Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Experimenting With Diffractive Analysis Practices While Walking-With River: Audiowalking And Micromapping, Vanessa Wintoneak

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper shares how a river-walking project in early childhood education created and experimented with two practices diffractively as an effort to do research differently. The year-long study, situated in Western Australia, explored river-child relations while walking with Derbarl Yerrigan/Swan River and was interested in decentring the human and attuning to more-than-human relations through situated practices. Using a feminist environmental framework this project took a non-representational approach to analysing data through two intra-related diffractive concepts: re-turning and re-membering. These concepts grounded the two practices, audiowalking and micromapping, and helped to shape the various forms of experimentation for a diffractive approach …

2025 Asia-Pacific Symposium For Music Education Research: Conference Proceedings, Jason Goopy, Jason Boron, Emily Wilson, Han Meng, Cynthia Howard, Philippa Chapman

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The 2025 Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research (APSMER) was held from 9 – 11 July at Edith Cowan University in partnership with the School of Education and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). APSMER is the official regional conference of the International Society for Music Education (ISME), and in 2025, it was proudly supported by the Australian Society for Music Education (ASME). The symposium was last held in Australia in Launceston, Tasmania, in 1999. APSMER 2025 welcomed over 300 international delegates to Perth, Western Australia, for scholarly and cultural exchange. The theme, “Being and becoming musical in …

Outdoor Adventure Education For Adolescent Social And Emotional Wellbeing: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Michael J.A. Down, D. Picknoll, T. Edwards, F. Farringdon, G. Hoyne, B. Piggott, M. C. Murphy

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study examines the effects of OAE on adolescent social and emotional wellbeing and their contributors. Intervention studies (single or multi-arm) assessing the effects of OAE on wellbeing were included. Meta-analysis was conducted on outcomes of interest, and the Cochrane Risk of Bias (RoB) Tool assessed RoB in multi-arm studies. Four studies assessed within-group change (n = 368), and six assessed between-group change (n = 1,143). Findings indicate significant between-group improvements in resilience, self-esteem and social belonging when OAE was compared to no intervention, but no self-efficacy and overall wellbeing changes were observed. Studies were at high risk of bias, …

Mothers, Social Capital And Children’S Physical Literacy Journeys In Rural Australia, Kate Mccreery, Dawn Penney, Ruth Jeanes

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In rural communities in Australia, the provision of sport and physical activities for children almost exclusively relies upon parents and their ability to access and contribute to facilities, funding, volunteers, and administration. This paper brings Putnam’s social capital framework to Whitehead’s conceptualisation of physical literacy as a journey to offer original insight into children’s sport participation and the opportunities arising for physical literacy development in rural communities in Australia. Changes in sport participation in Australia and directions in sport policy set an important context for the project, which is located in a small rural community in Western Australia. It was …

A Testing Load: A Review Of Cognitive Load In Computer And Paper-Based Learning And Assessment, James Pengelley, Peter R. Whipp, Anabela Malpique

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The rising use of technology in classrooms has also brought with it a concomitant wave of computer-based assessments. The argument for computer-based testing is often framed in terms of efficiency and data management: computer-based tests facilitate more efficient processing of test data and the rate at which feedback can be leveraged for student learning rather than being framed in terms of the direct effects that students experience from engaging with novel learning tools. Whilst potentially beneficial, for some students the outcomes of computer-based tests may be counter-productive. This review considers the cognitive, and often implicit, consequences of testing mode upon …

Navigating Complexity In Sustainability And Climate Action: Comparing Participatory Action Research And Developmental Evaluation In Higher Education, Elizabeth J. Cook, Fiona Boyle

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how sustainability and climate action are integrated in higher education through collaborative researchmethodologies. Specifically, it addresses the challenges encountered by those using participatory action research (PAR) and suggests developmental evaluation (DE) as a potentially suitable alternative participatorymethodology in certain contexts.

Design/methodology/approach: A comparative analysis of PAR and DE is conducted, highlighting their strengths and limitations in sustainability and climate action initiatives within higher education. Philosophically grounded in pragmatism, the study draws on existing literature to clarify the theoretical foundations and practical implications of both methodologies, focusing on their application in complex, dynamic environments.

