Assessment ANUs Current SELT Evaluation System - Research Proposal Example

Assessment ANU’s current SELT evaluation system Name Course Instructor Date Decision Research Proposal Purpose of the Study My proposed study will focus on Assessment of the major reviews at ANU Bachelor of Science Administration, a great deal is unknown in ANU’s current SELT evaluation system. The purpose of this study is to investigate the curriculum and the extent to which test results are used by lecturers while teaching in the classroom to enhance learning. The study aims at identifying factors, conditions and support systems that optimize the curriculum‟ use of data from classroom tests for learning. This paper will give advice on possible teaching quality evaluation activities for Bachelor of Science of Business Administration. Research Questions With the aforesaid goal of this study in mind, the following research questions will used to guide the study: What is the purpose of curriculum assessment in ANU’s current SELT evaluation system? What teaching quality evaluation activities should be implemented for bachelor of business administration? These questions were formulated after an extensive analysis of the current research and in response to calls for further research of this type as seen in the literature review. Situation of the study The study would potentially facilitate lecturers‟ and students‟ shift from the traditional ANU’s standard end of course SELT evaluation of testing into the new major review by adopting the Rapid Evidence Assessment for Bachelor of Business Administration. The study would also reveal information to guide the curriculum on policy concerning assessment in reforms on ANU’s current SELT evaluation system. Insights can also be gained on how to achieve life-long learning a key point in achieving development, based on the global focus of education for Bachelor of Business Administration. Hence, the emphasis on the new reforms may be reviewed. Methodology The participating teachers will be required to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaire is intended to provide both qualitative and quantitative information on the ANU Bachelor of Business Administration reforms, the provision of feedback to enhance learning, factors that may affect teachers in the process of assessment for new ANU’s standard end of course SELT evaluations and an indication of teacher training to enable effective use of new assessment reforms for learning (Hughes 2003). It will provide an indication of the extent of using rapid assessment for learning practices and deficiencies where applicable. The questionnaire will also demanded an indication of the methods used in the old ANU’s SELT evaluation program. Research Design The research design will be a non-experimental descriptive study which will detail a unit that stressed on factors contributing to success or failure of the new Bachelor of business administration SELT evaluations. The target population The target population of this study will be lectures in ANU. Both male and female respondents will be selected (Christodoulou, & Wiliam 2016). A stratified random sample of fifteen lecturers will be selected from different departments. The stratification will be on account of mathematics, science and art department. More than one hundred lecturers from Mathematics, Science and arts department will be selected at random. Analysis of data The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) will be used to perform the analysis. Descriptive statistics will be carried out in which means, frequencies, percentages and Pearson‟s correlation will be used (Wasson 2007). The analysis will also be done in relation to ANU’s old SELT program, performance of lecturers‟ training, and the new reforms because previous studies have indicated that training has an effect on the tutors‟ use of SELT programs. Expected results The questionnaire will provide data as to why teachers assess their students Using SELT evaluations i.e. diagnosing the students‟ weaknesses. Not so many teachers assess in order to improve their teaching. Teachers in mathematics department‟ tend to test more in order to grade students while those in humanities‟ schools tend to often test to meet the school administration requirements for end of course SELT evaluations (MacNealy 2007). Purposes of assessment are expected to vary with the lecturers‟ lengths of experience. Majority of lecturers who have taught for less than five years will use SELT evaluations for purposes of grading students (Tang, & Logonnathan 2016). The next common purpose for SELT evaluations among lecturers is to diagnose students‟ problems (Rickards 2016). The minority, in this group, will indicate that they assessed for purposes of improving their teaching and in order to meet ANU,s requirements on SELT evaluations. A majority of lecturers having more than five years’ experience, use SELT evaluations to either, meet school administration requirements, or to improve their teaching. Very few of these experienced group are expected to show that they assessed to grade students and to diagnose students‟ problems. Rapid Evidence Assessment Based on my Proposal New bachelor of Business Administration SELT evaluations are crucial processes in supporting decision making. Through SELT evaluations learners, lecturers and tutors are guided on what has been learnt and to what extent. The SELT evaluations that promotes learning is known as Rapid Evidence Assessment defined as the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to identify where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there (Assessment Reform Group 2005). The evidence referred to in this case is collected through observation, questioning and use of teacher-made SELT evaluations. In schools SELT evaluations takes place both formally and informally at the end of every lesson, semester or any time intervals therein. In this context ANU’s SELT evaluations stardards information about students‟ preconceptions, comprehension strategies, attributions and planning or meta-cognition will be revealed. Thus if data results from teacher-made SELT evaluations is relayed effectively to the students in a form that can influence their thought processes and planning then the SELT evaluations can be useful for learning. Thus students can use SELT evaluations data for monitoring their reading comprehension and planning how they will relate previously acquired knowledge (Filipenko 2016). The implication of new SELT evaluations process is that the criteria for assessment, needs to be well understood by both teacher and students for the assessment of Bachelor of business managment to be motivating. Sadler (2014) states that in order for the students to improve they must have a notion of the desired standard or goal to enable them compare the actual performance with the desired performance and to engage in appropriate action to close the gap between the two (Bringle 2016). The above understanding