Education Commons^™

'Nobody Is Watching But Everything I Do Is Measured': Teacher Accountability, Learner Agency And The Crisis Of Control., Joanne Dargusch, Jennifer Charteris

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

It is widely acknowledged that there is systemic pressure on teachers to enact assessment practices that raise student achievement. In this article assessment related discourses that influence teacher and student classroom practices are examined in relation to initial teacher education. In Australia, preservice teachers (PSTs) are required to demonstrate assessment capability, promote student agency and monitor their practice impact on student learning whilst working in schooling ecologies that are marked by high stakes accountability measures. Processes that bridge university and in-school PST teacher preparation are an important consideration in developing assessment capability. It is argued that there are tensions in …

Is It Worth The Effort? Evaluating A Third Generation Research Method For A Third Generation Approach To The First Year Experience In Higher Education, Trevor S. Black, Romina Jamieson-Proctor

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

: The first year experience of students studying at higher education institutions has been intensively studied over the past forty years (Nelson & Clarke, 2014). Much has been learnt, but institutions are continuing to face unacceptable levels of student withdrawal. Concerns have been raised that the constructs on which previous studies have been based may be restricting researchers’ efforts to develop a deeper understanding of the first year phenomena (Kahu, 2013). There is strong support for new and creative ways to investigate the lived experience of first year students across their full first year of study. This paper details and …

Exploring Teachers’ Assessment Literacy: Impact On Learners’ Writing Achievements And Implications For Teacher Development, Morteza Mellati, Marzieh Khademi

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher-mediated classroom assessment might have significant impacts on learners’ academic achievements and teachers’ development. The current study investigated teachers’ assessment literacy and its impact on their current assessment practices and learners’ writing outcomes. The study sought to gain an understanding of the extent to which teachers’ assessment literacy affects their practices and their learners’ outcomes. To conduct the study and gather the required data, the researchers employed teachers’ assessment literacy inventory, semi-structured interview, non-participatory observation, and Writing Competence Rating Scale (WCRS). Ten male EFL instructors and 75 male sophomores from Iranian EFL contexts were selected from four language schools in …

Education For Sustainability Policies: Ramifications For Practice, Deborah Moore, Sylvia Christine Almeida, Melissa M. Barnes

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

While it is well understood there is an urgent need to address global environmental problems, there is less understanding around how these problems can be addressed. At each level of government, policy is initiated as a response to a perceived problem. However, research has shown governmental policies are overly generalised which creates a universal approach, with little regard for contextual difference. This paper seeks to push back against unspoken assumptions surrounding Education for Sustainability (EfS) policy processes from development to implementation, showing that context is important in the interpretation of policy. Through a mixed method survey, the findings illustrate how …

Comparative Pairs Judgements For High-Stakes Practical Assessments, Hendrati Nastiti

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Assessment of practical tasks, as opposed to that of theoretical tasks, has been considered to be problematic, mainly because it is usually resource intensive and the scoring is subjective. Most practical tasks need to be assessed on site or involve products that need to be collected, stored, or transported. Moreover, because practical tasks are generally open-ended, and therefore subjective, there is concern over the reliability of the scores. In high-stakes assessment, these problems are even more challenging. There is a need for an assessment method that could overcome these problems. In this study, such a method that will be referred …

Integrated Co-Professional Evaluation? Converging Approaches To School Evaluation Across Frontiers, Martin Brown, Gerry Mcnamara, Joe Ohara, Shivaun O'Brien, Jerich Faddar, Cornelius Young

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper posits that almost all inspectorates are now following, if to varying degrees, a similar overarching ideology and methodology for school accountability and improvement. The first part of the paper provides an analysis of recent changes to school inspection policies across Frontiers. Using Ireland as a case example, the next part of the paper provides an analysis of Irish school inspection policies and practices that appear to mirror other school inspection systems. To test these assumptions, the paper then provides an analysis of a key informant interview with the Chief Inspector of schools in Ireland.

The evidence suggests that …

Australian Teacher Education Policy In Action: The Case Of Pre-Service Internships., Susan Ledger, Lesley Vidovich

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Studies on internships within initial teacher education have existed in literature since the early 1900s, they have espoused the benefits of experiential learning or critiqued the variance available in terms of structure, length of time and purpose. However, little research on teacher internships has been reported within a policy context. This study employs a modified ‘policy trajectory’ framework to capture the impact of teacher internship models emerging from policy reform in Australia driven by the National Partnership Agreement on Improving Teacher Quality Program (NPTQ). It highlights how policy contexts and practices are inextricably interconnected and influenced by key policy ‘threads’ …