Alexis Esposto

Peer assessment as a method of improving student engagement

To encourage increased student attendance and engagement in a third-year economics unit, the curriculum was redesigned to incorporate continuous assessment throughout the semester. A component of group project marks were allocated to peer assessment, in an attempt to address concerns about free-riding colleagues sharing a common mark. This study investigated the consistency of marks awarded to peers within teams, and the acceptance by students of marks awarded by peers. Students were asked to provide ratings and explanatory comments for each of their group peers. Focus groups were conducted to determine students’ acceptance of this strategy. Eighty student ratings were compared to determine consistency of assessment. Within groups, students who received higher marks from their peers generally awarded marks to their peers across a wider range, whereas students who received lower average grades often awarded the same mark to all team members. These results might indicate that students who were attending class regularly and/or contributing at a higher level were more discriminating in the marks awarded to their peers. Similarly, non-contributors (as identified by their peers) assigned the same or similar grades to each of their peers, possibly due to a lack of knowledge about their peers’ contributions.

Actual and potential trade flows between Australia and Latin America

For decades Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was seen as an obscure, far-flung, yet mysterious destination, where business relations for Australian industry and consumers were challenging, complex and difficult to achieve. Of late, however, this perception appears to be changing rapidly. Trade between Australia and Latin America has grown substantially over the recent past and is beginning to capture the imagination of Australian consumers, businesses and government institutions. To that end, this article analyses the growth in trade for a number of LAC countries and pays particular attention to trade growth between Australia and five South American economies. Using Balassas revealed comparative indices the article analyses comparative advantage, trade competitiveness and complementarity for five Latin American countries and Australia. The study shows that trade expansion and gains from trade may be achieved by promoting further trade engagement between Australia and Latin America.

Australia's foreign policy links with Latin America: distant relations

ABSTRACT In more recent years, Australias relations with the countries of Latin America have taken on more importance as the trade and investment links between the two regions have grown. Besides this recent activity, Australia has a long history of diplomatic relations with the countries of Latin America, even though the links between the two regions have at times been fairly superficial. This relationship, like many others, has tended to concentrate on mainly trade relations and, despite Latin Americas often turbulent political history, has not been affected much at all by political issues. The purpose of this article is to analyse the development of foreign policy links between Australia and the countries of Latin America in their formulative stage between 1901 and 1973.