Search

Quality outcomes from vocational education and training (VET) are fundamental to ensuring a skilled workforce and supporting a productive economy. In a competency-based training system, assessment is the gatekeeper for quality. Audits undertaken by the Australian Skills and Quality Authority (ASQA) have identified concerns with compliance against the assessment requirements of the Standards for Registered Training Organizations (RTOs) 2015 (Standards for RTOs). ASQA strategic reviews, including into aged and community care, early childhood education and care, equine programs and security training industries, highlighted assessment as an area requiring more attention if the quality of training is to improve. In response to concerns about assessment, and to ensure high-quality within the system, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Industry and Skills Council agreed that further reform options be developed to improve the quality of assessment of student training outcomes and enhance confidence in the VET sector. Specifically, the Industry and Skills Council agreed to explore reform options to support the following principles: (1) Graduates have the required competencies for the job role and there is consistency across RTOs in the quality of assessment; (2) Trainers and assessors have the capability to assess appropriately; (3) Assessment meets the standard set by industry; and (4) The regulator has the capacity to effectively regulate assessment practices and outcomes and take appropriate action. The discussion paper sought stakeholder views on further specific reforms that may ensure the existing reforms that could generate the intended impact and are not held back by ongoing concerns over RTO compliance with assessment requirements. The appendices are included.

While teachers' initial education is key to ensuring that new teachers are prepared for their work, it is only one piece in the continuum of teachers' professional growth. Continuing professional learning is vital for teachers to broaden and deepen their knowledge, keep up with new research, tools and practices and respond to their students' changing needs. It also plays a key role in building collaborative school cultures and supporting the collective improvement of the teaching profession. While the importance of continuing teacher learning is widely recognised, building efficient, equitable and sustainable professional learning systems is far from trivial. The OECD Teachers' Professional Learning (TPL) study seeks to support the development of effective TPL policies and practices in schools and school systems. This paper proposes a theoretical and analytical framework for the study, systematically maps available OECD indicators to this framework and identifies information gaps and areas for future comparative work.

Governments recognise that careers guidance, underpinned by accurate labour market information, can help learners make post-secondary education choices that match their interests, aptitudes and abilities, and lead to rewarding employment. For this reason, they have invested in building linked education/employment information systems and other information resources which are displayed on websites targeted to learners and their families. However, researchers and governments agree that these efforts are often ineffective in informing learners' decisions -- access to information is not sufficient to provide effective support to student choice. Drawing upon the insights of behavioural economics, this paper examines how learners access and use information, and what this implies for the design of public study and career choice websites that aim to effectively support student choice. The report also takes stock of the career guidance websites in use in the majority of OECD countries, and sets out to provide actionable advice for policy makers to guide the design of effective information policy levers that support student choice.

Feedback is known to be one of the most important factors influencing learning and achievement (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). However, ensuring that feedback positively influences student learning requires careful curriculum and assessment design by academic staff. This can be challenging in higher education when subjects are delivered in digital learning environments (DLEs), as there are generally fewer opportunities for spontaneous feedback through informal dialogue or social interaction in class. Fortunately, there are a range of digital tools to assist with the design and delivery of feedback information in DLEs. This short paper identifies the benefits, challenges, and design considerations of using these digital tools to provide feedback information from a range of sources, including academic staff, peers, and the student themselves.

The term 'engagement' is much researched but tricky to define in the field of educational technology and online learning. In this short paper I will offer three perspectives on what 'engagement' means in online learning environments and provide some advice to educators on how student engagement in online learning might be promoted. The presentation of three perspectives is in no way meant to represent the entire literature base in the area. But the three perspectives hopefully provide a useful framing of how academic staff -- particularly those new to online teaching and learning -- can approach the concept of student engagement in online learning.

This study investigated how firms in Germany and Australia compare when dealing with the institutional arrangements for apprenticeship training in their countries, with particular attention given to factors which may impact on their training motivation. Apprenticeships are a well-established pathway to employment across many countries, with a particularly long and enduring history in Germany and Australia. Apprenticeships are characterised by a tripartite relationship between employer, apprentice, and training organisation. The available international literature suggests that the institutional framework for training in a country is an important determinant of a firm's motivation to provide training, and it influences their willingness to bear (at least part) of the training costs. Key messages from this study are: (1) Employers of trades' apprentices in both Germany and Australia appear to bear substantial costs for training their apprentices; (2) Institutional frameworks in Germany foster an investment model, a model which emphasises the benefits of employing apprentices after training, while in Australia some firms adopt more of a production (that is, substitution for "regular" workers) model of apprenticeship training, although there is a relatively strong investment motivation for trade firms in Australia; (3) For firms focused on the short-term costs and benefits of training, the withdrawal of some national government incentive payments in Australia has led to a weaker commitment to training, most evident in non-trade trainee places being offered; and (4) By contrast, firms training in trade occupations appear to be more investment-oriented and are more inclined to continue training, or employ an apprentice after training, even with the withdrawal of incentives. Tables and figures are appended.

