Search

Introduction: During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, teachers had to shift their teaching and assessment to online. Formative assessment (FA) can help teachers to engage, guide and monitor students' (online) learning. However, more knowledge is needed of how teachers could use the full FA process online. Methods: In this study data from 50 secondary school teachers, who taught different grade levels and subjects and joined a FA learning network that started before and continued during the lockdown, were collected. The study investigates how they used online FA practices differently than face-to-face FA, what challenges and opportunities they experienced in online FA and what lessons they learned and intended to keep. This mixed methods study used data from a questionnaire, interviews and webinars that were segmented, coded and analysed. Results: Results showed that many teachers implemented new FA strategies and adopted, more often than in their face-to-face practice, all the five phases of the FA process in an aligned matter in online FA. Teachers indicated opportunities in stimulating student engagement and guiding and monitoring student learning more at an individual level in the online FA process, but also experienced challenges, mainly in lack of interaction online. Discussion: The sudden and necessary shift to online FA, due to the COVID-19 lockdown, challenged teachers to more fundamentally reconsider their assessment practices and assumptions. Teachers intended to make use of these learned lessons to improve their future (blended) FA practice.

Studies of connections between teacher behaviour and student outcomes are numerous, but those specifically addressing such connections in a competence-based vocational education setting are limited. For a sample of Indonesian students, this study examined the connection between two dimensions of teacher interpersonal behaviour (proximity and influence) and student competency levels, as well as whether or not these relations are mediated by students' intrinsic motivation. Additionally, it examined if these relations differed in learning environments with high versus low characteristics of competence-based education (HCBE vs. LCBE). Three questionnaires responded to by 506 first-year students were analysed using multigroups structural equation modelling. Teacher cooperative behaviour affected student motivation positively, and the influence was stronger in LCBE learning environments. Teacher controlling behaviour reduced student-perceived competency levels, with the reduction stronger in HCBE learning environments. Implications of the findings for teaching and learning in vocational education are discussed.

Purpose: Sustainable development requires multiple stakeholders to work and learn across practices, in other words, it requires boundary crossing competence. To prepare students for their future sustainability professions, higher education should facilitate the development of boundary crossing competence in its curricula. This study aims to confirm whether boundary crossing learning can be stimulated by workshop-based support in multi-stakeholder projects. Design/methodology/approach: This quasi-experimental intervention study (N = 122) investigates the effect of a series of supporting workshops on students' boundary crossing learning in multi-stakeholder projects. The workshops allowed students to adopt four learning mechanisms (identification, coordination, reflection and transformation) theorised to stimulate learning across boundaries between practices. Students followed zero, one, or two workshops. By analysing the student learning reports, the study examines the effect of the workshop intervention on students' self-efficacy for stakeholder collaboration, the number of reported student-stakeholder collaborative activities and the reported boundary crossing learning mechanisms. Findings: The results show that a series of two workshops increase the number of reported collaborative activities and activates the students' boundary crossing learning in terms of reflection and transformation. Research limitations/implications: These findings support the evidence-based design of multi-stakeholder learning environments for sustainable development and contribute to the body of knowledge regarding learning across practices. Originality/value: Boundary crossing competence receives increasing attention as an asset for sustainable development. The added value of this study lies in its confirmation that the boundary crossing theory can be translated into directed educational support that can stimulate students' boundary crossing learning.

Worldwide, educational policies increasingly focus on students' intercultural competency development (ICD). But educational institutions struggle with its implementation due to difficulties concerning 1) explicating educational goals for ICD and 2) developing teaching, learning and assessment activities that foster this development. The paper describes the development of the Rubric ICD and two interlinked studies aimed to explore how this tool can help to explicate intercultural competence development in (higher) vocational curricula in the Netherlands. The first study, combining five teacher group interviews (n = 15), explores how the Rubric ICD helps to identify challenges and possibilities for explicitly integrating ICD in vocational curricula. The second study, involving 116 students going on international internships, examines if the Rubric ICD helps to explicate and examine students' thinking about ICD before and after their international internships. The studies showed that ICD is still mostly implicit in vocational curricula and students' learning. The Rubric ICD was found helpful for explicating ICD in various elements of vocational curricula and for reflecting on and coaching students' intercultural learning. The studies also revealed that teachers' professional development regarding ICD is needed and that the Rubric ICD could be helpful in that respect as well.

