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Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

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Articles 661 - 690 of 1793

Full-Text Articles in Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

Monitoring Trends In Educational Growth: Assessment Framework For Afghanistan, Acer Centre For Global Education Monitoring (Acer-Gem) Jan 2016

Monitoring Trends In Educational Growth: Assessment Framework For Afghanistan, Acer Centre For Global Education Monitoring (Acer-Gem)

Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG)

The Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) program aims to achieve the breadth and rigour of large-scale international surveys while also addressing the unique needs and context of Afghanistan. The MTEG program will provide an ongoing measure of students’ educational progress at key stages of learning: middle primary school (Class 3), towards the end of primary school (Class 6), and towards the end of compulsory secondary schooling (Class 9). This MTEG assessment framework provides a statement and discussion about what the assessment intends to measure and lays out the principles upon which it has been built. It outlines an approach …

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Pisa For Development Technical Strand A: Enhancement Of Pisa Cognitive Instruments, Ray J. Adams, John Cresswell Jan 2016

Pisa For Development Technical Strand A: Enhancement Of Pisa Cognitive Instruments, Ray J. Adams, John Cresswell

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

The OECD is planning to enhance existing PISA assessment instruments in reading, mathematics and science so that they will be more suitable to the context of developing countries. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the main technical issues associated with this aim. The paper reports detailed analysis of the existing PISA item pool and its suitability for countries which have students of average limited capacity. The paper cautions that the fit of developing country data to the PISA model is not good and that modifications to address some of the deviations should be explored. The use of …

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A Global Measure Of Digital And Ict Literacy Skills, John Ainley, Wolfram Schulz, Julian Fraillon Jan 2016

A Global Measure Of Digital And Ict Literacy Skills, John Ainley, Wolfram Schulz, Julian Fraillon

ICT - Digital Literacy

Digital and ICT literacy is considered an important competence for full participation in a knowledge economy and an information society. Consequently, interest at national and international level has emerged to explore the best ways of measuring the extent to which, and how equitably, competence in this area is being achieved. This paper reviews the definitions of digital and ICT literacy that have been adopted in cross-national studies, investigates the approaches to the assessment of digital and ICT literacy that have been employed in those studies and articulates the criteria that should guide the development of a global measure of digital …

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Population Definitions For Comparative Surveys In Education, Martin Murphy Jan 2016

Population Definitions For Comparative Surveys In Education, Martin Murphy

Assessment and Reporting

This paper provides an overview of population definitions for large-scale comparative educational surveys. It has been prepared to help inform the development of a population definition and sampling framework that will be used in the British Council Global English research project. This paper examines a number of large-scale surveys including the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which is conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), as well as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO), both of which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation …

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Infographic: Ict Skills And Student Self-Efficacy, Jo Earp Dec 2015

Infographic: Ict Skills And Student Self-Efficacy, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

How confident do Australian Year 10 students feel when doing ICT-related tasks? Today’s infographic explores.

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Australian Child Wellbeing Project Technical Report, Petra Lietz, Elizabeth O'Grady, Mollie Tobin, Martin Murphy, Greg Macaskill, Gerry Redmond, Katherine Dix, Sue Thomson Dec 2015

Australian Child Wellbeing Project Technical Report, Petra Lietz, Elizabeth O'Grady, Mollie Tobin, Martin Murphy, Greg Macaskill, Gerry Redmond, Katherine Dix, Sue Thomson

Wellbeing

The Australian Child Wellbeing Project (ACWP) was conducted from 2012 – 2015 using a mixed-methods, child-centred approach. Young people’s perspectives were used to inform a nationally representative survey of children’s wellbeing in the middle years. The aims of the ACWP survey were to benchmark child wellbeing in Australia and to provide useful information for services that promote young people’s healthy development. A final outcome of this project was to make the extensive ACWP database publically available in order to provide further opportunity to exploit the rich data and improve understanding. Accordingly, this technical report consolidates the research conducted by ACER …

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National Learning And Teaching Resource Audit And Classification Final Report, Philip Hider, Barney Dalgarno, Sue Bennett, Ying-Hsang Liu, Carole Gerts, Carla Daws, Barbara Spiller, Pru Mitchell, Robert Parkes, Raylee Macaulay Dec 2015

