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Full-Text Articles in Education
Student Drawings: An Ai-Eschewed Means To Show Curriculum-Based Change, Anne Knowles
Student Drawings: An Ai-Eschewed Means To Show Curriculum-Based Change, Anne Knowles
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
This poster focuses on the use of drawings as a way to illustrate change. It presents research undertaken in the Pacific Group of Christian Schools (PGCS) exploring how supplementing curriculums with Personal Viewpoints Pedagogy (PVP) practices has led to change in self-prioritisation which positively influences prosocial behaviour. This Poster reports the use of student representations of thinking through drawings to provide evidence of this change. It shows that student-generated drawings could be used to gauge other-focused thinking, represented as self-conceit, conditional, unconditional, and sacrificial choices in response to socially problematic situations. Learner-generated drawings are a non-textual format offering a window …
Research Conference 2023: Becoming Lifelong Learners. Proceedings And Program, Kylie Burns (Ed.)
Research Conference 2023: Becoming Lifelong Learners. Proceedings And Program, Kylie Burns (Ed.)
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
We know learning in the early years sets the foundations for people’s ongoing academic, cognitive and socio-emotional development. Education across those formative first 12 years is currently segmented, with children often starting fresh in new systems. How can each of us make learning in the early childhood and primary years more effective? Research Conference 2023 will examine research around how we can improve the continuity of learning from birth to 12 years. It will bring together leading international and Australian researchers to provide insights into the best ways to identify, conceptualise, develop and assess these new linkages for learning.
Assessing Reading: How Assessment Can Be Used To Target Teaching And Enhance Understanding Of Reading Comprehension, Sandra Knowles
Assessing Reading: How Assessment Can Be Used To Target Teaching And Enhance Understanding Of Reading Comprehension, Sandra Knowles
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
The skills demonstrated by a proficient reader are not easy to untangle. Current research acknowledges that reading comprehension is a highly complex area of ability, one that needs to be understood as the coordination of several integrated processes. Using example test questions and data, this presentation explores how assessment can help us make sense of reading comprehension in a way that curricula and commonly used teaching strategies cannot. Assessment is evidence that informs us about the skills involved in the reading process, how they relate to each other, and how they develop in complexity. When assessment is understood in this …
Assessment Moderation: Is It Fit For Purpose?, Lenore Adie
Assessment Moderation: Is It Fit For Purpose?, Lenore Adie
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
This presentation outlines the different practices and purposes of assessment moderation and analyses the benefits and issues of these. Two projects are presented; each seeks to improve teacher judgement. Both attempt to redefine what we mean by moderation and how moderation can be conducted to reach diverse and dispersed groups. The first draws on a current Australian Research Council project that is exploring the development of scaled exemplars, the use of commentaries of judgement decisions, and the use of digital platforms to support teachers grading student work. The second draws on the work of the Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment (GTPA) …
The Transformational Change Of Adaptive Assessment, Jarrod Hingston, Toby Newton
The Transformational Change Of Adaptive Assessment, Jarrod Hingston, Toby Newton
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
Organisational change theory often discusses the differences between adaptive change and transformational change; adaptive change being the process of incremental shifts that are intended to drive improvement, while transformational change requires major alterations in processes. In 2019, ACER embarked on a mission to develop a new adaptive testing and reporting system, with the goal of delivering an assessment that would improve the precision of results for every student. While the intention was to introduce an adaptive change in the assessments, the project truly transformed the way that ACER delivers assessments and reports results, a result recognised by the project being …
An Innovative Method For Teachers To Formatively Assess Writing Online, Dr Sandy Heldsinger, Stephen Humphry
An Innovative Method For Teachers To Formatively Assess Writing Online, Dr Sandy Heldsinger, Stephen Humphry
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
Assessment is an integral component of effective teaching and a teacher’s professional judgement influences all routine aspects of their work. In the last 20 years, there has been considerable work internationally to support teachers in using assessment to improve student learning. However, there is a pressing issue that impedes teacher professional judgement being exploited to its full potential. The issue relates to teacher assessments in the context of extended performances such as essays and arises from the complexity of obtaining reliable or consistent teacher assessments of students’ work. Literature published in the United States, England and Australia details evidence of …
