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Full-Text Articles in Education
Identifying And Monitoring Progress In Collaboration Skills, Claire Scoular
Identifying And Monitoring Progress In Collaboration Skills, Claire Scoular
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
The nature of skills such as collaboration is complex, particularly given that there are internal processes at play. Inferences need to be made to interpret explicit behaviours observed from intentionally designed assessment tasks. This paper centres on the approach to develop hypotheses of skill development into validated learning progressions using assessment data. Understanding a skill from a growth perspective is essential for the effective teaching and development of the skill. The application of Item Response Theory (IRT) allows the interpretation of assessment data as levels of proficiency that we can use to map or monitor progress in collaborative skills.
Evidencing Creativity And Curiosity In Ib Schools, Sarah Richardson, Sladana Krstic
Evidencing Creativity And Curiosity In Ib Schools, Sarah Richardson, Sladana Krstic
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
There is growing recognition of the importance of learners gaining transversal or 21st-century attributes in order to thrive in the contemporary world. This poses a number of challenges for educators. First, to what extent are transversal attributes innate, or do they include a combination of traits and skills? Second, what can teachers do to help nurture these attributes in learners? Third, how can the existence or strengthening of attributes be recognised? In this paper, we draw on work that we are doing for the International Baccalaureate Organisation to define conceptual frameworks for creativity and curiosity. Our goal is to enable …
How Education Gets In The Way Of Learning, Geoff N. Masters
How Education Gets In The Way Of Learning, Geoff N. Masters
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
The formal structures and processes of school education – including the organisation of the school curriculum, processes for assessing student learning, methods of reporting performance, and the uses to which student results are put – are often inconsistent with what is now known about the best ways to promote human learning. Rather than being designed to maximise every student’s learning, these structures and processes often reflect 20th century priorities, including the use of school education to sort and select students into different education and training destinations, and future careers. This sorting function of schooling is becoming increasingly irrelevant in knowledge …
Research Conference 2021: Excellent Progress For Every Student: Proceedings And Program, Australian Council For Educational Research
Research Conference 2021: Excellent Progress For Every Student: Proceedings And Program, Australian Council For Educational Research
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
The focus of the 2021 Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) Research Conference is on evidence-based strategies for ensuring that every student makes excellent ongoing progress in their learning. This is an important topic because many students in our schools do not make good, steady progress. Some slip behind and fall increasingly behind the longer they are in school. By the middle years of school, this contributes to significant levels of student disengagement. ACER has invited a number of leading educational researchers to join us to share the findings of their research relevant to this topic. An important conclusion of …
Key Skills For The 21st Century: An Evidence-Based Review, Esther Doecke, Quentin Maire
Key Skills For The 21st Century: An Evidence-Based Review, Esther Doecke, Quentin Maire
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
It is vital that education systems deliver quality outcomes for all young people and prepare them well for their future in the economy and society. To do so, many systems have traditionally had a strong focus on developing academic skills, particularly in literacy and numeracy. In recent years, education systems have developed greater expectations that schools will also equip young people with a broader set of skills for the 21st century (e.g. creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving). This paper addresses these developments and the challenges they present. Building on an evidence-based review, this paper asks what are the key skills required …
Assessing Computational Thinking, Daniel Duckworth
Assessing Computational Thinking, Daniel Duckworth
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
This paper provides some context for the role of computation thinking (CT) in the Australian Curriculum, an abridged literature review of CT as a problem-solving framework from the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2018 assessment framework and some examples of how CT has been used to solve real-world problems. Finally, this paper presents ways to teach and assess CT.