National Learning And Teaching Resource Audit And Classification Final Report, Philip Hider, Barney Dalgarno, Sue Bennett, Ying-Hsang Liu, Carole Gerts, Carla Daws, Barbara Spiller, Pru Mitchell, Robert Parkes, Raylee Macaulay

Information Management

The Australian Office for Learning and Teaching's (OLT) research repository is used to disseminate the results of higher education research. This is the final report of a project that investigated how the resources in the research repository should be described and indexed so that they could be accessed more effectively. The project team ascertained which attributes of the resources needed to be described and how they should be described, developed a metadata schema, selected and/or created appropriate indexing vocabularies and reindexed the resources.

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Researcher Mobility Workshop Report: Researcher Mobility Among Apec Economies, Sarah Richardson, Julie Mcmillan, Ren Yi Dec 2015

Researcher Mobility Workshop Report: Researcher Mobility Among Apec Economies, Sarah Richardson, Julie Mcmillan, Ren Yi

Higher education research

There is growing acknowledgement around the world that contemporary research is increasingly – and needs to be – international. In a globalised world common problems can only be solved through the sharing of expertise and pooling of resources. At the same time, research developments are critical in stimulating economic growth in knowledge economies. Ensuring that researchers can access best practice through international research collaboration is essential in facilitating innovation. Policies and structures can go a long way to supporting increased international research collaboration. Online communication technologies have become a vital part of researcher mobility, enabling researchers to unite in conducting …

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Infographic: Teaching Hours, Jo Earp Nov 2015

Infographic: Teaching Hours, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

How does Australia compare with other countries when it comes to the number of teaching hours in primary, lower secondary and upper secondary? Find out in today's infographic.

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Infographic: Teaching Hours - Part 2, Jo Earp Nov 2015

Infographic: Teaching Hours - Part 2, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

In the second part of Teacher's infographic on teaching hours, we look at how the United Kingdom compares with other countries when it comes to the number of teaching hours in primary, lower secondary and upper secondary.

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A 21st Century Curriculum, Geoff N. Masters Ao Nov 2015

A 21st Century Curriculum, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

One of the biggest challenges we face in school education is to identify and develop the knowledge, skills and attributes required for life and work in the 21st Century, writes Professor Geoff Masters AO.

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Infographic: Formats Of Writing Outside School, Danielle Meloney Nov 2015

Infographic: Formats Of Writing Outside School, Danielle Meloney

Teacher infographics

What do children and young people most commonly write outside school time? The National Literacy Trust UK recently explored.

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Agpt Registrar Satisfaction Survey November 2015, Rebecca Taylor, Ali Radloff, Jennifer Hong, Daniel Edwards Nov 2015

Agpt Registrar Satisfaction Survey November 2015, Rebecca Taylor, Ali Radloff, Jennifer Hong, Daniel Edwards

Higher education research

The Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) Registrar Satisfaction Survey (RSS) is used for ensuring continuous improvement in the training of doctors in the AGPT program. It was developed to gauge the level of registrar satisfaction with the quality of their training, with training providers, and with career progression.

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Literature Review Relating To The Current Context And Discourse On Indigenous Cultural Awareness In The Teaching Space: Critical Pedagogies And Improving Indigenous Learning Outcomes Through Cultural Responsiveness, Jacynta Krakouer Nov 2015

Literature Review Relating To The Current Context And Discourse On Indigenous Cultural Awareness In The Teaching Space: Critical Pedagogies And Improving Indigenous Learning Outcomes Through Cultural Responsiveness, Jacynta Krakouer

Indigenous Education Research

This literature review seeks to provide an overview of current understandings and discourse about culturally responsive teaching and cultural awareness in education in Australia. Although some of the literature considered within this review is from an international perspective, the purpose of this review is to provide background information regarding culturally responsive teaching with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. This literature review was completed in a short time frame and is by no means exhaustive on the topic of culturally responsive teaching and cultural awareness with Indigenous students. It was completed as part of a contract with the VET Development …

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National Assessment Program : Ict Literacy Years 6 & 10 Report 2014, Julian Fraillon, Wolfram Schulz, Eveline Gebhardt, John Ainley Nov 2015

