In sharing solutions of mathematical tasks, students may use various modes of representation such as: language (oral/written), numerical and symbolic, or drawings (pictures, diagrams or markings). In this paper we explore the potential of student drawings to provide evidence of mathematical fluency. Examples of young students' (5-8 years old)…

A caring school community can enhance whole-school wellbeing including the wellbeing of school staff, which directly impacts on student academic, social and emotional wellbeing. This study firstly examines the validity and reliability of a proposed wholeschool staff wellbeing evaluation tool which uses a set of whole-school wellbeing indicators to…

Multiple-choice items are used in large-scale assessments of mathematical achievement for secondary students in many countries. Research findings can be implemented to improve the quality of the items and hence increase the amount of information gathered about student learning from each item. One way to achieve this is to create items for which…

On-line quizzes are used to help first year University Mathematics students identify weaknesses in their basic skills and improve them. Quizzes developed as a formative tool have been utilised at JCU [James Cook University] for eight years. However, before this research no-one has questioned the effectiveness of quizzes for this task. We present a…

This paper reports the results of a pencil-and-paper test developed to assess young children's understanding of mass measurement. The innovative element of the test was its use of photographs. We found many children of the 295 6-8 year-old children tested could "read" the photographs and diagrams and recognise the images as…

This investigation examined the course experiences of Bachelor of Education Primary students across each year of the course. The aims of the study were to identify gaps in what we know about our students; to identify relevant domains in student experiences and to assist with course improvements. A reflective inquiry paradigm was adopted for…

Students are empowered or disempowered by the information that we provide or withhold from them; nowhere is this more significant that in assessment practices (Popham 1997). While some students are able to successfully navigate the nuances of assessment, others see assessment as a bamboozling array of "smoke and mirrors" designed to…

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has endorsed a "Closing the Gap" agenda designed to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. The agenda is distilled in a series of targets, one of which is the goal of halving the gap for Indigenous students in Year 12 attainment or equivalent (Certificate II or above) attainment rates by…

The proposed quality assurance framework for higher education in Australia will, for the first time since the early 1990s, introduce a process of external quality monitoring through the auspices of the Australian Universities Quality Agency. There is little research that evaluates the impact of external monitoring on the experiences of staff,…

This paper presents a plan of action for managing evaluation implementation and ensuring the ongoing utilization of evaluation results. It addresses strategies that are required to manage the problems encountered in a 10-step management plan. Focus is on introducing an evaluation monitoring system within organizations. Steps in the plan include:…

A conception of evaluation is developed which depends upon the self-reflective activities of those most closely involved in the development and teaching of a course. This model is based upon the critical theory of Jurgen Habermas, and focuses upon the way participant understandings of a course evolve through the process of critical debate. This…

The Special Projects (Innovations) Program of the Australian Schools Commission receives less funding than other programs of the commission but has been received more enthusiastically, perhaps because it encourages and supports local initiatives. Given the small scale and local derivation of the projects funded under the program, evaluation…

This paper discusses the development and implementation of the system-wide assessment of arts learning in primary and secondary schools that took place in Western Australia in September 1996. The paper describes the background to the assessment, the design brief, and the assessment package as a whole, focusing on the visual arts tests. It…

This study reports the development and validation of an instrument to assess institutional or university-level environment in universities. Using a sample of 489 academics from 52 departments in 28 Australian universities, an instrument called the University-Level Environment Questionnaire (ULEQ) was field-tested and validated. The final form of…

Marine education research designs are discussed, and student learning outcomes while monitoring a coral reef is evaluated. Changes in environmental knowledge and attitudes, ecological intention to act, and direct reef experience were investigated. Differences between student pre-test and the post-test responses were observed, and analysis is…