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Measuring competencies acquired over the course of higher education is an area of research that largely has been neglected. This deficit can be attributed to the complexity of academic competencies since the variety of institutions, programs, occupational fields and job requirements render it difficult to define and even harder to measure outcomes. Thus, assessing the preconditions for and effects of competency development is a challenge methodologically. In this book, a comprehensive review of the international state of research on modeling and measuring competencies in higher education across several academic disciplines is presented, along with an evaluation of the field’s strengths and weaknesses. Renowned experts share insight into the most important recent research projects and point out controversies and challenges. Competencies are regarded as context-specific dispositions acquired and required to cope successfully with domain-specific situations and tasks. However, the range of these dispositions is controversial. Should only cognitive facets be included or is it important to consider attitudes as well? Insufficient response rates and panel attrition are further challenges, as are the limitations of paper-and-pencil approaches to the complex measurement of higher education outcomes. Thus, this book may serve as a platform for the exchange of research experiences and perspectives and hopefully will instigate improvements in research into higher education.
This publication focuses on competency orientation in higher education, illustrating international assessment practices for measuring student learning outcomes. For Germany, the Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education (KoKoHs) research program contributes exemplary approaches, and solutions to current challenges in higher education. KoKoHs models and tests can be used for entrance examination, formative and summative assessment of domain-specific and generic competencies and as a basis for developing new teaching-and-learning tools and formats promoting these competencies.
This book addresses challenges in the theoretically and empirically adequate assessment of competencies in educational settings. It presents the scientific projects of the priority program “Competence Models for Assessing Individual Learning Outcomes and Evaluating Educational Processes,” which focused on competence assessment across disciplines in Germany. The six-year program coordinated 30 research projects involving experts from the fields of psychology, educational science, and subject-specific didactics. The main reference point for all projects is the concept of “competencies,” which are defined as “context-specific cognitive dispositions that are acquired and needed to successfully cope with certain situations or tasks in specific domains” (Koeppen et al., 2008, p. 62). The projects investigate different aspects of competence assessment: The primary focus lies on the development of cognitive models of competencies, complemented by the construction of psychometric models based on these theoretical models. In turn, the psychometric models constitute the basis for the construction of instruments for effectively measuring competencies. The assessment of competencies plays a key role in optimizing educational processes and improving the effectiveness of educational systems. This book contributes to this challenging endeavor by meeting the need for more integrative, interdisciplinary research on the structure, levels, and development of competencies.
This book offers a comprehensive overview of current, innovative approaches to assessing domain-specific and generic student learning and learning outcomes in higher education. The presented work from all projects of the KoKoHs program, the most significant research initiative in German higher education since 2011, describes established tools and empirical results.
This open access book presents a structural model and an associated test instrument designed to provide a detailed analysis of professional competences for teaching mathematical modelling. The conceptualisation is based on the COACTIV model, which describes aspects, areas and facets of professional competences of teachers. The manual provides an overview of the essential teaching skills in application-related contexts and offers the tools needed to capture these aspects. It discusses the objectives and application areas of the instrument, as well as the development of the test. In addition, it describes the implementation and evaluates the quality and results of the structural equation analysis of the model. Teaching mathematical modelling is a cognitively challenging activity for (prospective) teachers. Thus, teacher education requires a detailed analysis of professional competence for teaching mathematical modelling. Measuring this competence requires theoretical models that accurately describe requirements placed upon teachers, as well as appropriate evaluation tools that adequately capture skills and abilities in this field. This book presents an instrument that measures the professional competences in a sample of 349 prospective teachers.
This book examines important advances and offers a realistic image of the state of the art in student learning outcomes assessment in higher education—a field close to the core of nearly every higher education institution. Producing sound information on what students know and can do is critical to higher education practitioners and future social prosperity. Spanning international, national and institutional developments, the book presents methodological and empirical insights, highlights research challenges, and showcases the enormous progress made in recent years. The book will be of interest to researchers in education assessment and neighbouring fields, and stakeholders like institutional leaders, teachers and graduate employers looking for better insight on returns, governments searching for information to assist with funding and regulation, and members of the public wanting more clarity about outcomes and public investment. This book was originally published as a special issue of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.
