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News bulletins from the Australian Council for Educational Research published October 2011 3134 subscribers Subscribe Now In this issue: Assessing interpersonal understandings Resourcing change in small schools ACER Update Assessing interpersonal understandings A candidate’s ability to understand interpersonal situations and to reason about human feelings and interactions has become an increasingly important consideration in the medical selection process. There is a growing recognition that medical practitioners require more than academic skills to be good at their jobs; they also need to be good communicators and readers of people. ‘Interpersonal’ multiple-choice questions are designed to assess a candidate’s ability to understand and infer the thoughts, feelings, behaviour, motivations, and/or intentions of the people depicted in text-based scenarios, dialogues and passages. Such multiple-choice questions are currently being used across Australia as part of a battery of instruments to differentiate between large numbers of academically qualified candidates applying for limited places in university medical courses. Continue reading » Resourcing change in small schools Principals of small schools wishing to resource positive change must rethink existing resources and harness new opportunities for the school and the school community, the authors of a research paper suggest. The Australian Journal of Education this year published a paper written by ACER Senior Research Fellow Dr Michelle Anderson and Monash University Associate Dean Professor Simone White, titled ‘Resourcing change in small schools’, in which the authors analyse the challenge that school leaders face in creating the conditions for learning in small schools. The paper draws on Australian and international research and uses a case study to examine how small-school leaders can successfully resource change. Continue reading » ACER Update ACER Award for Student Journalism 2011 The Australian Council for Educational Research is offering an award for excellence in an article relating to education. Students who are currently enrolled in an Australian accredited course leading to at least a diploma level qualification are invited to enter. Small cash prizes totaling $600 will be awarded to the place getters ($300 for first place, $200 for second place and $100 for third place). Entries close Friday 28 October 2010. Seminar to share new ideas on resourcing educational change Next week the ACER Institute in conjunction with Tenderbridge will host a seminar presented by University of Winchester Professor of Learning Bill Lucas, on the topic New Thinking about Intelligence and Learning: New ideas for resourcing new thinking in schools. A former school leader and best-selling author, Lucas has helped to create five organisations: Learning through Landscapes, Campaign for Learning, The Talent Foundation, The Centre for Real-World Learning and, most recently, the English Project. During his seminar, Lucas will share his experiences of turning good ideas into resources - money, time and talents. He will discuss well-tested practical ideas drawn from across the world designed to put educational visions into practice and will suggest how educators might access funds to do this. For more information on this seminar or to register your interest please visit http://www.acerinstitute.edu.au/ ACER Student Engagement & Experience Conference ACER has teamed up with Criterion Conferences to present a two-day conference, Measuring and Improving Student Engagement and Experience: Increasing the quality of teaching & learning to encourage retention in higher education. Recent developments such as the advent of TEQSA and the Government’s participation and attainment targets have brought the intersection between teaching, learning and student engagement to the fore. With presentations from over a dozen experts from a range of higher education institutions and research organisations, this conference will address: The impact of the wider reform agenda on projects aimed at improving student engagement Debate of the effectiveness of measures and standards of higher education teaching and learning Issues with monitoring and strengthening quality student transitions across diverse access pathways Institutional strategies to support student cohorts most at risk of high attrition. Pre- and post-conference workshops will explore how to use data on students’ learning to improve education an on engaging postgraduate coursework students. The conference runs from 21-24 November at Melbourne’s Novotel on Collins. Discounted early bird registrations are available until 21 October. Further information about the conference is available from http://www.improvingstudentengagement.com CEET Annual Conference ACER Research Director Dr Phillip McKenzie, ACER Principal Research Fellow Dr Sheldon Rothman and ACER Senior Research Fellow Justin Brown will present on the topic ‘The Changing Destinations of Low SES School Leavers – the Contribution of VET in Schools’ at the 15th annual conference of the Monash University Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET), on Friday 28 October 2011 at Ascot House in Ascot Vale, Melbourne. The theme of the conference is The contribution of Vocational Education and Training (VET) to a more inclusive Australia. Further information about the conference is available from http://www.edu.monash.edu/centres/ceet/conferences/2011.html
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News bulletins from the Australian Council for Educational Research published October 2011
3134 subscribers
Subscribe Now

Assessing interpersonal understandings

A candidate’s ability to understand interpersonal situations and to reason about human feelings and interactions has become an increasingly important consideration in the medical selection process. There is a growing recognition that medical practitioners require more than academic skills to be good at their jobs; they also need to be good communicators and readers of people.

‘Interpersonal’ multiple-choice questions are designed to assess a candidate’s ability to understand and infer the thoughts, feelings, behaviour, motivations, and/or intentions of the people depicted in text-based scenarios, dialogues and passages. Such multiple-choice questions are currently being used across Australia as part of a battery of instruments to differentiate between large numbers of academically qualified candidates applying for limited places in university medical courses.

Resourcing change in small schools

ACER Update

ACER Award for Student Journalism 2011

The Australian Council for Educational Research is offering an award for excellence in an article relating to education. Students who are currently enrolled in an Australian accredited course leading to at least a diploma level qualification are invited to enter. Small cash prizes totaling $600 will be awarded to the place getters ($300 for first place, $200 for second place and $100 for third place). Entries close Friday 28 October 2010.

Seminar to share new ideas on resourcing educational change

Next week the ACER Institute in conjunction with Tenderbridge will host a seminar presented by University of Winchester Professor of Learning Bill Lucas, on the topic New Thinking about Intelligence and Learning: New ideas for resourcing new thinking in schools. A former school leader and best-selling author, Lucas has helped to create five organisations: Learning through Landscapes, Campaign for Learning, The Talent Foundation, The Centre for Real-World Learning and, most recently, the English Project. During his seminar, Lucas will share his experiences of turning good ideas into resources - money, time and talents. He will discuss well-tested practical ideas drawn from across the world designed to put educational visions into practice and will suggest how educators might access funds to do this. For more information on this seminar or to register your interest please visit http://www.acerinstitute.edu.au/

ACER Student Engagement & Experience Conference

ACER has teamed up with Criterion Conferences to present a two-day conference, Measuring and Improving Student Engagement and Experience: Increasing the quality of teaching & learning to encourage retention in higher education. Recent developments such as the advent of TEQSA and the Government’s participation and attainment targets have brought the intersection between teaching, learning and student engagement to the fore.

With presentations from over a dozen experts from a range of higher education institutions and research organisations, this conference will address:

The impact of the wider reform agenda on projects aimed at improving student engagement
Debate of the effectiveness of measures and standards of higher education teaching and learning
Issues with monitoring and strengthening quality student transitions across diverse access pathways
Institutional strategies to support student cohorts most at risk of high attrition.

Pre- and post-conference workshops will explore how to use data on students’ learning to improve education an on engaging postgraduate coursework students.

The conference runs from 21-24 November at Melbourne’s Novotel on Collins. Discounted early bird registrations are available until 21 October. Further information about the conference is available from http://www.improvingstudentengagement.com

CEET Annual Conference

ACER Research Director Dr Phillip McKenzie, ACER Principal Research Fellow Dr Sheldon Rothman and ACER Senior Research Fellow Justin Brown will present on the topic ‘The Changing Destinations of Low SES School Leavers – the Contribution of VET in Schools’ at the 15th annual conference of the Monash University Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET), on Friday 28 October 2011 at Ascot House in Ascot Vale, Melbourne. The theme of the conference is The contribution of Vocational Education and Training (VET) to a more inclusive Australia. Further information about the conference is available from http://www.edu.monash.edu/centres/ceet/conferences/2011.html