Education Commons^™

Review Recommends Tertiary Entrance Changes, Geoff N. Masters, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

A review by Gabrielle Matters and Geoff Masters of senior assessment and tertiary selection processes in Queensland has recommended changes to meet future education needs.

A New Deal For End-Of-School Assessment, Geoff N. Masters, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

What Do You Do As An Educational Leader In The Conceptual Age? Purpose Paper “Assessment: Quo Vadis?”, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

Using Data To Support Learning In Schools: Students, Teachers, Systems, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

AER 49 examines the issues raised by the ACER Research Conference 2005: Using Data to Support Learning. It analyses the conference papers, distils the essence of the conference 'conversations', and contextualises them in the light of a survey of the broader Australian and international literature on using data to support learning. Section 1 sets the context by providing definitions and an organisational framework. Section 2 discusses some purposes for collecting and analysing educational data, and considers the role of data in professional work. It addresses issues associated with identifying potential data sources, including consideration of the decision-making required to locate …

Development And Implementation Of The Queensland Government’S Teaching And Learning Audits, Gabrielle Matters, Yvana Jones

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

New Zealand And Queensland Teachers' Conceptions Of Curriculum : Potential Jurisdictional Effects Of Curriculum Policy And Implementation, Gavin Brown, Robert Lake, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

The conceptions teachers have about curriculum are part of teachers' implicit beliefs about education. The study investigated the structure of teachers’ conceptions and the impact of curriculum policy on those conceptions. Two survey studies in New Zealand and Queensland used items from the Curriculum Orientation Inventory (COI). Confirmatory factor analysis provided robust modelling of teachers’ conceptions of curriculum. Multigroup analysis showed the model was statistically invariant between Queensland primary and secondary teachers. The teachers in both jurisdictions and in both sectors gave most agreement to the Academic-Humanistic conception and least agreement to the Social Reconstruction conception. The technological orientation elicited …

Queensland Teachers’ Conceptions Of Assessment: The Impact Of Policy Priorities On Teacher Attitudes, Gavin Brown, Robert Lake, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

The conceptions Queensland teachers have about assessment purposes were surveyed in 2003 with an abridged version of the Teacher Conceptions of Assessment Inventory. Multi-group analysis found that a model with four factors, somewhat different in structure to previous studies, was statistically different between Queensland primary and (lower) secondary teachers. Primary teachers agreed more than secondary teachers that ‘assessment improves teaching and learning’, while the latter agreed more that it ‘makes students accountable’. The inter-correlation of ‘assessment is irrelevant’ to ‘makes students accountable’ was statistically stronger for primary teachers. Teacher beliefs reflected the differing practices of assessment by level of schooling.

Linking School-Based Assessment With Public Examinations: The Role Of Moderation, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

An Assessment Of Influences, Positive And Negative On Educational Assessment Today, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

Influenced by an approach used in Time magazine, Dr Matters will list the most and least influential ideas in educational assessment. She will also assert that there is little or no evidence that current assessments are assisting students to learn the "big ideas" or things that are intrinsically difficult. This state of affairs can be attributed, at least partially, to the luxury of living in a democracy, the feminisation of education, and the short length of the political cycle.

A Three-Way Classification Of Sources Of Item Difficulty In Tests And Examinations, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

What do test takers mean when they say ‘this item is difficult’? What do test analysts mean when they say ‘this item is difficult’? The answer to the first question comes out of experience. The answer to the second question comes out of empirics. The notion of difficulty covers a considerable diversity of sources, materials and methods. Test analysts seem obliged to collapse all senses of difficulty under one heading and so it might be useful to attempt a classification or typo logy of some of the possible sources of difficulty in test items. This presentation describes such a system …

Interrogating Year 12 Op Data – What Do We Know About Pre-Service Teachers From Year 12 Information (Op, Fps, Qcs) And University Preferences?, Gabrielle Matters, R Lake

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

Australian Certificate Of Education : Exploring A Way Forward, Geoff Masters, Margaret Forster, Gabrielle Matters, Jim Tognolini

Dr Gabrielle Matters

In May 2005 the Department of Education, Science and Training commissioned the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to investigate and report on models and implementation arrangements for an Australian Certificate of Education (ACE). In particular, ACER was asked to investigate four options for the introduction of a new certificate. The current investigation has reviewed existing curriculum, assessment and certification arrangements in the senior years of school in Australia; explored current issues in senior secondary education and examined state and territory responses to these issues; looked at some alternative certification arrangements internationally—including the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program; investigated the use …