Higher education institutions are increasingly engaged with society but contemporary higher education teacher competence profiles do not include university-society oriented responsibilities of teachers. Consequently, comprehensive insights in university-society collaborative performance of higher education teachers are not available. This study empirically develops a teacher profile for an exemplary university-society oriented, multi-stakeholder learning environment and builds an argument for university-society collaborative additions to existing higher education teacher profiles. A showcase example of a new university-society collaborative, multi-stakeholder learning environment, the Regional Learning Environment (RLE), provides the context of analysis. Thirteen RLE establishments were included in the study. The study uses a descriptive qualitative design, triangulating data from RLE documents, teacher interviews and focus groups with teachers and managers on RLE teacher roles, tasks and competencies. The resulting RLE teacher profile comprises nine roles, nineteen tasks and 21 competencies. The new profile echoes scattered indications for teacher responsibilities as identified in previous studies on teaching and learning in university-society collaborative learning settings. The study argues that the role of broker, including boundary crossing competence, and the competency 'stimulating a collaborative learning attitude', might be added to existing higher education teacher competence profiles. Adding this university-society engaged perspective to existing teacher competence profiles will support higher education institutions in developing their university-society collaborative responsibilities and subsequent teacher professionalisation trajectories.

This paper investigates the realisation of competence-based education (CBE) in vocational education in Indonesia. It examines the extent to which CBE design principles of the Comprehensive Competence-Based Education Framework developed in a Western context exist in Indonesian policy documents and school practices. This study reviews educational policy documents and collects cross-sectional survey data from 41 school principals, 453 teachers, and 2219 students from 41 agricultural vocational schools in five provinces of Java, Indonesia. Results showed that the ten CCBE principles listed in the framework exist to large extent in Indonesian policy documents. School principals, teachers, and students noticed the realisation of CCBE principles in the study programme to differing degrees, except for the principle of flexibility that was largely absent. The level of CBE implementation varied, from the level of "starting competence-based" to that of "largely competence-based" education. The findings contribute to the discussion of CCBE design principles and lesson learned of CBE implementation in a non-western perspective.

Theory and research in the field of competence-based vocational education (CBVE) have advanced enormously during the last decades, although empirical research on CBVE lags far behind. CBVE researchers have complained about the lack of evidence that CBVE results in better competence development, the decreasing attention for knowledge development in CBVE practice, and the cross-sectional nature of much CBVE research. This study addresses these issues by reviewing a worldwide competence-based education literature and comparing competence and knowledge development of students in vocational schools in Indonesia that have implemented principles of CBVE to a higher or lesser degree. The study involved 506 students majoring in food processing and technology and 32 teachers from 11 agricultural secondary vocational schools. Teachers and students rated student competence levels. Student knowledge was assessed with a multiple-choice test. Longitudinal data were collected during one school year at three points of time. Student competence development in high-CBVE was higher than in low-CBVE, suggesting that the implementation of CBVE was successful and had a motivating effect of both students and teachers in Indonesian vocational schools. However, knowledge development was indeed lower in high-CBVE than in low-CBVE, which needs further attention.

