Education Commons^™

Towards A Growth Mindset In Assessment, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

National School Improvement Tool, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Research is revealing the powerful impact that school leadership teams can have in improving the quality of teaching and learning. Effective leaders create cultures of high expectations, provide clarity about what teachers are to teach and students are to learn, establish strong professional learning communities and lead ongoing efforts to improve teaching practices. The National School Improvement Tool brings together findings from international research into the practices of highly effective schools and school leaders. The Tool assists schools to review and reflect on their efforts to improve the quality of classroom teaching and learning. It supports school-wide conversations – including …

Measuring Progress, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Geoff Masters discusses the need for a system of educational assessment that provides long-term pictures of student progress.

Understanding The Brain, And Learning About Learning, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

Education Assessment In The 21st Century, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

The author argues that there is a need for significant reform in educational assessment. Instead of judging student success only in terms of year-level expectations, assessment needs to recognise the progress that all students can make in their learning, regardless of students' starting points.

Reforming Educational Assessment: Imperatives, Principles And Challenges, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

AER 57 reviews research into assessment, especially in schools; it analyses the pivotal role of assessment in learning and argues for its reconceptualisation by practitioners and policy makers to better support learning. The genesis of this AER was the ACER Research Conference Assessment and Student Learning: Collecting, interpreting and using data to inform teaching, held in Perth in August 2009. Section 1 outlines some current pressures for assessment reform, introduces the concept of a learning assessment system designed to establish where learners are in their progress within an empirically mapped domain of learning, and sketches a set of design principles …

Enhancing The Quality Of Teaching And Learning In Australian Schools : Submission To The Senate Inquiry On Teaching And Learning (Maximising Our Investment In Australian Schools), Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

International research identifies several steps that governments can take to enhance the quality of teaching and learning, and thus levels of student achievement and wellbeing, in primary and secondary schools. The steps are: 1. Restrict and raise the quality of student intakes to teacher education 2. Set and confirm the achievement of minimum standards for registration 3. Recognise and reward the development of specialist knowledge and skill

School Improvement, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Improving our national educational performance depends on ensuring high quality leadership and effective classroom teaching in all Australian schools, as Geoff Masters explains.

Put Assessment Reform In The Must-Do Basket, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

The reform of assessment thinking and practice has the potential to lead and drive improvements in teaching and learning, but assessment reform is likely to be difficult without broader educational reforms. For example, assessment to establish where individuals are in their learning is largely pointless if teachers intend to deliver exactly the same content to all students in a class regardless of their current levels of achievement.

Adaptive Testing For Psychological Assessment: How Many Items Are Enough To Run An Adaptive Testing Algorithm?, Michaela Wagner-Menghin, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Although the principles of adaptive testing were established in the psychometric literature many years ago (e.g., Weiss, 1977), and practice of adaptive testing is established in educational assessment, it is not yet widespread in psychological assessment. One obstacle to adaptive psychological testing is a lack of clarity about the necessary number of items to run an adaptive algorithm. The study explores the relationship between item bank size, test length and measurement precision. Simulated adaptive test runs (allowing a maximum of 30 items per person) out of an item bank with 10 items per ability level (covering .5 logits, 150 items …

Pm's Education Goals Mired In Underachievement, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

International test results released this week highlight the magnitude of the challenge we face in raising the level of educational achievement in Australia. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) add to the publicly available information about how students in our schools are performing. The results include the first data on how reading levels in Australian primary schools compare with standards in other countries.

Specifying And Assessing Knowledge And Skills For Life, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

In my presentation to this year’s Research Conference I will be taking as my starting point the proposition that a fundamental purpose of schooling is to provide every student with knowledge and skills to equip them for life beyond school. While acknowledging that schooling has broader purposes, I will argue that there are some fundamental understandings and skills that all students should develop during their school years, and that every student should be expected to demonstrate an acceptable level of these skills and understandings by the time they leave school.

Raising Standards : A Shared Challenge, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Geoff Masters outlines his recommendations to improve literacy, numeracy and science learning in Queensland primary schools.

Continuity And Growth : Key Considerations In Educational Improvement And Accountability., Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

The author first discusses traditional styles of curriculum delivery, commenting on the characteristics of 'annual packages', where students are taught and expected to learn curriculum content that is common to those in their current grade. He then comments on various ways in which students are currently organised and taught in attempts to overcome the limitations of grouping by age/grade, and uses examples from research to evaluate the relative effectiveness. He addresses a range of significant issues, including conditions for learning, classroom structures and standards-based reforms, before looking at some of the possibilities for improved practice in future. These include an …

Using Research To Advance Professional Practice, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This paper discusses quality in professional practice - whether as an engineer, accountant or orthopaedic surgeon - and how it depends on expert knowledge of the field, a deep understanding of underlying principles, accumulated experience in the practice of the profession, a familiarity with recent advances in the professional knowledge base, and mastery of the best available techniques and tools. Teaching qualifies as a profession to the extent that it requires the application of specialised knowledge and skill developed through research and high-level education and training. Quality in teaching practice depends on familiarity with recent advances in the professional knowledge …