can be created by the lecturers when using the new SELT evaluations for learning. Final decision about additional teaching quality evaluation activities This new SELT evaluations moves towards a communicative approach since it assess the learner's performance of his/her competence in Bachelors of business managment. Besides it can be considered a valid SELT evaluations because it assesses more than one skill compared to the old ANU’s standards. Actually the more skills tested, the more valid the SELT evaluations is. It is also a high utility SELT evaluations since it gives feedback to both, the lecturer and the learner, about the specific areas for possible Business Adminastration work. This can be mainly seen in the speaking assessment where students does not only receive a single mark but also a description in the form of a profile of his/her performance (Stiggins 2006). The reliability of the new SELT evaluations depends on the type of scoring being used. In the speaking skill SELT evaluations, the reliability is not as high as in the listening one, though this has been in some way solved by means of a rubric which describes a number of possible student performances of the skill being evaluated (Carless et al 2017). In addition, we can see that receptive skills (such as listening) lend to objective marking while productive ones lend to subjective marking. The type of marking defines the level of practicality of the SELT evaluations. A subjective assessment (like the speaking one) needs more time to administer and mark than an objective one (listening skill). This has been in some way solved by assessing the students in pairs. Recommendations New admissions A fair bachelor of business administration admission policy reforms will enable ANU to enroll the best students and to produce recognized high quality graduates. This reform will also boost the morale of the institute and governing team in particular. This reform will also provide impetus for other academic reforms such as improvement in the SELT evaluation. SELT evaluation system At ANU the office of the controller of examinations is the main authority to produce examinations, allocating SELT evaluation to every department will help enforce adherence to the curriculum calendar. This will also enhance the validity of SELT evaluations through enforcement of strict rules in the examination rooms. Curriculum programs The curriculum should be changed to accommodate Bachelor of business Administrations, the new reforms should enforce the curriculum by introducing continuous assessment system. They should adopt remedial evaluations and improved efficiency in releasing examination results. Curriculum calendar Lack of enforced curriculum calendar lead to virtual chaos in the planning and implementation of evaluation program. The new reforms should try to start discussions with students and faculty to synchronize all evaluation programs and establish a fixed curriculum calendar Regularly held classes Monitoring absenteeism for both student and faculty is one of the most difficulty thing that management faces. In the new curriculum changes academic counselling should be introduced for student discussion with lecturers and SELT monitoring procedures will help to ensure that lectures are regularly held. Student discipline The improvement of the university evaluation environment will be a major facilitator in enhancing student discipline. This will help student realize that working with faculty members will foster their achievement of academic goals. International corporation The new reform should enforce cooperative partnership with other campuses worldwide, this will help improve their reputation internationally. Conclusion Lecturers need liberty to determine when and where in their content coverage to assess students beneficially rather than the current emphasis on formal assessments that is meant to grade students. This can be put in check by training the Quality Assurance and Standards arm of the ANU’s new SELT evaluation system in assessment for learning Bachelor of Business Administration, for them to implement the new reform in the classrooms (Rowley 2017). Bachelor of Business Administration SELT evaluations will ensure that student attribute their success to their own efforts which research has shown can positively influence students (Downey & Beddoes 2011). Overall there is need to carryout research in curriculum assessment because it is the part of education that appears to be riddled with a myriad of problems ranging from poor SELT evaluations. Such research will provide more insight into assessment practice in ANU’s new SELT evaluation system and inform policy decisions in curriculum assessment. References Assessment Reform Group (ARG). (2005). Assessment for learning: 10 principles Z(Cambridge, England: University of Cambridge.) http://www.aaia.org.uk Saddler, D. R, (2014). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional science, 18, 119-144. Stiggins, R. J. (2006). Facing the challenges of a new era of educational Assessment. Applied Measurement in Education, 4, 263-273. Atif, M., ANU Digital Theses., & Australian National University. (2010). Adaptive resource relocation in virtualized heterogeneous clusters. Sambell, K., McDowell, L., & Montgomery, C. (2013). Assessment for learning in higher education. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. In Carless, D., In Bridges, S., In Chan, C. L. W., & In Glofcheski, R. (2017). Scaling up assessment for learning in higher education. In Filipenko, M., & In Naslund, J.-A. (2016). Problem-based learning in teacher education. Tang, S. F., & Logonnathan, L. (2016). Assessment for Learning Within and Beyond the Classroom: Taylor's 8th Teaching and Learning Conference 2015 Proceedings. Singapore: Springer Singapore. Bringle, R. G., Reeb, R. N., Brown, M. A., & Ruiz, A. I. (2016). Service learning in psychology: Enhancing undergraduate education for the public good. Rickards, W. H., & Stitt-Bergh, M. (2016). Evaluating Student Learning in Higher Education: New Directions for Evaluation, Number 151. Newark: Wiley. Christodoulou, D., & Wiliam, D. (2016). Making good progress?: The future of assessment for learning. In Ata, A., & In Kostogriz, A. (2015). International education and cultural-linguistic experiences of international students in Austral Rowley, J. (2017). EPortfolios in Australian Universities. Singapore: Springer Singapore. Downey, G. L., & Beddoes, K. (2011). What is global engineering education for?: The making of international educators. San Rafael, Calif. (1537 Fourth Street, San Rafael, CA 94901 USA: Morgan & Claypool. Hughes, A. (2003). Testing for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MacNealy, M. S. (2007). Strategies for empirical research in writing. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Wasson, J. (2007). Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Retrieved November 1, 2007, from http://www.mnstate.edu/wasson/ed602pearsoncorr.htm Read More