Findings: …

Music Education Research And Policy Summit: Feedback Report, Alexis Anja Kallio, Julie Ballantyne, Glenn Barry, Nicole Canham, Emily Dollman, Brad Fuller, Jason Goopy, Rohan Hardy, James Humberstone, Tanya Jones, Ricky Kradolfer, Candace Kruger, Simon Petty, Rebecca Yarnold

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The Music Education Research and Policy Summit was held from 17–19 July 2023. It was hosted by the Creative Arts Research Institute, Griffith University, on the banks of the Maiwar in Meanjin (Brisbane). The Summit was organised in response to the publication of Australia’s first National Cultural Policy in over 13 years—Revive: A Place for Every Story, A Story for Every Place—to engage in collaborative futures thinking that can identify the values, challenges, and opportunities that will shape school music education in Australia’s future.

The Music Education Research and Policy Summit offered a unique opportunity for music education scholars from …

Evaluating Impact Of Educational Research On Teachers’ Practice: A Teacher Expectations Intervention, Olivia Johnston

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Educational research that generates new knowledge can have a positive impact on teaching practice, yet few methods have been developed to show if, and how, knowledge-based research translation has any impact on teachers’ professional practices. The research reported in this paper evaluated the impact of a Teacher Expectations Intervention on teachers’ practice. The intervention disseminated new knowledge about teaching practices that communicate high expectations to students. Graham et al.’s (2006) Knowledge-to-Action Framework provided a conceptual framework to develop, implement and evaluate the intervention with the participant teachers. The findings show that 61 secondary-school teachers experienced overall positive impact on their …

Responding To Children’S Voices: The New Frontier In Education Policy Reform, Amelia Ruscoe

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

More than thirty years on from the United Nations Convention of the Child honouring a child’s right to be heard (Article 12) has unlocked a new frontier in ethical research. In education, children have demonstrated competence to contribute with insight to recent policy development in Australia. This paper provides further evidence of the critical role children stand to play in education reform. A post-structural perspective is adopted and underpinned with Foucauldian theory of discursive power in the context of school-based affordances. Visual and dialogic qualitative methods are used to compare the impact of powerful discourses upon children’s affordances in the …

Measuring Career Aspirations In Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics And Education, Michael Fitzgerald, Saeed Salimpour, David Mckinnon, Rachel Freed, Dan Reichart

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

There has been a sustained interest in student perceptions about STEM fields and their choice of careers over the past few decades. Research has shown that there is a decline in students pursuing STEM careers, and this has raised global concern. Despite these issues, no unistructural, broad, parsimonious and unambiguous quantitative instrument exists to probe student career aspirations. This paper highlights the background, extension and validation of an instrument, derived from a previous science-focussed high-quality instrument that allows student career aspirations to be quantitatively characterised. Participants were 1221 undergraduate students, 1003 of whom were judged to have provided good data, …

Health Education In Swedish Schools–What’S On Offer?, V. Varea, A. Caldeborg, D. Barker, M. Quennerstedt

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The aim of this paper is to identify the dominant discourses of health and wellbeing that are offered in health education in Swedish schools. Issues of health and wellbeing are covered mainly in four school subjects in Sweden: physical education and health, home and consumer studies, biology, and social studies, and therefore, we interviewed teachers from those subjects to generate data. Six interrelated health discourses were identified from the data. All discourses were, however, also embedded within a health discourse with a comprehensive description of health as physical, psychological and social wellbeing. Results suggest that schools offer a Western and …

She Speaks: Amplifying Women's Voices For Wellbeing, Narelle Lemon

Reports accepted as research outputs

Executive Summary

The SheSpeaks project successfully transformed how 223 Western Australian women understand and practice self-care, demonstrating  that targeted wellbeing literacy interventions can create lasting change  in women’s relationship with their own wellbeing. Funded by the Women’s Grants for a Stronger Future program, this innovative initiative combined evidence-based workshops with authentic podcasting to challenge the pervasive cultural narrative that positions women’s self-care as selfish  or impossible.

