As part of its regulatory roles, the Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) is required to assess evidence of 'scholarship' that is put forward by providers, whether evidence of scholarship by individuals, such as teaching staff within the provider, or for the provider as a whole. TEQSA is seeking to review…

This report presents key findings from the four years of the Quality Support Program (QSP). The QSP is an initiative of, and funded by, the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education Early Childhood Education Quality Assurance and Regulatory Services Directorate (NSW DoE), involving the delivery by Australian Children's Education and Care…

The importance of work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences in the development of work ready graduates is well known. Despite the centrality of WIL to graduate employability, the vast majority of studies relating to student feedback tend to focus on the evaluation of learning and teaching in the classroom context. This article reports on the…

Musicians are appointed to positions in professional symphony orchestras--both rank and file and section principals--following a blind audition process. They perform set repertoire works and orchestral excerpts behind a screen. In many higher education programs, musicians focus on learning the orchestral excerpts and instrumental repertoire that…

ACECQA [Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority] has published its fifth occasional paper analysing Quality Area 7 -- Leadership and service management. This completes the suite of occasional papers that cover the four quality areas of the National Quality Standard that are comparatively challenging. Quality Area 7 recognises…

Conventional student-led evaluation is now an orthodox feature of the North American, UK and Australian higher education landscape. Increasingly, it is guiding major institutional decisions around educational quality, academic promotion and more recently institutional funding by government. Yet significant research around student-led evaluation…

The Australian Professional Teaching Standards require pre-service teachers to complete a minimum number of days of professional experience in order to graduate. Problems can arise, however, when the evaluation of their professional experience against the Standards shifts from the providers of teacher education programmes to school-based…

Whilst professional development (PD) is an activity required by many regulatory authorities, the value that enterprises obtain from PD is often unknown, particularly when it involves development of knowledge. This paper discusses measurement techniques and processes and provides a review of established evaluation techniques, highlighting…

In this article, I ask how university students with disabilities negotiate with staff arrangements for alternative assessment practices. I draw on three case studies using a personal pronoun perspective to challenge the conventional view that educational policy and teaching practice are forms of rational action. I demonstrate how the lives of…

There is limited awareness and knowledge of how teacher pedagogical reasoning and practice develops when teachers use information and communications technology (ICT). This is particularly so in the vocational education and training (VET) sector, where there is only limited awareness and knowledge of this territory. As the VET sector moves…

Purpose: The use of e-portfolios in recognition of prior learning (RPL) processes in workplace and professional practice contexts has attracted little attention in the literature due to its emergent nature. This study seeks to explore the growing incidence of e-portfolio-based RPL (e-RPL) and professional recognition (e-PR) processes in Australia…

Effective integration of learning technologies into classrooms is a continuing issue, with many instances of new technologies making minimal impacts on classroom practice. Reports on the introduction of interactive whiteboards into UK schools over the past decade have revealed that their impact on both pedagogy and learning is at best neutral.…

An outcomes hierarchy for professional training programs in higher education institutions is advanced. The hierarchy was developed, using an inductive approach, from the research literature and an empirical inquiry into the outcomes of a graduate training program in evaluation that involved 26 Australian graduate students. (SLD)

The long-term success of professional development programs depends on the quality of the original offering and availability of support services. Methodological issues relating to follow-up evaluation are discussed. The evaluation of an inservice program for primary school principals is described. (Author/DF)

This paper reports on an interview-based study which explored the implementation of a major policy initiative in Queensland, Australia, with particular attention to social justice issues. Interviews were conducted with key policy actors in three sections of the bureaucracy: strategic directions, performance and measurement; curriculum and…