ACER eNews
The following articles are based on papers presented at the ACER Research Conference 2005, held in Melbourne, 7-9 August 2005 on the theme of 'Using data to support learning.' The conference was ACER's tenth annual research conference and the largest undertaken to date. Three keynote addresses and 16 concurrent papers were presented at the conference attended by more than 700 delegates.
Growth not benchmarks the key to school success
The mark of a school's
success is how effectively it causes growth for students and
not just how many students it helps over a particular 'proficiency
hurdle,' according to a visiting US education expert. Professor
Gage Kingsbury of the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA)
is critical of the approaches taken by systems such as the
US No Child Left Behind (NCLB) which relies on proficiency
tests and does not take individual growth into account. He
said a more complete accountability system would reward schools
for the growth they nurture in students.
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What is the nature of evidence that makes a difference to learning?
The move to collecting
more data from schools needs to be stopped and the move to
making defensible interpretations about teaching and learning
upgraded to priority level says leading educationalist Professor
John Hattie of Auckland University. "Schools are awash
with data, and I have yet to find a Department or Ministry
of Education which does not have so much data that debate
is more concerned with issues of collecting and storing data
rather than how to effectively return the data to schools," Professor
Hattie said. "While volumes of data are extruded from
and about schools, teaching continues without the benefits
of this data."
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Teacher
intuition still important as schools swamped with data
Using data in school
decision-making does not have to be a mechanical or technical
process that denigrates educators' intuition, teaching philosophy
and personal experience, according to Dr Lorna Earl, Associate
Professor and co-director of the Ontario Institute for Studies
in Education at the University of Toronto. "Having data
is a beginning, but it is not enough. Schools need to move
from being data-rich to being information-rich and knowledge-rich
as well. Information becomes knowledge when it is shaped,
organised and embedded in a context that gives it meaning
and connectedness," Dr Earl said in her keynote address.
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More
Using student performance data effectively
The education community
could benefit from learning to use data about student performance
more effectively to support both student and teacher learning,
according to educational researcher Dr Ken Rowe. He believes
successful learning support depends on the extent to which
schools are provided with an opportunity to claim 'ownership'
and 'control' over their own data. According to Dr Rowe outcomes-based
educational performance indicators provide specific details
of what we expect children to learn. In developmental assessment,
this is expressed using progress maps that describe different
skill levels. Such "maps" provide a framework for measuring,
describing and monitoring growth over time at individual and
group levels.
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ACER UPDATE
Conference proceedings available online
The full conference proceedings containing all conference papers or abstracts are now available for download online. Each paper is also available as an individual document. To access the proceedings and individual papers please click here to visit the 'Workshops' section of the website.
Research Conference 2006
Research Conference 2006 will examine recent research and practice directions in the area of science education both locally and internationally. This conference will address what it will take to boost science teaching and learning.
Conference speakers will include:
- Professor Jonathan Osborne, King's College London, England
- Dr Rodger Bybee, Biological Sciences Curriculum Studies, Colorado Springs, USA
- Professor Leonie Rennie, Curtin University, Western Australia
- Professor Mark Hackling, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia
- Professor Russell Tytler, Deakin University, Victoria
- Professor Barry McCrae, ACER
Further information
on Research Conference 2006 will be posted on this website
as it becomes available.
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