Christine Doe

Conceptions of doctoral education: the PhD as pathmaking

Our paper is a conversation with the implicit and explicit expectations of the academy, namely that as doctoral students we must achieve a high degree of intellectual autonomy and generate new knowledge. We contest the implications of this view of learners and learning – that learners are autonomous intellectual agents, that knowledge is a private possession, that cognition is an individual process, and that learning is a static and singular path. We propose instead an understanding of learning as pathmaking, which suggests a creative, richly textured, open‐ended, collaborative and passionate process through which new possibilities emerge. This paper comes out of our shared experiences of doctoral studies in Education. We began with initial conversations about our learning in an Ontario Faculty of Education, which then unfolded into a decision to write a paper together. Our process oscillated between individual writing, shared discussion, and analysis. After jointly identifying six keywords, each of us wrote a reflection about a different one – then we merged our individual reflections into a larger whole. The authorial voices in the paper vary between ‘I’ (representing individual reflections of six authors) and ‘we’ (representing the collective voice).

Student Interpretations of Diagnostic Feedback.

Diagnostic assessment is increasingly being recognized as a potentially beneficial tool for teaching and learning (Jang, 2012). There have been calls in the research literature for students to receive diagnostic feedback and for researchers to investigate how such feedback is used by students. Therefore, this study examined how students interpreted the Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) Assessment feedback in one English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at one Canadian university. Drawing on the Assessment Use Argument proposed by Bachman and Palmer (2010), this study investigated the extent to which CAEL feedback enables students to beneficially adjust their study practices to improve their academic English skills.

Diagnostic English Language Needs Assessment (DELNA)

Tests measuring academic language are traditionally associated with visible, high-stakes decisions of whether or not English language learners are admitted to post-secondary institutions. However, a new form of assessment in higher education is now gaining prominence. Post-entry (or post-enrolment) language assessments (PELA) determine the academic language learning needs of students once they are accepted into a post-secondary institution (Dunworth, 2009; Murray, 2010; Read, 2013). Rather than simply making a summative, evaluative judgment about student ability upon admission, post-entry assessments are designed to specify the level and type of language support required. This use of results is in line with formative and assessment for learning approaches for the use of assessment data (Black & William, 1998; Hill & McNamara, 2012; Rea-Dickins, 2008). This review of the Diagnostic English Language Needs Assessment (DELNA) program reflects increased interest in assessments focused on supporting student learning. In this review, I refer to the DELNA program as it is implemented within the University of Auckland, New Zealand.