Donna Morrow

Online formative assessment in higher education: A review of the literature

As online and blended learning has become common place educational strategy in higher education, educators need to reconceptualise fundamental issues of teaching, learning and assessment in non traditional spaces. These issues include concepts such as validity and reliability of assessment in online environments in relation to serving the intended purposes, as well as understanding how formative assessment functions within online and blended learning. This article provides a systematic qualitative review of the research literature on online formative assessment in higher education. As an integrative narrative review, the method applied in this review entailed systematic searching, reviewing, and writing this review of the literature to bring together key themes and findings of research in this field. The authors applied qualitative thematic criteria in selecting and reviewing the available literature from which they focused on identifying and analyzing the core themes that are central to the concept of formative assessment with a key focus on application of formative assessment within blended and online contexts. Various techniques were identified for formative assessment by the individual, peers and the teacher, many of which were linked with online tools such as self-test quiz tools, discussion forums and e-portfolios. The benefits identified include improvement of learner engagement and centrality in the process as key actors, including the development of a learning community. The key findings are that effective online formative assessment can foster a learner and assessment centered focus through formative feedback and enhanced learner engagement with valuable learning experiences. Ongoing authentic assessment activities and interactive formative feedback were identified as important characteristics that can address threats to validity and reliability within the context of online formative assessment.

School and District Culture as Reflected in Student Voices and Student Achievement

The study investigated the relation between district culture, student achievement, and student attitudes about their schools. Perceptions of students as expressed in more than 2,000 essays written about their schools were explored. Seven cultural categories were examined for differences across grade levels and districts. Statistical differences were found for 3 categories (Social/People, Education/Curriculum, and Extra-curricular Activities) for writing achievement, for whether the district culture were rated as positive or negative, and for whether students comments revealed a positive or negative view of their schools. This study suggests that district culture has a noticeable effect on school culture and on student achievement.

Privatization, Illumination, and Validation in Identity-Making within a Teacher Educator Research Collective

Much of the self-study of teacher education practices literature characterizes self-study as a collaborative activity involving various degrees of cooperation and interaction with others, both the others who are our students and the collegial others who assist us in our inquiries into our own professional practices. However, while many self-studies in teacher education mention using collaborative or team approaches, few seem to have made collaboration itself the key focus of empirical interest in the analysis and reporting of those studies. This paper reports a collective self-study by seven teacher educators at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, that specifically analyzed the contribution made to their teacher education practices and self-understandings by the collaborative-collective process itself. We found that this collective approach to self-study research helped to maintain momentum and focus in our own self-inquiries through a strong sense of accountability to the group, insured greater trustworthiness to the study through multiple perspectives to the data collection and analysis, de-privatized, illuminated, validated, and challenged each others practices and professional beliefs, and ultimately contributed to the development of a stronger sense of individual and community identity as teacher educators.

Synergy between information and communications technologies and educational action research and collaborative construction of our active identities

Bridget Somekh’s contributions to the debate on the theory and practice of action research and associated methodologies have often been gained through leadership of innovative action and research with computers in education. A review of her work provides evidence of the journey that starts with an appreciation of the wonders of technology before moving through critical reflection on socio‐cultural processes within and across organisations, and out into twenty‐first‐century knowledge generation. This paper argues that recognition of the construction of individual identities can inform innovation with computers in education. The growing maturity of Bridget’s views required increasingly complex designs for ambitious action research projects that aimed to empower and add the voices of children as researchers to those of teacher‐researchers. Perhaps most importantly, Bridget has helped to uncover the socio‐cultural processes and power relationships to empower new styles of collaborative leadership. In 2009, she applied her ‘art of innovation’ to inform the birth of a new regional network for the Collaborative Action and Research Network, namely the New Zealand Collaborative Action and Research Network.

A Proposed Theory Seeded Methodology for Design Based Research into Effective use of MUVEs in Vocational Education Contexts

A methodology for design based research DBR into effective development and use of Multi-User Virtual Environments MUVE in vocational education is proposed. It blends software development with DBR with two theories selected to inform the methodology. Legitimate peripheral participation LPP Lave & Wenger, 1991 provides a filter when thinking about vocational education because moving towards being work ready increases the students legitimate practices within the vocation. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge TPACK Mishra & Koehler, 2006 provides framework to link content and pedagogy with the MUVE technology. Software development techniques necessary in the development of simulation based MUVEs are shown to have characteristics compatible with development research. A design based methodological process that introduces software development within phases is described. The authors reflect on the methodology after the first phase of research into a MUVE that simulates the hazardous situation of temporary traffic management.