This article evaluates the predictions of an algorithmic-level distributed associative memory model as it introduces, propagates, and resolves ambiguity, and compares it to the predictions of computational-level parallel parsing models in which ambiguous analyses are accounted separately in discrete distributions. By superposing activation…

Study Skills in any guise are integral to Higher Education worldwide, existing to help student success. Some argue generic or bolt-on Study Skills do not help with success, others that embedded Study Skills do, but no-one advocates actually evaluating Study Skills in a context of success defined as helping with student educational gain and…

Generative AI (GenAI) is transforming higher education. It has already challenged the validity of traditional assessment methods and revealed concerns about the authenticity and reliability of conventional approaches. This opinion piece proposes an expanded theoretical framework for contextual learning, incorporating practical, situational,…

Reflective practice (RP) has been widely promoted in many second language teacher education programs to foster pre-service teachers' pedagogical competence. However, the effectiveness of RP has often been questioned and challenged due to its lack of authenticity in practice. This Viewpoint paper focuses on the issue of authenticity of RP and how…

ACT requested assistance from the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (Center for Assessment) to investigate declines of scores for states administering the ACT to its 11th grade students in 2018. This request emerged from conversations among state leaders, the Center for Assessment, and ACT in trying to understand the…

Over the last decade, societal pressure has increased on public research agencies to provide evidence that their research contributes to achieve development goals. To address this challenge, the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (Cirad), developed an ex-post impact assessment method based on the impact pathway…

Dynamic assessments in general, and game-based assessment (GBA) specifically, compel us to rethink prevailing language testing conceptualizations of context. Context has traditionally been portrayed with a cognitive orientation, which focuses on static abilities, ignores complex interactions, devalues the role of tasks in determining scores, and…

We summarize the history of the development of the Teacher Behavior Checklist and review examples of its utility for studying excellence in teaching across cultures and contexts.

Culturally responsive evaluation contests that Western-derived evaluation methods represent a universal truth and promotes approaches that reflect the local context. Taking this approach, we examine how the method of contribution analysis may be modified to reflect a different worldview. We reframe contribution analysis using a Confucian lens as…

This article draws on findings from a national review of the evaluation of access and equity initiatives across Australian higher education to argue that utilising responsive mixed methods focused on the values of participants enables crucial understanding of what matters to the people involved. Based on the evidence collected, a "what…

Research agendas and academic evaluation are inevitably linked. By means of economic incentives, promotion, research funding, and reputation academic evaluation is a powerful influence on the production of knowledge; moreover, it is often conceived as a universal instrument without consideration of the context in which it is applied. Evaluation…

In this paper, we focus on participatory evaluation in the context of international development and specifically on the emerging empirical knowledge base. In a prior review and critique of research on participatory evaluation (Cousins and Chouinard 2012), we examined 121 studies, with only 21 (17%) situated in development contexts. However, the…

Measurable targets, key performance indicators, value for money--whatever we may think of the "impact agenda," it looks like it is here to stay. Are we trapped in a positivist, new managerialist spiral of demonstrating the value of our work, or can we take the lead in reframing the discourse on how educational development proves its…

Curriculum evaluation has experienced an uncertain status in Australian schools due to a lack of commitment by state systems to a systematic model. While we have witnessed shifts in emphasis between teachers as curriculum designers to curriculum implementers, there has never been a focus on teachers as curriculum evaluators. This article explores…

This article explores three current, influential English language teaching (ELT) curriculum approaches to the teaching of English in public-sector schools at the primary and secondary level and how the theory of each approach translates into curriculum practice. These approaches are communicative language teaching (CLT), genre-based pedagogy, and…