Assessment Design And Practices Toward Holistic Learning Of Higher Education Students: Empirical Evidence Via Path Analysis Modelling Approach, Ebenezer Arifa-Yamoah, Esther Adama, Amanda Graf, Kwadwo Adusei-Asante

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

COVID-19 has revolutionised assessment design and practices in higher education; however, there has not been a shift in the overall objective of enhancing that the association between assessments and learning promotes the holistic development of students. In this study, we provide an empirical evaluation of the perceived effects of assessment practices (invigilated examination and alternative assessments) on students’ mental wellbeing, learning processes and academic misconduct. A cross-sectional study design was employed for this study in which a self-reported survey instrument was administered to 380 social science and nursing undergraduate and postgraduate students in a public university in Australia. We explored …

Care-Full Climate Justice Organising: Movement-Based Participatory Action Research On Noongar Boodja, Kylie A. Wrigley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Aligned with emerging research agendas for critical (intersectional and decolonial) climate justice, this research aims to co-create place-based knowledges and actions about how communities and movements organise for climate justice. Organising for climate justice in Western Australia (WA) is particularly difficult because of the strong influence of the fossil fuel industry and the prevailing racial capitalist, colonial, and patriarchal responses to climate change in policy and mainstream climate movements. These systems of power often reproduce, for example, intersecting gender, race, and class inequalities, which marginalise communities most impacted by climate injustice. Moreover, many climate activists experience climate distress and burnout. …

Verbal And Nonverbal Communicative Approaches Used By Reading Teachers To Foster Student Reading For Pleasure In Secondary School, Claire Patricia Smith

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The benefits of reading for pleasure are diverse. As evidence supporting the value of reading for pleasure grows, so does its legitimacy as a catalyst for positive personal and cognitive development, and as a stand-alone subject in education. Reading for pleasure pedagogy (RfPP), distinct from reading instruction, is evolving in tandem with these findings. This pedagogy is predicated on the profile of a Reading Teacher (RT) as a reader who enjoys reading and is prepared to share their personal reading lives to teach their students to read for pleasure. However, this profile may be an ideal rather than the norm. …

‘Teachers Are The Guinea Pigs’: Teacher Perspectives On A Sudden Reopening Of Schools During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jillian Ryan, Nicole Koehler, Travis Cruickshank, Shane L. Rogers, Mandy Stanley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Primary and secondary education systems experienced substantial disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about how public health policy has affected Australian teachers during the pandemic. This study examines teacher perspectives on a sudden change of policy, whereby schools were abruptly opened to students at the beginning of the pandemic. At the same time, strict social distancing rules applied to the remainder of the population. Qualitative data from 372 Western Australian schoolteachers were analysed using thematic analysis. Results highlight substantial impacts on teachers’ workloads and adverse effects on wellbeing. Perceptions that they were acting as guinea pigs and …

A Grounded Theory About How Teachers Communicated High Expectations To Their Secondary School Students, Olivia Johnston, Helen Wildy, Jennifer Shand

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

High teachers’ expectations are associated with improved student academic achievement. However, no research explains how students experience their teachers’ expectations, from their points of view. A new theory was developed to achieve the study’s aim of accounting for how high expectations were experienced by 25 students in Western Australia. The findings offer educators student-focused perspectives of how to convey high teacher expectations that lead to improved student academic outcomes. Straussian grounded theory (Strauss, 1990) methods were used to generate substantive theory together with the Year 10 students in three Western Australian public schools, through data including more than 100 classroom …

Teacher Expectations Of Student Strategies For Algebra Problems, Vesife Hatisaru, Olivia Johnston, Julia Collins, Wendy Harmon

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper investigates the expectations that a group of preservice secondary mathematics teachers had for how students would approach four particular algebra problems. Their responses to a set of open-ended items were content analysed. Findings show that the teachers ranged in the expectations that they held for their students. Some teachers expected their students would approach the problems with more sophisticated problem-solving strategies, but many of the teachers expected that the students would only use less desirable “guess-and-check” strategies. We believe teachers’ expectations for student strategies for problem-solving is a topic that warrants further investigation.

