Ane Qvortrup

Portfolio assessment: Production and reduction of complexity

Over the last two decades, the education system has witnessed a shift from summative, product-oriented assessment towards formative, process-oriented assessment. Among the different learning and assessment initiatives introduced in the slipstream of this paradigmatic turn, the portfolio seems to have become one of the most popular. By redescribing the portfolio from a systems theoretical point of view, this article discusses established expectations of the portfolio in relation to transparency in learning, reflexivity and self-assessment. It shows that the majority of the literature deals with what questions, and that the portfolio is expected to handle a number of challenges with regard to the documentation of learning processes and achievements as well as the conditioning of learning activities. Descriptions of how the portfolio works are sparse. Based on systems theory, the paper adopts a how perspective: How does the portfolio redescribe learning? How does it scaffold and organise communication? One conclusion is that systems theory allows us to redescribe the portfolio as a teaching technology, which, by scaffolding both reflection and reflexivity, produces particular conditions for the stimulation and observation of learning, thus increasing the complexity of observation of learning.

Feedback as Real-Time Constructions.

This article offers a re-description of feedback and the significance of time in feedback constructions based on systems theory. It describes feedback as internal, real-time constructions in a learning system. From this perspective, feedback is neither immediate nor delayed, but occurs in the very moment it takes place. This article argues for a clear distinction between the timing of communicative events, such as responses that are provided as help for feedback constructions, and the feedback construction itself as an event in a psychic system. Although feedback is described as an internal, system-relative construction, different teaching environments offer diverse conditions for feedback constructions. The final section of this article explores this idea with the help of examples from both synchronous oral interaction and asynchronous text-based interaction mediated by digital media.

Inclusion: Dimensions of inclusion in education

ABSTRACT The understanding of inclusion in education has transcended the assumption that inclusion is about students with special needs. It concerns the inclusion of all children. With systems theory as a framework, the article argues that in order to handle inclusion as a phenomenon that concerns all children, we need an operational definition of inclusion differentiated according to three dimensions. The first dimension covers different levels of inclusion. The second dimension concerns different types of social communities in and out of school, from which a child may be included or excluded. The class is one such type of social community, but equally important is membership in the self-organised community of children in the school-yard, the bilateral relationships with other children and/or teachers, etc. The third dimension concerns different degrees of being included in and/or excluded from the different communities. The point is that a child is not either completely included or excluded, but that he/she is included in or excluded from the different communities in different degrees. A comprehensive matrix definition is presented combining the three dimensions, which matches the present understanding of inclusion in education.

Higher education journals as didactic frameworks

ABSTRACT During the last 20 years, we have witnessed a growing interest in research in teaching, learning and educational development in higher education (HE). The result is that ‘Higher Education Didactics’ has established itself as a research field in its own right. This article explores Higher Education Didactics as a framework for academics’ professional reflection on teaching and learning, by mapping the didactic topics in all contributions in four journals in the period 2008–2015. Two of the journals are based in Scandinavia, where the European tradition of didactics (Didaktik) has been highly influential, while the others stem from the Anglo-Saxon curriculum tradition. The mapping shows that all journals are strongly occupied with teaching methods, especially methods grounded in theories of active and social learning. In contrast, didactic categories such as goal, content and assessment are rare topics. Students as participants and learners are a frequent topic in especially one journal, but receive little attention in the other journals. Also, educational technologies receive a varying degree of attention across the journals. Based on the mapping, this article discusses Higher Education Didactics as a framework for professional reflection in HE. It concludes that a broader range of research topics would be desirable and asks for future collaboration on the currently uncharted topics.

Learning Objectives as Frameworks and Resources in Upper Secondary Education

Within the last few years, the educational shift from content-based to outcome-based or competence-based curricula has manifested itself in a great interest in learning objectives and what we call learning objective-oriented education. This includes an enhanced interest in, as well as debate on, how learning outcomes are operationalised into learning objectives in study regulations and syllabus/lesson plans.

Prerequisites of Learning from Various Means and Aim Perspectives

In the previous chapter, we suggested that in institutionalised processes of learning we are dealing with a multiple aim/means structure. Means and aims actualise themselves in concrete practices and can be viewed from a teacher as well as a student perspective. If we delve into this means and aim perspective, trying to tackle the phenomenon of learning, we might sketch out a picture of learning as something that happens because of a means or an aim, such as an instruction given by a teacher or an aim that is explained to the students.

Learning between means and aims

An increased political and professional interest in learning has manifested itself in a shift from content-based to outcome-based curricula and in an increased focus on evidence-informed teaching. Within schools, among teachers and in the overall field of education, the paradigmatic shift from content-based to outcome-based curricula has been followed by enhanced interest in, as well as debate about, how learning outcomes are operationalised into learning objectives or targets in study regulations and syllabus/lesson plans, and in formalised assessment of learning.