Good Data, Bad News, Good Policy Making ..., Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

The New Basics Trial in Queensland (2000 –04) was about improving educational outcomes. At its heart was the idea that, to do this, there must be an orchestration of the message systems of curriculum, teaching and assessment – and that these changes must be in practices, not merely in statements of intention or expectation. This paper spans the trial period (2000 –04) and the immediate post-trial period (2005), showing how research evidence informed policy-making. The New Basics approach (which introduced three suites of Rich Tasks covering three 3-year spans from Year 1 to Year 9) to curriculum, teaching, assessment, reporting, …

Assessment Policy And Practice Effects On New Zealand And Queensland Teachers' Conceptions Of Teaching, Gavin Brown, Robert Lake, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

Teachers' thinking about four conceptions of teaching (i.e., apprenticeship-developmental, nurturing, social reform, and transmission) were captured using the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI). New Zealand and Queensland have very similar teaching-related policies and practices but differences around assessment policies and practices are expected to influence teachers' conceptions of teaching. Results from two surveys (New Zealand primary (n = 241) and Queensland primary (n = 784) and secondary (n = 614) teachers) found acceptably fitting models. TPI models were not invariant between primary and secondary teachers in Queensland while the models for primary teachers in Queensland and New Zealand were partially invariant. …

A New Role For Item Aficionados In High-Stakes Testing Programs, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

The purpose of this paper is to point teachers, test analysts, and users of test results to the significance of student responses at the item level and considering what it is that each item purports to measure and actually measures before taking the evidence of a low score on a test − just a score derived from a collection of items − and coming to the seemingly obvious but not necessarily accurate conclusion that the student has no knowledge or understanding of the domain being tested. An item aficionado does not approach test items and test results at the level …

Realising And Releasing Potential: Externally Moderated School-Based Assessment 40 Years On, Claire Wyatt-Smith, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

Standards-Based Assessment, Statistical And Social Moderation, And Issues Of Combining, Scaling And Ranking, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

The Rich Task Approach To Curriculum, Pedagogy And Assessment – Unpalatable Research Findings And Beyond, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

The Pressure For Change: The Queensland Response, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

Comparative Analysis Of The International Baccalaureate (Ib) Diploma And The Australian States’ Curriculum, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

What Is New In Assessment Land?, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

Development Of An Assessment Model To Support The Technical Specifications And Proposals For The Review Of The Syllabuses For The Senior Phase Of Learning, Gabrielle Matters, Claire Wyatt-Smith

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

Taking A Position On Standards: Paper Prepared For The Qcar Project, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

Queensland Studies Authority

Curriculum For The Future, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Assessment In The Senior Sciences In Queensland, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

No abstract provided.

A Report To The Queensland Studies Authority : Assessment Approaches In Queensland Senior Science Syllabuses, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

This commissioned paper deals with appropriate assessment in senior science subjects in Queensland. The terms of reference were: To investigate the theoretical underpinnings of the two approaches to criteria-based and standards-referenced assessment in the Queensland senior science syllabuses; To make recommendations as to which approach is the more applicable in the current context; and To model the proposed approach, and provide advice about implementation.

Effective Practice In Assessment, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

Designing Assessment Tasks For Deep Thinking, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

I want to present some ideas about how a valid and reliable process for assessing deep thinking is not a function of the assessment regime (such as external or internal, standardised or teacher-devised), but is actually a product of the successful application of certain design criteria and the interplay of three essential elements. The argument I present rests on one simple belief that I hold: the capacity to design good assessment tasks is a vital part of an extensive professional repertoire and, as such, demands space and time, ritual and respect. (Teacher–assessors should not let anybody tell them that designing …

The Grading Master : A Simpler Way, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

Variations On A Theme By Paganini, Gabrielle Matters

Dr Gabrielle Matters

Curriculum debates tend to get mired in binary opposition: disciplinary versus interdisciplinary, skill versus project, cultural transmission versus critical analysis. This is not surprising, given the ostensibly competing moves towards national curriculum consistency on the one hand, and attempts to streamline, integrate and reconceptualise core curriculum on the other. The real issues, however, are far more substantial, and at once quite simple. This brief article picks up on some of them, and reports from the work of the Queensland New Basics project on some ideas that might help moving beyond binary opposition. This can be achieved by framing knowledge around …