather than strongly-indicative. The Monash University pilot research project, Networking Young Citizens, relates to the discussion about the ways in which the social web might support the civic participation, especially of young people, by examining the ways in which Web 2.0 was integrated into teaching and learning in the school, and any other processes of civic socialisation that were consciously adopted in three schools.

This …

The Politics Media Equation:Exposing Two Faces Of Old Nexus Through Study Of General Elections,Wikileaks And Radia Tapes, Ratnesh Dwivedi Mr

Ratnesh Dwivedi

The important identity of a responsible media is playing an unbiased role in reporting a matter without giving unnecessary hype to attract the attention of the gullible public with the object of making money and money only.After reporting properly the media can educate the public to form their own opinion in the matters of public interest. Throughout the centuries, the world has never existed without information and communication, hence the inexhaustible essence of mass media. The government has the power to either make or reject whatever that will exist within its environment. It also determines how free the mass media …

Partnering For School Improvement : Case Studies Of School-Community Partnerships In Australia, Sharon Clerke

Sharon Clerke

The case studies in this booklet illustrate the creative ways in which Australian schools are responding to local needs by establishing and building partnerships with community organisations and businesses. These partnerships have been formed to share resources, both human and material. They are providing students with access to breakfast clubs, homework and tutoring programs, after-school fitness and sporting activities, and other programs designed to re-engage students. Local businesses that want students to know more about employer expectations and the realities of the workplace are providing work placements and work experience, traineeships and apprenticeships. Some schools are partnering with other educational …

Effective Strategies For Increasing Citation Frequency, Nader Ale Ebrahim, Hadi Salehi, Mohamed Amin Embi, Farid Habibi Tanha, Hossein Gholizadeh, Motahar Seyed Mohammad, Ali Ordi

Nader Ale Ebrahim

Due to the effect of citation impact on The Higher Education (THE) world university ranking system, most of the researchers are looking for some helpful techniques to increase their citation record. This paper by reviewing the relevant articles extracts 33 different ways for increasing the citations possibilities. The results show that the article visibility has tended to receive more download and citations. This is probably the first study to collect over 30 different ways to improve the citation record. Further study is needed to explore and expand these techniques in specific fields of study in order to make the results …

Information Literacy Assessment: Keep It Simple, Keep It Going, Larry Sheret, John A. Steele

Larry Sheret

Is it possible to administer an information literacy assessment in only a few classes that would provide essential, adequate, data from semester to semester? In a college with a student body of about 2,000, would it be possible to obtain actionable assessment results if only 150 to 200 students were assessed each semester? This article is the result of the creation and implementation of the information literacy assessment that was launched in the fall of 2009 by Savage Library at Western State College of Colorado (WSC). WSC changed its name to Western State Colorado University on August 1, 2012. The …

The Impact Of National And International Assessment Programmes On Education Policy, Particularly Policies Regarding Resource Allocation And Teaching And Learning Practices In Developing Countries, Maura Best, Pat Knight, Petra Lietz, Craig Lockwood, Dita Nugroho, Mollie Tobin

Dr Petra Lietz

There is a documented global rise in the number of countries undertaking national learning assessments, as well as international and regional learning assessments. Much of this growth, especially in national learning assessments, has occurred in economically developing countries. Little is known, however, on how these assessments affect education policy and practice in developing countries. This review examined the impact of national and international assessment programmes on education policy, particularly policies regarding resource allocation and teaching and learning practices in developing countries. This particular focus on policies regarding resources and teaching and learning practices stemmed from an observation that, particularly in …

Collaborative Research Network: An Institutions Perspective, Darren Gibson

Darren Gibson

No abstract provided.

Academic Characteristics Among First-Generation And Non-First-Generation College Students, Catrina G. Murphy, Terence Hicks

Terence Hicks, Ph.D., Ed.D.

The present study involved a sample (n = 203) of college students and investigated the differences in academic expectations of first-generation and non-first-generation undergraduates who attended a doctoral-granting public four-year historically Black university on the eastern shore of Maryland. There were 133 first-generation and 70 non-first-generation students. This study focused on the expressed needs of first-generation and non-first-generation college students to determine whether differences exist in academic expectations. In addition, this study sought to lead to an increase in the understanding of the academic expectations shared by first-year first-generation and non-first-generation college students. This study used an ex post facto …

Towards A Growth Mindset In Assessment, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

The Contribution Of Work-Integrated Learning To Undergraduate Employability Skill Outcomes, Denise Jackson

Denise Jackson

WIL has attracted considerable attention as an instrument for enhancing professional practice and developing work-readiness in new graduates. It is widely considered as a point of difference in developing graduate employability by enhancing skill outcomes, such as team-work, communication, self-management and problem solving, employment prospects and student understanding of the world-of-work. This paper investigates the role of WIL in improving undergraduate employability skills; gauging its impact on a range of skills; and identifying variations in outcomes for certain demographic, study background and placement characteristics using survey data from 131 WIL students in an Australian university. Results indicate a significant improvement …

Self-Assessment Of Employability Skill Outcomes Among Undergraduates And Alignment With Academic Ratings, Denise Jackson

Denise Jackson

Despite acknowledgement of the benefits of self-assessment in higher education, disparity between student and academic assessments, with associated trends in over- and underrating, plagues its meaningful use, particularly as a tool for formal assessment. This study examines self-assessment of capabilities in certain employability skills in more than 1000 Australian business undergraduates. It evaluates the extent to which student self-assessments differ from academics, in what ways and the influence of certain individual and background characteristics - such as stage of degree, gender and academic ability - on rating accuracy. Explanations for documented disparities are presented, in addition to implications and strategies …

Business Graduate Employability – Where Are We Going Wrong?, Denise Jackson

Denise Jackson

Persistent gaps in certain non-technical skills in business graduates continue to impact on organisational performance and global competitiveness. Despite business school’s best efforts in developing non-technical skills, widely acknowledged as fundamental to graduate employability, there has been considerably less attention to measuring skill outcomes and even less on their subsequent transfer to the workplace. It appears stakeholders are assuming transfer occurs automatically in graduates, neglecting the influence of learning program, learner and workplace characteristics on this complex process and its potential impact on graduate employability.

This paper unpacks the concept of transfer and proposes a model of graduate employability which …

Session B - Measuring Learning In Complex Environments, Michael Timms

Dr Michael J Timms

Concurrent Session Block 1

Reading In Online Environments, Juliette Mendelovits

Juliette Mendelovits

Juliette Mendelovits examines the results of an international assessment of 15-year-old students’ ability to read digital texts.

Session O - Do Boys And Girls Read Differently Online? Evidence From Pisa 2009 Digital Reading Assessment, Tom Lumley, Dara Ramalingam, Juliette Mendelovits

Juliette Mendelovits

Concurrent Session Block 3