This contribution shows an example of how an assessment innovation can serve as a flywheel for changing teaching and learning. This article first explains the development of an authentic, competence-based performance assessment in pre-vocational secondary education (pre-VET). Using these assessments in "pre"-VET, that is preparatory to VET, is important for motivating students for a future in VET. Second, in an action research 34 teacher teams of 11 pre-VET institutions implement the new assessment, supported by researchers and teacher coaches, to illuminate how it motivates students, prepares them for VET, and influences teaching and learning. Data from 76 teachers, 68 students, 24 teacher coaches and 3 researchers showed how implementing these assessments raised questions about changing educational content and pedagogy to fit a competence-based approach. Increasing teachers' expectations of students, changing student-teacher interaction patterns, and developing teachers' practical understanding of competencies and how they can be observed and discussed in assessments are some of the intriguing challenges that require further support for proper implementation of competence-based assessments and developing an aligned competence-based teaching and learning process.

The competence to work together and co-create with others outside one's own scientific domain, culture or professional practice is a critical competence for engineers to respond to global challenges. In this context, boundary crossing (BC) competence is crucial. We reflect on a university-wide participatory action research educational innovation project for developing and implementing BC in its education, draw conceptual and practical lessons learned and identify success factors. The BC theory and its four learning mechanisms (identification, coordination, reflection, transformation) are introduced and we argue that they provide a solid foundation for BC competence development in courses and curricula. We show that BC can relatively easy be implemented in existing education, yet it is crucial to use experiential types of learning to make this rather abstract concept tangible for both teachers and students. Two key lessons learned for developing BC education are to see BC competence as a generic competence and boundaries as learning opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous research in higher education emphasized the essence of feedback by the teacher, the peer or the self, it remains unclear whether the acquisition of students' oral presentation competence differs depending on the feedback source. This quasi-experimental study examines the effectiveness of the feedback source on 144 first-year undergraduate students' progression in cognition, behaviour and attitude towards presenting, as three interrelated elements of oral presentation competence. Mixed methods of multiple-choice tests and performance assessments using rubrics were used for data collection. Results demonstrated the superiority of teacher feedback for encouraging students' presentation behaviour, while cognition and attitude towards presenting developed significantly irrespective of the particular feedback source. However, the self-assessment condition revealed less impact on developing presentation behaviour and attitude compared to other feedback sources. Optimizing peer feedback and self-assessment in curricula requires knowledge about underlying feedback processes characterizing successful feedback of the various sources.

Previous research revealed significant differences in the effectiveness of various feedback sources for encouraging students' oral presentation performance. While former studies emphasised the superiority of teacher feedback, it remains unclear whether the quality of feedback actually differs between commonly used sources in higher education. Therefore, this study examines feedback processes conducted directly after 95 undergraduate students' presentations in the following conditions: teacher feedback, peer feedback and peer feedback guided by tutor. All processes were videotaped and analysed using a coding scheme that included seven feedback quality criteria deduced from the literature. Results demonstrate that teacher feedback corresponds to the highest extent with the majority of the seven identified feedback quality criteria. For four criteria, peer feedback guided by tutor scores higher than peer feedback. Skills courses should incorporate strategies focused on discussing perceptions of feedback and practising providing feedback to increase the effectiveness of peer feedback.

For many decades, teacher-structured hands-on simulations have been used in education mainly for developing procedural and technical skills. Stimulating contemporary learning outcomes suggests more constructivist approaches. The aim of this study is to examine how self-regulated learning (SRL), an important constructivist learning environment characteristic, is expressed in hands-on simulations. Via structured observations of teachers' SRL promoting strategies and students' SRL strategies in eight hands-on simulations, along the three phases of SRL, this study is the first to expose whether students and teachers use SRL in hands-on simulations, what these strategies look like and what their quality is. The results show that both students and teachers demonstrate SRL behaviour in the forethought, performance and reflection phase to some extent, but that they vary considerably in their occurrences, form and quality and provide opportunities for improvement. For example, teacher strategies "modelling" and "scaffolding" were often used, while "giving attribution feedback" and "evaluation" were lacking. The student strategy "proposing methods for task performance" was used regularly, while "goal-setting" and "self-monitoring" were often absent. An overview shows exemplary teacher and student behaviours in the SRL phases with lower, medium and higher quality in hands-on simulations.