Reimagining Classroom Assessment And Feedback To Meet Learner Needs, Fabienne Van Der Kleij
Reimagining Classroom Assessment And Feedback To Meet Learner Needs, Fabienne Van Der Kleij
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
The power of classroom assessment and feedback to improve student learning outcomes has long been recognised. Yet, decades of research have yielded disappointing and often conflicting outcomes. This presentation challenges traditional conceptions of classroom assessment and feedback as teacher-driven practices. To meet learner needs better, it proposes a student-centred perspective in which students are active and have agency. By drawing on an extensive study of feedback reviews, this presentation illustrates how conceptualisations of feedback have changed over recent decades. This paper provides key insights into how classroom assessment and feedback practices can be changed in ways that are sustainable, afford …
Reimagining The Purpose Of Assessment, Geoff N. Masters
Reimagining The Purpose Of Assessment, Geoff N. Masters
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
Assessment is commonly understood as the process of judging how well students have learnt what they have been taught. It comes at the end of a sequence that begins with a curriculum or course syllabus. Teachers are expected to deliver this body of specified content, students are expected to learn it, and assessment is the process of judging and grading students on how well they have learnt what teachers have taught. This is a common view of assessment among students, parents and many teachers. I will argue in this presentation that this traditional understanding of what it means to learn …
Research Conference 2022: Reimagining Assessment: Proceedings And Program, Kylie Burns (Ed.)
Research Conference 2022: Reimagining Assessment: Proceedings And Program, Kylie Burns (Ed.)
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
The focus of this year’s Research Conference is on the use of assessment to support improved teaching and learning. The conference is titled ‘reimagining assessment’ because we believe there is a need to transform the essential purposes of educational assessment to provide better information about the deep conceptual learning, skills, competencies, and personal attributes that teachers and schools now have as objectives for student learning and development. Reimagined assessments must now be focused on monitoring learning across this broader range of intended outcomes and provide quality information about the points individuals have reached in their long-term development.
The Swans/Ables Project: A Set Of Resources Developed Collaboratively With Teachers To Support The Teaching And Learning Of Students With Additional Learning Needs, Toshiko Kamei
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
The inclusion of students with additional learning needs in schooling is part of policy and practice in Australia. However, it has been well documented that teachers lack the resources and training to meaningfully include students with additional learning needs in the full range of learning in their classrooms. The SWANs (Students with Additional Needs) program of work aimed to fill this gap through developing assessments based on learning progressions to provide targeted information to support the teaching and learning of all students, including students with additional learning needs. The development and implementation of the SWANs/ABLES suite of resources illustrates how …
Rethinking Measurement For Accountable Assessment, Mark Wilson
Rethinking Measurement For Accountable Assessment, Mark Wilson
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
The underlying model for most formal educational measurement (e.g. standardised tests) is based on a very simple model: the student takes a test (possibly alongside other students). The complications of there being an instructional plan, actual instruction, interpretation of the outcome, and formulation of next steps, are all bypassed in considering how to model the process of measurement. There are some standard exceptions, of course: a pre-test/post-test context will involve two measurements, and attention to gain score, or similar. However, if we wish to design measurement to hold to Lehrer’s (2021) definition of ‘accountable assessment’ – as ‘actionable information for …
Applying Empirical Learning Progressions For A Holistic Approach To Evidence-Based Education: Swans/Ables, Emily White
Applying Empirical Learning Progressions For A Holistic Approach To Evidence-Based Education: Swans/Ables, Emily White
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
Learning progressions have become an increasing topic of interest for researchers, educational organisations and schools as they can describe the expected pathway of learning within a content area to allow for targeted teaching and learning at all levels of ability. However, there is substantial variation in how learning progressions are developed and to what extent teachers can use them to inform their practices. The ABLES/SWANS tools (Students with Additional Needs/Abilities Based Learning and Education Support) are an example of how an empirical learning progression can be applied to support teachers’ ability to not only target teaching to a student’s zone …
Learning Progressions As Models And Tools For Supporting Classroom Assessment, Alicia C. Alonzo
Learning Progressions As Models And Tools For Supporting Classroom Assessment, Alicia C. Alonzo
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