Examination Of The Reliability And Validity Of The Japanese Version Of The 10-Item Reflective Practice Questionnaire, Daichi Sugawara, Atsumi Iikura, Syohei Miyamoto, Akihiro Masuyama, Kanako Nakazawa, Keigo Hatto, Ayaka Matsumoto, Lon J. Van Winkle, Shane L. Rogers

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

While various self-administered instruments measure reflective practice, the Reflective Practice Questionnaire (RPQ) can be used across multiple professions. We evaluated the Japanese version of the 10-item Reflective Practice Questionnaire (RPQ-10-J). In Study 1, 300 Japanese interpersonal assistance professionals were surveyed, and the RPQ-10-J was found to conform to a single factor via confirmatory factor analysis. We also found evidence of high internal consistency and adequate test-re-test reliability. High internal consistency was replicated in Study 2. In Study 2, 83 and 80 practicing interpersonal assistance professionals were surveyed physically and online, respectively. Additionally, the RPQ-10-J was correlated with the Japanese version …

Students' Preferences For Setting And/Or Mixed-Ability Grouping In Secondary School Physical Education In England, Shaun D. Wilkinson, Dawn Penney

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

There is an extensive international literature on different forms of ability grouping in schools, much of which describes their impact on students' academic achievement, motivation, self-concept and/or attitudes towards learning. Comparatively little research has focused on students' perspectives of these practices, while the research that has been conducted has primarily focused on mathematics, English and science. There is a conspicuous and arguably significant absence of research that explores students' perspectives on different forms of ability grouping in other areas of the school curriculum, including physical education (PE). In contrast to the relative privacy of classroom-based subjects, students' bodies, physical competencies …

Learning Collective Care To Support Young Climate Justice Advocates, Kylie Wrigley, Georgia Beardman, Jaime Yallup Farrant, Naomi Joy Godden, Caleb Faulkner Hill, Emma Heyink, Eva Carot Collins, Hannah Davies, Shelby Robinson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Young people mitigate their climate distress, develop their efficacy, and contribute to the effectiveness of climate movements through activism. However, they are often excluded from adult-led climate movements and exposed to a number of risks when they do participate. In this context, this participatory action research study draws on multiple care theories to offer collective care praxis through which adults and young people might co-create more care-full and safe climate justice movements capable of supporting, sustaining, and sharing power with young people. The study examines how 13 young and three adult co-researchers learned about and applied collective care through a …

Vulnerable Reading Practices For Ecosocial Justice In Environmental Education, Karen Nociti, Mindy Blaise

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Environmental education has the potential to extend its transformative potential by reframing social and ecological justice as always interconnected. This paper introduces vulnerable reading as a method for unsettling anthropocentric and colonial influences on how educators conceptualise and respond to environmental precarity through a socio-ecological lens. It has emerged from a six-month walking project during which the authors developed vulnerable reading practices as they walked with young children, educators, and a weedy landscape in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia. With a focus on reimagining pedagogies to be inclusive of multiple weedy ideas, bodies and voices, the paper uses empirical examples of …

Young Student’S Views Of Naplan: Impact On Wellbeing Through Drawn Responses, Pauline Roberts, Lennie Barblett

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Standardized testing of academic knowledge is common in many developed countries. In Australia, the process implemented is the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). The stand-alone tests were introduced in 2008 for several educational and political reasons, and since that time, the results of this assessment have been used beyond their initial purpose and brought about an unintended consequence of making the tests high-stakes. The pressure of these assessments has the potential to impact student’s wellbeing, but little research has been done in this area and even less where the student’s perspectives are considered. This research examined the …

Using Drawing To Build Better Stem Learning Environments, Vesife Hatisaru, Sharon Fraser, Garry Falloon, Delyse Clayden

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Three related, drawing-based studies were conducted: Draw-A-Mathematician (DAMT), Draw-A-Mathematics-Classroom (DAMC), and Draw-A-STEM-Learning-Environment (D-STEM). They have addressed needs in the fields of mathematics and STEM education (Hatisaru & Fraser, 2021). Using images, the DAMT and DAMC studies were conducted between 2016 and 2019 to build understanding of school students’ perceptions of mathematics, mathematicians, mathematics teachers and classrooms, and to investigate how those perceptions influence their learning outcomes. The D-STEM research was conducted between 2018 and 2020 to better understand school principals’ and STEM educators’ perceptions of STEM learning environments. The D-STEM activity was developed alongside, and for inclusion within the national …

