Engaging and motivating learners to successfully complete their studies are crucial elements for the success of distance educators around the world. The researchers' AIM newsletter, which is formatted in accordance with motivational learning theory, has been delivered to first-year learners in economics at Open Polytechnic of New Zealand from 2010…

This paper aims to survey the current landscape of education policy evaluation across OECD countries and economies by examining recent trends and contextual factors that can promote more robust education policy evaluation, as well as identifying key challenges. It takes a view of policy evaluation as an activity that takes place throughout the…

There is growing interest in using comparative judgement to assess student work as an alternative to traditional marking. Comparative judgement requires no rubrics and is instead grounded in experts making pairwise judgements about the relative 'quality' of students' work according to a high level criterion. The resulting decision data are fitted…

Professional scepticism forms an integral part of a professional accountant's skill set and is fundamental to their training. Recent revisions to IESs 2, 3, 4 and 8 reflect changes in the market expectation in relation to professional scepticism. In this paper, we answer calls for additional research into professional scepticism by investigating…

Teachers of year 0/1 students in English-medium schools in New Zealand (1896 schools) were invited to participate in a survey focussed on assessment of new entrant children's oral language and emergent literacy skills, with an estimated 21% response rate (N = 745). Teachers indicated using a variety of methods for assessing children's skills at…

Existing research shows that high school students do not possess information literacy skills adequate to function in a high-tech society that relies so heavily on information. If students are taught these skills, they struggle to apply them. This small-scale intervention focused on helping Geography students at a low-socioeconomic high school in…

Utilizes an applicability paradigm to test the validity of the Students' Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) and the Endeavor questionnaire across seven countries. The similarity of results supported the instruments' applicability as measures of teacher effectiveness across different countries. Includes six tables of statistical data. (MJP)

Study of New Zealand public library effectiveness duplicates research by Childers and Van House which examined the multiple constituencies model of organizational effectiveness. Librarians, users, and councillors rated performance indicators identified from the literature, and similarities and differences between the two studies are reported. A…

The Northland Wilderness Experience (NWE) was established in 1985 to provide outdoor therapeutic programs for at-risk youth from the Northland region of New Zealand. The program involved a physically challenging 10-day expedition, followed by an 18-month followup period of group outdoor activities offered every 2 weeks. By the end of 1989, 280…

This package contains articles in three general areas: items covering measurement topics; brief and practical guides on measurement techniques; and professional reading on broader assessment issues. The purpose of these publications by "Set" is to provide research information to teachers. The initial article, "Overview of Issues in…