Hands-on simulations are increasingly used in vocational oriented curricula to create meaningful, occupation-related learning experiences. However, more insight is required about precisely what characteristics in hands-on simulations enhance outcomes that students need for their future occupation, such as competencies. This study aims to examine how constructivist pedagogical-didactic design principles affect competence development of senior vocational education and professionally oriented bachelor's degree students in a wide range of hands-on simulations. For this purpose, 23 hands-on simulations were studied. Teachers rated the degree of authenticity and self-directedness of the hands-on simulations. Student perceptions (N = 516) of value, authenticity and self-directedness (operationalized as choice), as well as their competence development, were gathered using questionnaires. The results of the hierarchical regression analyses showed that: (1) authenticity and self-directedness did not automatically lead to more competence development; and (2) student perceptions of perceived value, authenticity and choice of "how" to perform tasks were the main predictors of competence development in the simulations. Nonetheless, the additional mediation analyses suggest that it is still important for teachers to invest in learning activities that stimulate self-directedness as these activities "indirectly" predicted competence development, through student perceptions. Several reasons for the results are discussed, among them the mismatch between teachers and students of what was considered authentic, complexity of the simulations, the teacher's role as facilitator instead of activator and the lack of choice possibilities. Ideas for future research, as well as practical implications concerning designing and implementing hands-on simulations for fostering competence development, are suggested.

Research on the effectiveness of competence-based education (CB-education) across educational contexts and levels requires a new evaluation measurement. This study explores the face validity, construct validity, and robustness of a competency self-report instrument that is aligned with contemporary competence theory and with current educational practice based on CB-qualification frameworks. A pilot study showed face validity of the competency constructs and indicators according to students from various levels in tertiary education. The results of the principal components analyses and parallel analyses, using data from 351 secondary vocational education and academic students, show more construct validity and robustness for competency constructs that are concrete and easy to relate to specific situations (e.g., "applying expertise") compared with the abstract competencies (e.g., "deciding and initiating"). This article sets out implications for designing and administrating uniform competency self-reports across educational levels and discusses suggestions for subsequent research.

The intentions with which hands-on simulations are used in vocational education are not always clear. Also, pedagogical-didactic approaches in hands-on simulations are not well conceptualised from a learning theory perspective. This makes it difficult to pinpoint the added value that hands-on simulations can have in an innovative vocational curriculum that not only aims at developing technical and procedural skills, but also at developing competencies and professional identity. This paper introduces a more explicit conceptual discussion regarding the opportunities for using hands-on simulations in innovative curricula. A systematic literature review aimed at positioning hands-on simulations in relation to other work-related contexts, based on their learning environment characteristics and outcomes, shows that certain constructivist characteristics and outcomes are underexposed in empirical research about simulations. The results of an additional in-depth analysis of literature specifically focusing on two fundamental characteristics of constructive vocational learning (i.e. authenticity and increasing students' ownership) propose ideas about how hands-on simulations can have added value to innovative curricula. This paper concludes with concrete strategies for designing and implementing hands-on simulations from the social constructive learning theory with the aim of stimulating not only technical and procedural skills, but also competencies and professional identity.

The development of assessments that are fit to assess professional competence in higher vocational education requires a reconsideration of assessment methods, quality criteria and (self)evaluation. This article examines the self-evaluations of nine courses of a large higher vocational education institute. Per course, 4-11 teachers and 3-10 students participated. The purpose of this article is to critically examine the quality of assessment in higher vocational education, to identify critical factors influencing assessment quality and to study whether self-evaluation leads to concrete points for improvement. Results show that strong points are fitness for purpose, comparability and fairness. Weak points are reproducibility of decisions and development of self-regulated learning. Critical factors are the translation of competences into assessment criteria to be used in daily lessons and the involvement of the work field. The self-evaluations generated many points for improvement, but not all were translated into actions. Altogether, this article provides a rich picture of assessment quality in higher education and identifies quality aspects that need improvement, (partly) confirming other research on current assessment methods.