The global spread of COVID-19 has led to unprecedented disruptions in schooling around the world that have animated increased interest among policymakers, educators, researchers and the general public in knowing about how education systems have responded to the pandemic and how students' learning experiences have changed. The PISA Global Crises Module was developed to address this need. 62 student questionnaire items (grouped into 11 questions) and 68 school questionnaire items (grouped into 14 questions) were developed following a process that involved input from leading questionnaire development experts, PISA National Centres, as well as small-scale cognitive interview studies in three countries. While all countries were affected by the pandemic in some way, the module seeks to illuminate differential effects on student learning and well-being, and the degree of interruption or changes to education across different education systems. Governing bodies, organisations and researchers can use the instruments and the descriptions of the underlying constructs for adaptation and broader implementation.

The worldwide school closures in early 2020 led to losses in learning that will not easily be made up for even if schools quickly return to their prior performance levels. These losses will have lasting economic impacts both on the affected students and on each nation unless they are effectively remediated. While the precise learning losses are not yet known, existing research suggests that the students in grades 1-12 affected by the closures might expect some 3 percent lower income over their entire lifetimes. For nations, the lower long-term growth related to such losses might yield an average of 1.5 percent lower annual GDP for the remainder of the century. These economic losses would grow if schools are unable to re-start quickly. The economic losses will be more deeply felt by disadvantaged students. All indications are that students whose families are less able to support out-of-school learning will face larger learning losses than their more advantaged peers, which in turn will translate into deeper losses of lifetime earnings. The present value of the economic losses to nations reach huge proportions. Just returning schools to where they were in 2019 will not avoid such losses. Only making them better can. While a variety of approaches might be attempted, existing research indicates that close attention to the modified re-opening of schools offers strategies that could ameliorate the losses. Specifically, with the expected increase in video-based instruction, matching the skills of the teaching force to the new range of tasks and activities could quickly move schools to heightened performance. Additionally, because the prior disruptions are likely to increase the variations in learning levels within individual classrooms, pivoting to more individualised instruction could leave all students better off as schools resume. As schools move to re-establish their programmes even as the pandemic continues, it is natural to focus considerable attention on the mechanics and logistics of safe re-opening. But the long-term economic impacts also require serious attention, because the losses already suffered demand more than the best of currently considered re-opening approaches.

Are teachers and principals aligned in their perceptions of the core components of the theory of Leadership for Learning across countries, or are there subgroups of schools in which there is misalignment? The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which a congruency-typology model of leadership for learning is distributed across countries/economies using the TALIS 2018 dataset through examining the interaction of significantly different subgroups of teacher and principal responders through using multilevel latent class analysis (LCA) with a cross-level interaction. I analyse data from lower secondary schools of n=152 635 teachers in 9 079 schools and their principals across 47 countries/economies. Currently in the research literature on school leadership, leadership for learning has emerged as a framework to bring together managerial, transformational, distributed, and instructional leadership. Yet little is known about leadership for learning across national contexts. This study 1) maps the TALIS 2018 survey items to the current literature and surveys for leadership for learning, 2) then details the methods and analysis framework to examine if there are multiple significantly different types of teachers, principals, and schools from a leadership for learning theory framework. The final model 3) identifies a three-group teacher typology and a three-group principal typology, linking these types to school context, covariates, as well as teacher and principal training and experience. Results relate directly to the intersection of research, policy, and practice for training and capacity of school leaders across 47 countries/economies globally.