National Assessment Program : Ict Literacy Years 6 & 10 Report 2014, Julian Fraillon, Wolfram Schulz, Eveline Gebhardt, John Ainley

ICT - Digital Literacy

Literacy in information and communication technology (ICT) is critical to students as they progress through schooling and enter a world in which information technology will be ubiquitous. Work, health care, family finances, learning and social interaction will all depend on competence in ICT. To assess progress in this crucial part of student learning, ACARA conducts a National Assessment Program (NAP) aimed at measuring ICT literacy. Every three years since 2005, a sample of Year 6 and Year 10 students from across Australia have been tested to determine their ICT knowledge, understanding and skills and their ability to use ICT creatively, …

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Reducing Disparities Between Australian Schools, Geoff N. Masters Ao Oct 2015

Reducing Disparities Between Australian Schools, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

According to Professor Geoff Masters AO, one of the biggest challenges we face in school education is to reduce current disparities in the schooling experiences of students in Australia’s most and least advantaged schools

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Infographic: Educational Philanthropy, Jo Earp Sep 2015

Infographic: Educational Philanthropy, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

Is there a disconnect when it comes to the areas that schools, non-profits and philanthropics are keen to focus on? Find out in this Teacher infographic.

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Raising The Professional Status Of Teaching, Geoff N. Masters Ao Sep 2015

Raising The Professional Status Of Teaching, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

One of the biggest challenges we face in school education is to raise the status of teaching as a career choice, to attract more able people into teaching and to develop teaching as a knowledge-based profession, writes Professor Geoff Masters AO.

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Completing University In A Growing Sector: Is Equity An Issue?, Daniel Edwards, Julie Mcmillan Aug 2015

Completing University In A Growing Sector: Is Equity An Issue?, Daniel Edwards, Julie Mcmillan

Higher education research

Access to university has always been an issue for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In the recent context of an expanding higher education system in Australia, some accessibility issues have been alleviated. This context offers an opportunity to explore the pathways of disadvantaged students through university. In this expanded system, will disadvantaged students be more or less likely to complete university? Will demographic or enrolment characteristics influence the likelihood of these students to complete? This report details the findings from a research project funded by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) that explores new data tracking student …

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Student Access To Software Resources, Danielle Meloney Aug 2015

Student Access To Software Resources, Danielle Meloney

Teacher infographics

Do students in Australia have ready access to software resources in comparison with other countries? A recent report offers some interesting insights.

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Hacking Assessment, Phillip Dawson Aug 2015

Hacking Assessment, Phillip Dawson

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Hackers exploit weaknesses in a system to achieve their own goals. In this paper I argue that hacking presents a significant threat to the growing world of online assessment. This threat needs to be addressed through a variety of means; technological anti-hacking approaches will not be sufficient. The most effective ways to prevent hacking may be changes to the assessment tasks themselves to make hacking less tempting; these approaches also have a range of positive side effects in terms of authenticity, transparency of criteria, and ensuring tasks involve work beyond the exam. I conclude with a brief exploration of the …

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Translating Rich Learning Assessments Into Certified Results And University Selection Devices, Gabrielle Matters Aug 2015

Translating Rich Learning Assessments Into Certified Results And University Selection Devices, Gabrielle Matters

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

There are challenges in designing a set of high-quality processes in senior assessment and tertiary entrance that meet the needs of future senior secondary school students and future users of the certified results of learning assessments. Assessment and selection arrangements should look to the future rather than backwards to arrangements that might have existed in the past or that presently operate, unexamined, in other places. Teachers need to be convinced that the richness of students’ learning assessments will not be lost or transmogrified in any new processes for grading or ranking. A set of principles should guide the design of …

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Assessing General Capabilities, Julian Fraillon, Juliette Mendelovits Aug 2015

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 …

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The Move To Naplan Online: The Advantages And The Road Ahead, Stanley Rabinowitz Aug 2015