Conceptualising And Researching Student Wellbeing, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Schools have always seen it as part of their role to support and encourage children's all-round development, including their cognitive, interpersonal, social, aesthetic, physical and moral/spiritual growth. Beyond the academic, schools have been committed to children's general wellbeing; in seeing children develop into well-rounded, healthy individuals who can take their place as informed, principled and engaged members of society. In fulfilling this role, schools have worked alongside and complemented families, churches and other institutions in the community. In recent years, Australian schools and education systems have made efforts to clarify the broad purposes of schooling and to introduce ways of …

Restoring Our Edge In Education, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Much of what is required to improve the quality of Australian school education is widely understood and agreed, as Professor Geoff Masters explains. The levels of educational attainment of Australian students will play a key role in the outcome of future individual, social and economic prosperity. Individuals benefit from high levels of education and training, which increase individuals’ ability to secure meaningful work, earn more, and break cycles of disadvantage. Society as a whole benefits from high levels of education and training, which are related to better health, family functioning and children’s wellbeing, less violent crime, and even a cleaner …

Review Of The Examination Processes For Membership And Fellowship Of The Australian College Of Veterinary Scientists, Gabrielle Matters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This paper deals with examinations administered by the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists (ACVSc) (herein referred to as ‘the College’) to veterinarians at two levels – membership and fellowship. Membership examinations are set at a level that denotes an above-average level of expertise of the candidate in a particular field, signifying advisory status but no specialist status. Fellowship examinations are set at a very high standard and are intended to signify specialist status. The system of examinations administered by the College involves two components –written and oral/practical. Candidates, for both memberships and fellowships, sit the written examination in early June …

Australian Certificate Of Education: Exploring A Way Forward, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Geoff Masters explains why Australia needs greater national consistency in senior school certificates and how an Australian Certificate of Education would likely benefit all Australian students.

Using The Partial Credit Model To Identify And Adjust For Differences Among Assessors, Geoff Masters, Siek Khoo

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

Profiles Of Learning: The Basic Skills Testing Program In New South Wales: 1989, Geoff Masters, Jan Lokan, Brian Doig, Siek Khoo, John Lindsey, Lynette Robinson, Susan Zammit

Prof Geoff Masters AO

The 1989 Basic Skills Testing Program in New South Wales provides the most comprehensive picture yet compiled of literacy and numeracy learning in Australian primary schools. In 1989, some 53,800 Year 6 students in NSW government schools were tested in five aspects of literacy and numeracy. Another 2,300 Year 3 students took part in a pilot study. This book discusses the writing of the tests, the analysis of results, and the reporting of results to parents, teachers and schools. The aim of the basic skills tests is to describe, in positive terms, the skills that students have mastered, to identify …

Continual Improvement Through Aligned Effort, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Keynote 1 - A framework for school improvement

The Contribution Of Iea Research Studies To Australian Education, John Ainley, John Keeves, Jan Lokan, Petra Lietz, Geoff Masters, Sue Thomson

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This chapter is concerned with the contribution of the research studies conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) to Australian education. During a period of 50 years education across the world has undergone a remarkable transformation. Many of the changes that have occurred have been initiated by the United Nations Organization and its agen¬cies, particularly UNESCO. From its origins within the UNESCO Institute in Hamburg, IEA and its programs have evolved to develop the worldwide conduct of research in education both through the undertaking and reporting of studies as well as the informal training of …

Improving Educational Outcomes In The Northern Territory : Preliminary Advice To The Northern Territory Department Of Education And Training, With A Particular Focus On The Ongoing Improvement Of Students’ Literacy And Numeracy Achievements, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

The primary focus of this review is on strategies for improving literacy and numeracy outcomes in the Northern Territory. Clearly, the role of school education is much broader than the development of students literacy and numeracy skills, but these are foundational skills on which almost all other school learning is based. It is also clear from research that low levels of literacy and numeracy by the middle years of school are associated with lower school completion rates and a range of post-school outcomes, including higher levels of unemployment, lower lifetime earnings, and poorer health outcomes. Although the primary focus of …

Conceptual Understanding In History - How Do We Develop It?, Brian Doig, K Piper, Suzanne Mellor, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

This is a reprint of the findings for history of a 1992 survey carried out by the Australian Council for Educational Research, published in 1994. It looked at 2900 students in Victorian schools at Years 5 and 9, and assessed their geographical, historical, cultural and political understandings based on a set of tasks. The reports of the findings for history teachers are dramatically important.

The Science Of Learning, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Geoff Masters explains how an emerging field of research called the science of learning is improving our understanding of how students learn.

Measuring And Rewarding School Improvement, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

There is now a widely held view that the most effective strategy for improving countries’ educational performances is to improve the day-to-day work of schools. This view follows several decades of significant increases in government expenditure on school education in developed countries, often with little or no accompanying evidence of improvements in the quality or equity of educational provision. A number of countries have introduced incentives – both rewards and sanctions – in an attempt to ‘drive’ improvements in the work of schools. Many of these incentive schemes have followed the model adopted in business of specifying and measuring desired …

Naplan And My School : Shedding Some Light On A Work In Progress, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Debate about NAPLAN and the My School website has generated plenty of heat. Geoff Masters casts some light on what is essentially a work In progress.

An Investigation Of The Stability Of A Literacy Variable Over Time: Implications For Standards Monitoring, Siek Khoo, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

Conceptual Understanding In Social Education, Brian Doig, K Piper, Suzanne Mellor, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Part of the Victorian Social Education Achievement Study commissioned by the Victorian Ministry of Education.

(Research monograph n.45)