Like all models, learning progressions (LPs) provide simplified representations of complex phenomena. One key simplification is the characterisation of student thinking in terms of levels. This characterisation is both essential for large-scale applications, such as informing standards, but potentially problematic for smaller-scale applications. In this paper, I describe a program of research designed to explore the smaller-scale use of LPs as supports for teacher classroom assessment practices in light of this simplification. Based on this research, I conclude that LP levels may serve as a generative heuristic, particularly when teachers are engaged with evidence of the limitations of LP levels …
Developing An Assessment Of Oral Language And Literacy: Measuring Growth In The Early Years, Dan Cloney, Kellie Picker
Developing An Assessment Of Oral Language And Literacy: Measuring Growth In The Early Years, Dan Cloney, Kellie Picker
2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences
Children develop rapidly in their early years. A crucial component of this development is a child’s ability to learn and use language. Even before they enter formal education, children have learned much about oral language and literacy through meaningful interactions with others, and from their life experiences. Children, however, do not develop at the same pace – some children arrive in early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs more advanced while others require additional support. Recent reviews of the assessment tools available to ECEC educators show a lack of good quality measurement and a reliance on checklist style inventories or …
How Teachers Engage With Student Assessment Data: Understanding Antecedents To Data-Driven Decision Making, Cynthia P. Raffe, Dennis Alonzo, University Of New South Wales
How Teachers Engage With Student Assessment Data: Understanding Antecedents To Data-Driven Decision Making, Cynthia P. Raffe, Dennis Alonzo, University Of New South Wales
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
In recent years, education systems internationally have been encouraging data-use initiatives with the aim of improving student learning through data-driven decision making (DDDM). The use of student assessment data in particular has been promoted to guide teaching practices and progress student learning. Despite this, the adoption of data-use practices by New South Wales classroom teachers has been slow. The study qualitatively examined two core foundational activities that affect New South Wales classroom teachers’ use of student assessment data, referred to as assessment data collection (ADC) practices, and assessment data analysis (ADA) practices. Specifically, the study sought to answer: What are …
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.
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 …
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 …
Communicating Student Learning Progress: What Does That Mean And Can It Make A Difference?, Hilary Hollingsworth, Jonathan Heard
Communicating Student Learning Progress: What Does That Mean And Can It Make A Difference?, Hilary Hollingsworth, Jonathan Heard
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
Traditionally in schools, the main method of communicating students’ academic performance has been the summative end-of-semester report, and the focus of much of this communication has centred on reporting achievement against year-level standards. While semester reporting largely remains established practice, the advent of new school management systems has seen schools embrace a practice known as ‘continuous reporting’. Though well-intended, early analysis would suggest that the potential benefits of this relatively new process are inconsistently understood, and reveal a confusion between progressive instalments of feedback versus feedback on student progress. Such confusion may be indicative of other gaps in the organisational …
Assessing General Capabilities, Julian Fraillon, Juliette Mendelovits
Assessing General Capabilities, Julian Fraillon, Juliette Mendelovits
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
There is growing interest in general capabilities and cross-curricular learning outcomes such as literacy in information and communication technologies, creative thinking and collaborative and individual problem-solving. As the expectation for such competencies to be taught in schools has increased, so has the need for teachers and schools to validly and reliably assess student learning in those areas, and to report on them in ways that teaching and learning. In this presentation examine the challenges of assessing on student learning and learning growth capabilities and cross-curricular learning present approaches used in research some of these challenges and reflect can be applied …
Acer Research Conference Proceedings (2015), Acer
Acer Research Conference Proceedings (2015), Acer
2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences
It is indeed timely that Research Conference 2015 addresses the theme Learning Assessments: Designing the future. It is six years since our Research Conference considered issues in assessment, and the landscape is being significantly transformed. Not only is Australia’s school curriculum changing, but related issues of teaching quality and assessment practice are hot topics here and in many other countries. This transforming landscape includes changes in thinking about the fundamental purposes of assessment; growing demands for the assessment of a broader range of student skills and capabilities; and new technologies that allow us to gather and visualise information about student …