Outcomes approaches to assessment: comparing non‐government and government case‐study schools in Western Australia

Abstract

A key feature of recent curriculum reform in post‐industrialised liberal economies has been the ascendancy of outcomes‐based education policies. A 1995 review conducted in Western Australia (WA) recommended an outcomes‐based approach, and in response, the Curriculum Framework (CF) was released in 1998. The same year, the WA State government mandated that all schools, both non‐government and government, demonstrate compliance with the outcomes‐based CF for Years K–10 by 2004. This article compares case‐studies of non‐government and government schools in analysing assessment and reporting issues in relation to the enactment of outcomes‐based curriculum policy in the mid‐2000s. With significantly different localised contexts, including different degrees of institutional autonomy and different approaches to curriculum, assessment and reporting, interesting contrasts and commonalities arose as each school engaged with the new policy. The research draws on a hybrid approach to policy analysis, incorporating both critical theory and post‐structuralism with their different conceptualisations of power relationships. In‐depth semi‐structured interviews were conducted to examine and analyse the views of participants at each site. Although there is no intention to generalise from individual case‐studies, cross‐case analysis reveals the emergence of meta‐level themes – such as market choice, accountability and teacher professionalism – which are associated with ‘bigger picture’ issues of power and which may well provide insights for explorations of curriculum reform in other contexts.

‘Everything is negative’: Schoolteachers’ perceptions of news coverage of education

“…The impact of such coverage on teachers has rarely been directly examined. While a limited number of studies (Blackmore and Thorpe, 2003; Hargreaves et al, 2007; Liu and Tsao, 2013) have sought teacher responses to news coverage, most of what is known about teachers’ reactions to news has emerged from research that has considered other issues such as teacher retention (Fetherston and Lummis, 2012) and policy change (Griffiths et al, 2008). In Australia, teachers have reported that news coverage regarding schools and teaching can affect their relationships with friends, family and the wider community (Blackmore and Thorpe, 2003).…”

Investigating the Implementation Process of a Curriculum: A Case Study from Papua New Guinea

“…According to Bentley (2010), change due to purposes of access refers to expanding education opportunities in countries. Arguably, this has links to global education agendas advocated by the World Bank (Coxon & Tolley, 2005;Griffiths, Vidovich & Chapman, 2008). For instance, the "Education For All" (EFA) movement signed by 165 countries in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, and re-asserted in Dakar, Senegal in 2000, is an example of an access change that has influenced educational changes globally (Nongas, 2007).…”

“…This finding asserts there is a need to change teachers' pedagogical knowledge from a teacher-centred approach to a student-centred that the policy required (Sections 4.3.3 and 7.1.1.2). Indeed, it is noted that teachers need the theoretical and practical PD knowledge of the OBE concept (Griffiths et al, 2008). Because if there is no support such as PD for teachers, then, as aptly described by Hall and Kidman (2004), "you can't change knowledge if you don't have knowledge" (p. 341).…”

“…For instance, Griffiths et al (2008) observed in Western Australia that systemic support from different agents of society (Fullan, 2007) had to be in place to ensure that an OBE curriculum framework for assessment purposes from kindergarten to year 10 worked. However, the difference between Griffith's group study and this one relates to the country context.…”