Economics can be a lens for understanding the behavior of schools, districts, states, and nations in meeting education needs of their populaces, as well as for understanding the individual decisions made by administrators, teachers, and students. Insights from economics help decision makers at the state level understand how to raise and distribute funds for public schools in an equitable manner for both schools and taxpayers. Economics also can assist researchers in analyzing effects of school spending and teacher compensation on student outcomes. And economics can provide important insights into public debates on issues such as whether to offer vouchers for subsidizing student attendance at private schools. This two-volume encyclopedia contains over 300 entries by experts in the field that cover these issues and more. Features: This work of 2 volumes (in both print and electronic formats) contains 300-350 signed entries by significant figures in the field. Entries conclude with cross-references and suggestions for further readings to guide students to in-depth resources. Although organized in A-to-Z fashion, a thematic “Reader’s Guide” in the front matter groups related entries by topic. Also in the front matter, a chronology provides students with historical perspective on the development of education economics and finance as a field of study The entire work concludes with a Resources appendix and a comprehensive Index. In the electronic version, the index, Reader's Guide, and cross references combine to provide effective search-and-browse capabilities.
This book offers a comprehensive overview of current, innovative approaches to assessing generic and domain-specific learning outcomes in higher education at both national and international levels. It discusses the most significant initiatives over the past decade to develop objective, valid, and reliable assessment tools and presents state-of-the-art procedures to adapt and validate them for use in other countries. The authors highlight key conceptual and methodological challenges connected with intra-national and cross-national assessment of learning outcomes in higher education; introduce novel approaches to improving assessment, evaluation, testing, and measurement practices; and offer exemplary implementation frameworks. Further, they examine the results of and lessons learned from various recent, world-renowned research programs and feasibility studies, and present results from their own studies to provide new insights into how to draw valid conclusions about learning outcomes achieved in various contexts.
This book presents a comprehensive overview of extant literature on competence-based vocational and professional education since the introduction of the competence concept in the 1950s. To structure the fi eld, the book distinguishes between three approaches to defi ning competence, based on 1.functional behaviourism, 2. integrated occupationalism, and 3. situated professionalism. It also distinguishes between two ways of operationalizing competence: 1. behaviour-oriented generic, and 2. task-oriented specifi c competence. Lastly, it identifi es three kinds of competencies, related to: 1. specific activities, 2. known jobs, and 3. the unknown future. Competence for the unknown future must receive more attention, as our world is rapidly evolving and there are many ‘glocal’ challenges which call for innovation and a profound transformation of policies and practices. Th e book presents a range of diff erent approaches to competence-based education, and demonstrates that competencebased education is a worldwide innovation, which is institutionalized in various ways. It presents the major theories and policies, specifi c components of educational systems, such as recognition, accreditation, modelling and assessment, and developments in discipline-oriented and transversal competence domains. Th e book concludes by synthesizing the diff erent perspectives with the intention to contribute to further improving vocational and professional education policy and practice. Joao Santos, Deputy Head of Unit C5, Vocational Training and Adult Education, Directorate General for Employment, Social Aff airs and Inclusion, European Commission: “This comprehensive work on competence-based education led by Martin Mulder, provides an excellent and timely contribution to the current debate on a New Skills Agenda for Europe, and the challenge of bridging the employment and education and training worlds closer together. Th is book will infl uence our work aimed at improving the relevance of vocational education to support initial and continuing vocational education and training policy and practice aimed at strengthening the key competencies for the 21st century.” Prof. Dr. Reinhold Weiss, Deputy President and Head of the Research, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Bonn, Germany: “This book illustrates that the idea and concept of competence is not only a buzzword in educational debates but key to innovative pedagogical thinking as well as educational practice.” Prof. Dr. Johanna Lasonen, College of Education, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA: "Competence-based Vocational and Professional Education is one of the most important multi-disciplinary book in education and training. Th is path-breaking book off ers a timely, rich and global perspective on the fi eld. Th e book is a good resource for practitioners, policymakers and researchers."
As higher education becomes a key determinant for economic competitiveness, institutions face increasing pressure to demonstrate their fitness to meet the needs of society and individuals. Blending innovative research with richly contextualised examples this unique Research Handbook provides authoritative insights from around the globe on how best to understand, assess and improve quality, performance and accountability in higher education.