ACER develops higher education research

ACER is looking to expand its involvement in higher education research and has appointed Dr Hamish Coates to lead ACER’s work in this area. Dr Coates joined ACER as a Senior Research Fellow this month from his position as a Senior Research Officer at Graduate Careers Australia (GCA). At GCA, he designed, managed and conducted all aspects of a major high-stakes project to enhance Australia’s annual graduate census. Prior to joining GCA, Dr Coates worked for five years as a Research Associate on numerous research projects at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) and the Assessment Research Centre (ARC) at the University Melbourne. His work in higher education has influenced national and institutional policy and practice. His research and publications focus on the measurement and evaluation of education processes, contexts and outcomes. Active interests include student learning and engagement, higher education policy, university pedagogy, online and distributed education, quality assurance, psychometric and statistical methods, assessment and evaluation, and education performance indicators.

International civics and citizenship education study

ACER (in association with the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) in England, and the Laboratorio di Pedagogia Sperimentale (LPS) at the Roma Tre University) Italy has been commissioned by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) to conduct an International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCES).  The purpose of the study is to investigate the ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens in a range of countries in the 21st century.  In pursuit of this purpose, the study will report on student achievement in a test of conceptual understandings and competencies in civic and citizenship education.  It will also collect and analyse data about student dispositions and attitudes relating to civic and citizenship education.  The study builds on the previous IEA studies of civic education, particularly the CIVED study in 1999.  The study will take place from mid 2006 through 2010 with a main data collection in 2009.  Dr Wolfram Schulz will be research director for the study.

Research Conference 2006

Bookings are now open for ACER’s Research Conference 2006 – Boosting science learning – what will it take?  The conference will examine recent research and practice directions in the area of science education both locally and internationally. For further information visit the conference website

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