Development Of A Teaching Performance Assessment In Australia: What Did We Learn?, Rebecca Spooner-Lane, Tania Broadley, Elizabeth Curtis, Peter Grainger

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Following increasing criticism of the variability in graduate teachers’ readiness to enter the profession, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) introduced a program accreditation requirement that all initial teacher education (ITE) providers must implement a Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA) in the final year of their teacher education programs. AITSL were not prescriptive in how ITE providers must meet the program standard which has resulted in 12 TPAs being implemented across 42 ITE providers. This paper outlines the development and implementation of one endorsed TPA designed to measure the readiness of graduating teachers, whilst taking into consideration the …

Explicit Instruction: Evaluating The Fidelity Of A Teacher's Practice Supported By Professional Development And Directive Coaching - A Case Study, Christophe Baco, Marie Bocquillon, Laëtitia Delbart, Antoine Derobertmasure

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Training teachers in evidence-based practice is a societal challenge. We conducted practical action research to investigate the impact of a professional development programme (the aim of which is to train teachers in explicit instruction) established according to the principles of effective professional development on one teacher's practices. A holistic case study was conducted with one teacher randomly selected among a group of volunteers. An original methodology was developed to measure the fidelity of the teacher’s practices to the different teaching practices and stages of explicit instruction. The teacher's practices were filmed on four occasions and analysed using an observation grid …

Mapping Assessment Tasks And Lecturer Considerations: A Case Study Of A Nz Primary Teacher Education Programme, Wendy Carss, Bronwen Cowie, Sheralyn Cook

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Initial teacher education programme and paper assessments need to encompass university degree requirements and attest to student mastery of teacher professional competencies. This article reports one aspect of an investigation of the nature and principles employed in the design of assessments for a three-year Bachelor of Teaching (Primary) programme. The assessment tasks included in the 2022 academic papers were mapped and paper leaders interviewed; practicum and placement papers were not included because these were being redeveloped at the time. Findings are consistent with assessment design principles associated with authenticity and equity of access to the demonstration of understanding through tasks …

Experiential Learning Projects As Assessment In Initial Teacher Education, Renee Crawford, Louise E. Jenkins, Lydia Wan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In a rapidly changing global environment, Initial Teacher Educators (ITE) have a responsibility to role-model contemporary teaching approaches, which develop graduates who think creatively and flexibly in educational workplaces. An important aspect of this work is supporting pre-service teachers (PSTs) to understand how to design assessments which facilitate a deep understanding of student learning. This learning can be achieved through the implementation of assessments which model contemporary practices and enrich student learning in ITE courses. This paper discusses new ways to consider the purpose of assessment by focusing on Experiential Learning (EL) as a form of assessment in ITE. This …

Mapping The Leap: Differences In Quality Improvement In Relation To Assessment Rating Outcomes, Belinda Davis, Rosemary Dunn, Linda J. Harrison, Manjula Waniganayake, Fay Hadley, Rebecca Andrews, Hui Li, Susan Irvine, Lennie Barblett, Maria Hatzigianni

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction: Australia’s National Quality Standard (NQS) outlines the criteria to assess the quality of early childhood services. A four-point rating scale: (i) Exceeding NQS; (ii) Meeting NQS; (iii) Working Toward NQS; and (iv) Significant Improvement Required is applied to services following a regular assessment and rating process. Settings rated as Working Toward are reassessed within 12 months. Most settings achieved a one-step improvement in this Time 2 reassessment, moving to a Meeting rating but some settings made a two-step improvement, moving to an Exceeding rating. The QIP is a key document used by authorities to assess the quality of a …

Educational Leaders’ Perceptions Of Stem Education Revealed By Their Drawings And Texts, Vesife Hatisaru, Garry Falloon, Andrew Seen, Sharon Fraser, Markus Powling, Kim Beswick

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study explored school principals' and teacher educators' perceptions of STEM education based on how they described STEM as a discipline, their understanding of the nature of teaching and learning of STEM, and the capabilities of a STEM-educated person. Data were generated through the Draw a STEM Learning Environment (D-STEM) instrument comprising drawn and written descriptions where participants drew a picture of a STEM learning environment and completed five prompt statements about what STEM is and how an individual develops personal STEM capability. The Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) specialization codes were used for data analysis (198 individual response items in …