Early years are a critical period for skill development. In this sense, the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) programmes have an important role in promoting children's learning during this period. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of ECEC programmes by analysing the relationship between students' ECEC attendance and their later academic proficiency using PISA 2015 data. PISA results show that across the OECD countries, students who had attended ECEC tend to have higher scores in academic proficiencies at the age of 15. However, these differences in academic proficiencies between those who attended ECEC versus those who did not attend are almost nil when students' socio-economic status (SES) is considered. This relationship reflects differential access to learning opportunities for children from deprived contexts. Furthermore, results show that entering ECEC programmes earlier than the typical time is associated with lower proficiencies at the age of 15. Therefore, earlier entry to ECEC is not necessarily beneficial. Learning benefits of ECEC provision vary considerably across PISA countries illustrating the importance of a country-specific policy context and the quality of their ECEC provision. The analyses of several quality indicators point out that the improved quality of ECEC programmes is associated with higher academic skills at later stages. These results highlight that mere attendance to ECEC programmes is not enough to ensure better academic performance. The quality of the educational provision, especially concerning those students from disadvantaged backgrounds, should be ensured.

This issue explores the nature of childhood by offering selections that re/imagine the idea of the child as art maker; inquire about the relationships between children and adults when they are making art; and investigate how physical space influences approaches to art instruction. Readers are invited to join a dialogue that questions long-standing traditions of early childhood art--traditions grounded in a modernist view of children's art as a romantic expression of inner emotional and/or developmental trajectories. Selected essays create liminal spaces for reflection, dialogue, and critique of the views that have governed understandings of children and their art. Individual essays in this paper include: (1) Entering the Secret Hideout: Fostering Newness and Space for Art and Play (Shana Cinquema); (2) The Affective Flows of Art-Making (Bronwyn Davies); (3) Seeing Meaning (Barry Goldberg); (4) The Existential Territories of Global Childhoods: Resingularizing Subjectivity Through Ecologies of Care and the Art of Ahlam Shibli (Laura Trafí-Prats); (5) Visualizing Spaces of Childhood (Heather G. Kaplan); (6) A "Widespread Atelier" for Exploring Energy (Giulio Ceppi); (7) Art Education at Bank Street College, Then and Now (Edith Gwathmey and Ann-Marie Mott); (8) Theorising through Visual and Verbal Metaphors: Challenging Narrow Depictions of Children and Learning (Sophie Rudolph); and (9) Time for a Paradigm Shift: Recognizing the Critical Role of Pictures Within Literacy Learning (Beth Olshansky). Individual essays contain references and figures.

This systematic review investigates the relevance of general pedagogical knowledge for successful teaching. It synthesises the empirical evidence of 10 769 teaching professionals and 853 452 students from primary to tertiary education in 21 countries. The meta-analysis of 20 quantitative studies revealed significant effects for teaching quality and student outcomes (Cohen's d = 0.64 and 0.26), indicating that more knowledgeable teachers achieve a three-month additional progress for students. The three themes emerging from 31 qualitative studies underline that general pedagogical knowledge is a crucial resource for teaching. Results also show that teaching requires knowledge about a range of topics, specific skills and other competences to transform knowledge into practice. Teachers need training and practical experience to acquire knowledge, which they apply according to the pedagogical situation at hand. The results allow for important conclusions for policy, practice and research.

This white paper analyzes the potential effects of requiring income-driven repayment for all federal loans as well as relying on paycheck withholding for loan payments, with particular attention to the implications for low-income students and families. The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) also examines the relevance and evolution of mandatory IDR ["income-driven repayment"] systems in Australia and the United Kingdom, and the paper includes specific recommendations to streamline and improve student loan repayment options in the United States. Two appendices are included: (1) Citation List of Figure 2: "Key Comparisons of IDR Systems and Context: U.S., U.K., and Australia"; and (2) Borrower Example Details.

At every five-yearly census, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recalculates both the SEIFA (Socio-economic Indexes for Areas) indexes and also recalibrates the borders and sizes of the geographic areas from which these SEIFA measurements are derived. Further, over time, the composition of geographic areas may change, due to urban renewal or other factors. The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) reports vocational education and training (VET) participation rates at least annually, and the question that arises is how well do the SEIFA indexes perform over the interim years, that is, between the releases of new census data. Of particular interest is the reporting of participation rates for the census years. In reporting the 2011 year, NCVER uses the 2006 census data, as the ABS does not release new SEIFA values until 18 months after each census. The focus of this paper is on VET participation rates; however, the methodology would be equally applicable to higher education or school participation. The approach used in this paper is that the 2006 and 2011 National VET Provider Collections have had the 2006 and 2011 SEIFA measures applied to each of them, along with the Australian populations at each time. Using these data, it was possible to determine VET participation rates (by age) as a proportion of the Australian population, using both the 2006 and 2011 census data. The SEIFA index used in this paper was the Index of Relative Disadvantage (IRSD). [Funding for this document was provided by the Australian Department of Industry.]