What Can Early Childhood Education And Care Settings Teach Us About Skills For The 21st Century?, Dan Cloney, Kellie Picker
What Can Early Childhood Education And Care Settings Teach Us About Skills For The 21st Century?, Dan Cloney, Kellie Picker
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
Early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings are naturally oriented towards promoting 21st century skills. This can be seen in Australia, where learning is defined as the development of identity, social and emotional skills, problem-solving, and communication skills. A 21st century orientation is also seen in the playbased pedagogies implemented in ECEC settings. A gap, however, exists in the ability of the ECEC sector to communicate its successes. This gap relates to the lack of measurement tools to quantify the quality of the adult–child interactions in ECEC settings, and children’s growth in these 21 century skills and abilities. This paper …
Assessment In The Interpersonal Domain: Experiences From Empathy Assessment In Medical Education, Neville Chiavaroli
Assessment In The Interpersonal Domain: Experiences From Empathy Assessment In Medical Education, Neville Chiavaroli
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
Frameworks for the teaching and assessment of 21st-century skills commonly recognise the importance of learning and skill development in the interpersonal domain. They also usually acknowledge the challenge of reliably and validly assessing students in this domain. In the field of medical education and in selecting students for medical courses, the concept of empathy has become central to representing the particular interpersonal understandings and skills expected of students and practising doctors. Attempts to assess these attributes during medical training are just as challenging as in school contexts. This presentation draws on several years’ experience of working with medical educators to …
Assessing And Understanding Social And Emotional Skills: The Oecd Study On Social And Emotional Skills, Sue Thomson
Assessing And Understanding Social And Emotional Skills: The Oecd Study On Social And Emotional Skills, Sue Thomson
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
In an increasingly fast-changing and diverse world, the importance of developing social and emotional skills is becoming more evident. The large body of accumulated evidence shows that these skills have strong relationships with life outcomes and they have been referred to as a key component of 21st century skills. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Study on Social and Emotional Skills is a new international assessment of these skills in students at primary and secondary schools. This study also gathers information on students’ families, schools and community learning contexts, aiming to provide information about the conditions or practices …
Digital Literacy: Myths And Realities, Julian Fraillon
Digital Literacy: Myths And Realities, Julian Fraillon
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
Digital literacy, under a wide variety of names, is routinely classified as a 21st-century skill and is frequently reported as an area of high priority in school education systems internationally. In comparison with students in other countries, Australian students have high levels of access to digital technologies both at and outside of school. With this access comes the expectations that students will be highly-proficient users of digital technologies and that schools will use digital technologies in transformative ways to support student learning. This session will examine how concepts of digital literacy have developed over time, what data from large-scale assessments …
Teaching And Assessing The General Capabilities In A Secondary School Context, Loren Clarke, Melissa Hughes
Teaching And Assessing The General Capabilities In A Secondary School Context, Loren Clarke, Melissa Hughes
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
Education researchers, policymakers and private enterprise agree that, in addition to content knowledge, students in the 21st century need to acquire particular skills to equip them for active citizenship in the modern world. This is a real challenge for teachers today: how do they teach and assess the skills needed to live and work in the 21st century? This paper will explore the development of Eltham High School’s focus on teaching and assessment of collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking over the past seven years. It will explore the development of the assessment program, its connection to the school and state …
Using Learning Analytics To Measure 21st-Century Skills, Dragan Gašević
Using Learning Analytics To Measure 21st-Century Skills, Dragan Gašević
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
The unprecedented opportunities to collect data about learning and contexts in which learning occurs has attracted great attention in education. The use of data analytics and machine learning methods have offered much potential to address many relevant questions in education. This talk will focus on the use of learning analytics to measure 21st-century skills in education and outline the types of data commonly used. It will also discuss approaches that are used for analysis and modelling of relevant learning processes and outline the ways in which learning analytics can be used to track learning progression and how the validity of …
Digital Literacy Skill Development: Prescriptive Learning Analytics Assessment Model, Elspeth Mckay
Digital Literacy Skill Development: Prescriptive Learning Analytics Assessment Model, Elspeth Mckay
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
There is a broad awareness of how information communications technology (ICT) digital literacy impacts everyday life. In schools, use of ICT tools has become mandatory. These tools include computers, tablets and mobile phones. These smart devices are used to send emails, browse the internet and make video calls. It is essential for teachers to identify student digital literacy levels through classroom activities and when to implement flexible ePedagogies for students who need help. This presentation will provide easy-to-follow steps to manage learning analytics to determine digital literacy skill levels. Learning analytics can be used for a range of purposes: to …
Equipping Teachers With Tools To Assess And Teach General Capabilities, Claire Scoular
Equipping Teachers With Tools To Assess And Teach General Capabilities, Claire Scoular
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
There is wide recognition that students need to be equipped with appropriate social and cognitive skills demanded by society and the workforce. The unresolved question is how to do this. Many education systems globally are addressing this demand by including skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and creativity into curriculum documents or supplementary materials. However, there is little research to guide educators in teaching such skills at school level. The need to develop practical solutions for assessing and teaching social and cognitive skills, broadly classified under the umbrella ‘21st-century skills’ or ‘general capabilities’, is ever increasing. An integrated approach …