The Move To Naplan Online: The Advantages And The Road Ahead, Stanley Rabinowitz

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

The task of developing and delivering the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) online presents enormous challenges. Nonetheless, the benefits of taking this on are well worth the efforts. With a tailored test design, NAPLAN online will provide a better measure of the Australian Curriculum, more precise results and a significantly faster turnaround of those results. NAPLAN will begin its delivery online in 2017, with an opt-in period until 2019. To ensure readiness, a large amount of research is being conducted through the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority to inform the development process. This presentation will address …

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Stealth Assessment In Video Games, Val Shute Aug 2015

Stealth Assessment In Video Games, Val Shute

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Games can be powerful vehicles to support learning, but their success in education hinges on getting the assessment part right. In this presentation, I will explore how games can use stealth assessment to measure and support the learning of competencies critical for the future. I will discuss what stealth assessment is, why it is important, and how to develop and accomplish it. I will also provide examples within the context of a game called Physics Playground that I designed and developed with my team. I’ll share what has been learned by recent research on stealth assessments in games, including: Does …

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Assessment In Interactive Learning Environments, Michael Timms, Jason Lodge Aug 2015

Assessment In Interactive Learning Environments, Michael Timms, Jason Lodge

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

There is an increasing interest in using digital technologies to create interactive learning environments (ILEs) that both teach and assess student skills that are hard or impossible to assess using ‘static’ items such as traditional, multiple-choice questions. These interactive learning environments try to do two things simultaneously: firstly, to monitor the learning of the student in real time, providing feedback to help the student progress through the learning task; and secondly, to use the information gathered during the learning to make judgements about where the student is in learning of the topic. Essentially, ILEs draw upon the same source of …

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Measuring What Matters: Challenges And Opportunities In Assessing Science Proficiency, James W. Pellegrino Aug 2015

Measuring What Matters: Challenges And Opportunities In Assessing Science Proficiency, James W. Pellegrino

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

A key challenge in shaping science learning for the future will be to develop new measures of learning that take into account what it means to be proficient in science (Pellegrino, 2013). The emergent view on proficiency, grounded in learning sciences research, emphasises using and applying knowledge in the context of disciplinary practice. Referred to as knowledge-in-use, this perspective on science proficiency is a centrepiece of the United States’ National Research Council’s (NRC) Framework for K–12 Science Education (NRC, 2012), embodied in the new US national standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) and emphasised in the recently released NRC report on …

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Assessment Standards, ‘Intentional Alignment’, And Dialogic Inquiry, Claire Wyatt-Smith Aug 2015

Assessment Standards, ‘Intentional Alignment’, And Dialogic Inquiry, Claire Wyatt-Smith

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Internationally, the policy move towards standards-aligned instruction is gaining momentum. In Australia, standards have assumed unprecedented prominence in education policy relating both to classroom practice and to teacher preparation and career progression. The move is also evident in the United States, where the lure of standards to inform improvement is clear: significant investment has been committed to longitudinal research to examine at state and district levels the desirable conditions for implementing standards, their impact on developing college- and career-ready teachers, and in turn, the impact on teacher instruction and student outcomes. Moves such as this are occurring in the absence …

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Should Generic Curriculum Capabilities Be Assessed?, Rosemary Hipkins Aug 2015

Should Generic Curriculum Capabilities Be Assessed?, Rosemary Hipkins

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Both Australia and New Zealand have recently taken up the idea of ‘key competencies’ (‘capabilities’ in the Australian national curriculum) initially proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In both countries we have made them our own by adapting them to suit our own educational contexts. People often say that these capabilities won’t be taken seriously unless they are assessed. So whether, and how, to assess them continue to be vexed questions. In this paper I argue that capabilities are more appropriately seen as changing the curriculum rather than adding to it. If we are serious about preparing …

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Collaborative Problem-Solving: Assessment And Reporting, Patrick Griffin Aug 2015

Collaborative Problem-Solving: Assessment And Reporting, Patrick Griffin

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

This practical session will present a live administration of interactive collaborative problem-solving assessment and reporting. The presenter will demonstrate example tasks and reports. Audience representatives will have the opportunity to role-play as students being assessed across a range of social and cognitive skills associated with collaborative problem-solving. The discussion will then explore how these social and cognitive skills can be incorporated into the teaching program, enabling higher-order skills to be assessed in key learning areas across the curriculum.

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