Conceptualisations of children’s wellbeing at school: the contribution of recognition theory

A large study in Australian schools aimed to elucidate understandings of ‘wellbeing’ and of factors in school life that contribute to it. Students and teachers understood wellbeing primarily, and holistically, in terms of interpersonal relationships, in contrast to policy documents which mainly focused on ‘problem areas’ such as mental health. The study also drew on recognition theory as developed by the social philosopher Axel Honneth. Results indicate that recognition theory may be useful in understanding wellbeing in schools, and that empirical research in schools may give rise to further questions regarding theory

'Language Background Other Than English': a problem NAPLaN test category for Australian students of refugee background

Since 2008 Australia has held the National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy (known as NAPLAN) for all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Despite the multilingual character of the Australian population, these standardized literacy and numeracy tests are built on an assumption of English as a first language competency. The capacity for monitoring the performance of students who speak languages other than English is achieved through the disaggregation of test data using a category labelled Language Background Other than English (LBOTE). A student is classified as LBOTE if they or their parents speak a language other than English at home. The category definition is so broad that the disaggregated national data suggest that LBOTE students are outperforming English speaking students, on most test domains, though the LBOTE category shows greater variance of results. Drawing on Foucault’s theory of governmentality, this article explores the possible implications of LBOTE categorisation for English as a Second Language (ESL) students of refugee background. The article uses a quantitative research project, carried out in Queensland, Australia, to demonstrate the potential inequities resultant from such a poorly constructed data category

Australian Indigenous students: addressing equity issues in assessment

This article provides the background and context to the important issue of assessment and equity in relation to Indigenous students in Australia. Questions about the validity and fairness of assessment are raised and ways forward are suggested by attending to assessment questions in relation to equity and culture-fair assessment. Patterns of under-achievement by Indigenous students are reflected in national benchmark data and international testing programmes like the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Sstudy and the Program for International Student Assessment. The argument developed views equity, in relation to assessment, as more of a sociocultural issue than a technical matter. It highlights how teachers need to distinguish the "funds of knowledge" that Indigenous students draw on and how teachers need to adopt culturally responsive pedagogy to open up the curriculum and assessment practice to allow for different ways of knowing and being

National Assessment Program : Civics and Citizenship Years 6 and 10 Report 2007

The 2007 National Civics and Citizenship Sample Assessment report is the second to be published on Civics and Citizenship in the cycle of three-yearly sample assessments conducted by MCEETYA as part of its National Assessment Program (NAP). The assessment measured students’ civic knowledge and understanding and their citizenship participation skills and dispositions. The assessment was conducted in October 2007 with 7,059 Year 6 students from 349 schools and 5,506 Year 10 students from 269 schools participating. The participating students were from both government and non-government schools. Results of the assessment show that nationally, 54 per cent of Year 6 students achieved or bettered the Year 6 proficient standard and 41 per cent of Year 10 students achieved or bettered the Year 10 proficient standard. This represents a slight improvement on the 2004 assessment of 3 per cent for Year 6 students and 2 per cent for Year 10 students. The proficient standard represents a “challenging but reasonable” expectation for typical Year 6 and 10 students to have reached by the end of each of those years of study. The report also found that students performed better where their schools provided them with opportunities to participate in civics and citizenship activities and also in school governance activities such as voting and decision-making at school

National Assessment Program : science : Year 6 : 2003 : technical report

This report describes the technical aspects of the National Year 6 Science Assessment and summarises the main activities associated with the data collection, the data collection instruments and the analysis and reporting of the results. Chapter 2 reviews the sample design for the assessment and describes the sampling process and the sample achieved. Chapter 3 summarises the test development and implementation procedures and the procedures for instrument construction and compliance with the test specification. Chapter 4 reviews the assessment administration procedures, discusses the cleaning of data collected in the assessment and the treatment of missing data and invalid students. Chapter 5 addresses the main features of the procedures used for weighting the student data and the replication procedures used to account for the sample design. Chapter 6 summarises the results of the analyses undertaken, concentrating on the results of the Rasch analysis and providing information about the calibration procedures for item locations and student ability estimates. Chapter 7 describes and analyses the procedures undertaken to review the quality of the links between the various test forms and for the equating of the various test forms and their scaling for reporting. Chapter 8 discusses the results in terms of students proficiency on the scientific literacy scale. The scale links students results to descriptions of their understandings and skills in the assessment domain. Chapter 9 comments on some issues that may be relevant in the 2006 iteration of the sample study and may need further consideration in terms of the test construction, its equating to the 2003 assessment and its analysis