The vocational education and training (VET) system can provide an entry point to the education sector for people who have experienced disadvantage in their lives. Participation in VET can provide personal benefits as well as lead to further study and/or employment. How disadvantaged learners participate in vocational education and training is an important consideration. Further study and employment outcomes are more likely to stem from completing a higher-level VET qualification, but disadvantaged learners tend to enrol in lower-level qualifications. Hence, whether or not disadvantaged learners are transitioning from lower-level VET qualifications to higher-level vocational education and training and into higher education is of interest. Based on a review of the literature, this paper synthesises what is currently known about these transitions for disadvantaged learners. Disadvantaged learners tend to be over-represented in lower-level VET qualifications and underrepresented in higher-level VET and higher education. There is little in the literature that provides student perspectives on transitions from lower-level to higher-level vocational education and training and from VET into higher education. The literature shows that transition from VET to higher education is a viable pathway for some disadvantaged learners, although it is not used as widely as it could be. There are a number of factors that act as barriers: (1) Transition from vocational education and training to higher education is more likely to occur from higher-level VET qualifications. However, disadvantaged learners re-engaging with the education sector are more likely to enrol in lower-level qualifications. (2) Transition from VET to higher education can be complicated, even for students who are not disadvantaged. This is despite the array of formal arrangements, such as credit transfer, and supports that are in place. (3) Support services can make a difference, but there is a tension between providing individually tailored support and system-wide support. Limited resources are an issue, and priority should be given to supports most likely to lead to positive outcomes. This paper shows that disadvantaged learners tend to be over-represented in lower-level VET qualifications and underrepresented in higher-level VET and higher education. Transition from VET to higher education is a viable pathway for some disadvantaged learners, but this pathway is not used as widely as it could be.

The recent refugee crisis has put many Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries under considerable pressure to accommodate and integrate large numbers of refugees. Refugee students are a particularly vulnerable group due to their forced displacement, but their needs are not always met by education systems, which can hinder the integration potential of these students. This poses considerable challenges as the integration of refugee students in education systems is important for their academic outcomes as well as their social and emotional well-being. The success (or lack of) integration in schools can also affect the future labour market and social integration potential of these children and youth. While there is a growing body of research on the integration of immigrants, policy-relevant research on refugee children and youth from an educational perspective is rather limited, fragmented and case specific. Detailed surveys and research projects focusing on the current wave of refugees that allow for cross-country comparisons are not yet available. Drawing on research from previous refugee waves, the paper examines key needs of refugee students and factors that promote their integration. It proposes a holistic model of integration in education that responds to the learning, social and emotional needs of refugee students. Furthermore, the paper examines what type of policies and practices are in place in OECD countries that support the integration of refugee students. Nonetheless, evaluations of practices and policies are often missing, which makes it difficult to assess whether they are successful. The paper finishes with some policy pointers on how to promote the integration of refugee students.

