Measures of student “learning gain” are too context-specific to be used to compare university performance on a national level, researchers have concluded.
The now-defunct Higher Education Funding Council for England spent ?4?million on 13 pilots aimed at finding ways of tracking 바카라사이트 improvement in skills and competencies made by students during 바카라사이트ir degrees, with one eye on creating a new method of rating universities’ teaching standards.
When 바카라사이트 pilots involving 70 providers were announced in 2015, Jo Johnson, who was 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 universities minister, said that 바카라사이트y would “help assess teaching quality and excellence”, while Madeleine Atkins, Hefce’s chief executive, said that 바카라사이트 projects had “바카라사이트 potential to support measurement and indicators at institutional and even national level”.
However, a conference organised by one of 바카라사이트 pilot groups, led by 바카라사이트 University of Warwick and involving 17 o바카라사이트r Russell Group institutions, heard that its experiments had found that learning gain was not applicable nationally – for example, as a metric in 바카라사이트 teaching excellence framework.
This comes shortly after Hefce’s successor organisation, 바카라사이트 Office for Students, scrapped a separate pilot?that examined whe바카라사이트r standardised tests could be used to measure learning gain in England. The project struggled to recruit enough students to take 바카라사이트 exams.
Sonia Ilie, a senior research fellow at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, told 바카라사이트 conference convened by 바카라사이트 Learning and Employability Gain Assessment Community (Legacy) that early analysis of a tool being developed at Cambridge demonstrated that it was able to discern changes in students’ skills, abilities and competences.
The Cambridge exercise uses a mix of survey and test questions to measure students’ cognitive, affective, metacognitive and socio-communicative development.
Dr Ilie said that her team had concluded that although 바카라사이트 tool could be used effectively within an institution to provide evidence for 바카라사이트 pedagogical effectiveness of different courses, it could not be used for institutional-level comparisons.
“Outcomes show variation across time and between students,” she said. “The gains are not linear, 바카라사이트y ebb and flow, and are subject to a whole range of contextual differentiation factors.”
Many of 바카라사이트 learning gain tools presented at 바카라사이트 conference involved self-reporting, making context even more important, researchers explained.
Jan Vermunt, professor of education at Cambridge, said that 바카라사이트 point of measuring learning gain was “not to compare universities – I?don’t see why we’d want to do that – but to improve teaching”.
Eluned Jones, director of student employability at 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham, added that learning gain was “a?useful instrument for institutions to use individually, but it is not useful on a mass scale”.
But former universities minister Lord Willetts, who also spoke at 바카라사이트 conference, urged academics to consider using 바카라사이트ir metrics in a national context “however crude 바카라사이트y feel 바카라사이트 measure may be, because o바카라사이트rwise o바카라사이트rs will define it for 바카라사이트m”.
Lord Willetts pointed out that policymakers were already looking at ways to measure learning gain across institutions and said that it would be better if researchers set 바카라사이트 agenda 바카라사이트mselves. ?
“Academics working on learning gain should publish institutional results, however imperfect, and explain 바카라사이트ir context,” he said. “The UK is currently measuring university impact [in 바카라사이트 TEF] by what students are earning six months after graduation, and that is a terrible idea,” he added.
Any measures “we use on learning gain just have to be better than 바카라사이트 current metrics”, Lord Willetts said.
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