A common complaint from business and industry is that employees entering the workforce are not "job ready." They often lack the practical skills, maturity, and workplace experience to perform well in their roles, leaving employers to fill the gap by providing training either at their own expense or with public funding. In contrast, a new employee with previous experience as a volunteer in an emergency services organisation comes into the workplace with an understanding of teamwork, a demonstrated sense of community and responsibility, and an appreciation of the role of organisational culture, thus accelerating their emergence as an asset to their employer. This case study of the South Australia Country Fire Service (SA CFS) examined key factors in the resourcing and efficacy of training for volunteers. It was undertaken as a joint initiative of Government Skills Australia (GSA), the SA CFS and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). The SA CFS delivers nationally endorsed and non-endorsed training to their volunteers, all funded from the annual operational budget it receives from the South Australian Government. It maintains a training centre at Brukunga in the Adelaide Hills and several regional training resources across the state. The SA CFS is a registered training organisation. The research sought views through qualitative and quantitative sources, interviewing brigades, employers and key industry stakeholders--242 volunteers responded to the quantitative survey. The core hypothesis for this research was that SA CFS volunteers who trained under the Australian Qualifications Framework's (AQF) Public Safety Training Package are taking skills and knowledge gained in roles as firefighters, trainers and incident managers into their paid employment. Formal transferrable skills revealed in the case study included safety and first aid, truck driving, equipment use (e.g. using a chainsaw), training and assessment. Such skills have valuable alignment with jobs in Agriculture; Food and Forestry; Mining; Public Administration and Safety; and Health Care and Social Assistance industry areas. Other generic skills acquired informally are in management, leadership, communication and logistics. The SA CFS training model is not funded to recognise these latter skills. The data gathered also show that the SA CFS provides pathways for young people through its programs for cadets; the inclusion of SA CFS volunteering in the South Australian Certificate of Education for Years 11 and 12; and the provision of nationally accredited units in operational training. This is important given the need to recruit and retain new, younger volunteers in the emergency service sector. The findings indicate that volunteers are more strongly aware of the benefits of SA CFS training to the workplace than their employers. Their skills acquisition and transfer have multifaceted, multi-directional benefits: volunteers who are drawn from a broad range of industries bring professional skills to the brigade and transfer knowledge among the volunteer cohort; they also take skills imparted during their volunteer experience back to the workplace and to their communities. Greater recognition of this process is warranted, especially in order to elucidate the overall gains for both employers and the community from the activities of the SA CFS as a learning organisation. Appended are: (1) Survey Questions; and (2) Employer Telephone Interview Survey Script.

Recent research in the vocational education and training (VET) sector shows that students are gaining a range of benefits from their studies, beyond expected course outcomes. Students are developing new networks, and gaining confidence and self esteem through the respect received from their teachers and classmates. For some students, these advantages help them to find work and interact more easily with those around them. The networks and trust developed by students can also be referred to as "social capital." While many students are gaining social capital outcomes incidentally, these outcomes can also be actively developed. This paper, presented to Australian Learning Communities Network discusses the concept of social capital and examines the link between social capital and VET. The paper also outlines ways in which social capital can be developed through VET courses and partnerships. The research shows developing social capital can be particularly helpful for marginalised young people. [This work has been produced on behalf of the Australian Government and state and territory governments.]

Differences in teacher quality are commonly cited as a key determinant of the huge international student performance gaps. However, convincing evidence on this relationship is still lacking, in part because it is unclear how to measure teacher quality consistently across countries. We use unique international assessment data to investigate the role of teacher cognitive skills as one main dimension of teacher quality in explaining student outcomes. Our main identification strategy exploits exogenous variation in teacher cognitive skills attributable to international differences in relative wages of nonteacher public sector employees. Using student-level test score data, we find that teacher cognitive skills are an important determinant of international differences in student performance. Results are supported by fixed-effects estimation that uses within-country between-subject variation in teacher skills.

This paper investigates the personal and career development needs of TAFE (Technical And Further Education) Queensland's lead vocational teachers through the conceptual framework of Spirituality at Work (SAW), which is a framework for looking at workplace relations. This research was conducted through four focus group meetings held in November 2009, each lasting approximately 90 minutes. A Queensland TAFE-wide notice attracted the lead vocational teachers who volunteered to participate in the focus group discussions. The focus groups reviewed the way in which the lead vocational teacher role is currently being deployed within various TAFE Queensland institutes. The research is limited by the small number of participants. In all, while 80 people responded to the invitation to participate, only 24 were able to take part. This was due mainly to time constraints, work pressures and other commitments. The sample may not be representative of the true demographic of lead vocational teachers in TAFE Queensland. The research is also limited in that the sole method of data-gathering was through the use of focus groups. The paper argues that the Spirituality at Work framework already exists in the teaching profession as a set of humanist values, which, while acknowledged as fluid, changeable and multiple, informs the basis of much teaching work. In particular, the role of teacher leadership in TAFE Queensland resembles a form of servant leadership (Greenleaf 1977), with a strongly affective component. This model of ethics-based behaviour is challenged by the business-based model of education and the proliferation of performance measures. It is argued that this conflict of interest creates an incongruence that is a discouraging factor in staff retention and a source of dissatisfaction among lead vocational teachers. It is revealed that lead vocational teachers view their profession as a "calling" and see serving their students as a priority. With greater emphasis being placed on financial decisions within VET workplaces and the introduction of increased reporting requirements, these teachers feel that they are operating in environments with low levels of trust. Overall, lead vocational teachers consider that their teaching practices were undervalued. Focus group questions are appended.