A detailed review of the education sector in Australia as in the data provided by the 2006 edition of the OECD's annual publication, 'Education at a Glance' is presented. While the data has shown that in almost all OECD countries educational attainment levels are on the rise, with countries showing impressive gains in university qualifications, it also reveals that a large of share of young people still do not complete secondary school, which remains a baseline for successful entry into the labour market.

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Education at a Glance

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

There is increasing pressure for Higher Education institutions to undergo transformation, with education being seen as needing to adapt in ways that meet the conceptual needs of our time. Reflecting this is the rise of the flipped or inverted classroom. The purpose of this scoping review was to provide a comprehensive overview of relevant research regarding the emergence of the flipped classroom and the links to pedagogy and educational outcomes, identifying any gaps in the literature which could inform future design and evaluation. The scoping review is underpinned by the five-stage framework Arksey and O'Malley. The results indicate that there is much indirect evidence emerging of improved academic performance and student and staff satisfaction with the flipped approach but a paucity of conclusive evidence that it contributes to building lifelong learning and other 21st Century skills in under-graduate education and post-graduate education.

The use of flipped classrooms in higher education: A scoping review

Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge

Equality of Educational Opportunity.

This paper reports on seven calibrated scales of student engagement emerging from a large‐scale study of first year undergraduate students in Australian universities. The analysis presents insights into contemporary undergraduate student engagement, including online, self‐managed, peer and student‐staff engagement. The results point to the imperative for developing a broader understanding of engagement as a process with several dimensions. These must be acknowledged in any measurement and monitoring of this construct in higher education. The paper calls for a more robust theorising of the engagement concept that encompasses both quantitative and qualitative measures. It considers implications for pedagogy and institutional policy in support of enhancing the quality of the student experience.

/pdf/students-engagement-in-first-year-university-5bvioomnn5.pdf

Students’ engagement in first‐year university

As the principles and practices of quality assurance are further implanted in higher education, methodological questions about how to understand and manage quality become increasingly important. This paper argues that quality assurance determinations need to take account of how and to what extent students engage with activities that are likely to lead to productive learning. The idea of student engagement is introduced. A critical review of current possibilities for determining the quality of university education in Australia exposes limitations of quality assurance systems that fail to take account of student engagement. The review provides a basis for suggesting the broad relevance of student engagement to quality assurance. A sketch is provided of an approach for factoring student engagement data into quality assurance determinations.

The value of student engagement for higher education quality assurance

The rapid uptake of campus-wide Learning Management Systems (LMS) is changing the character of the on-campus learning experience. The trend towards LMS as an adjunct to traditional learning modes has been the subject of little research beyond technical analyses of alternative software systems. Drawing on Australian experience, this paper presents a broad, critical examination of the potential impact of these online systems on teaching and learning in universities. It discusses in particular the possible effects of LMS on teaching practices, on student engagement, on the nature of academic work and on the control over academic knowledge.

http://uait.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/53312706/A%252520critical%252520examination%252520of%252520the%252520effects%252520of%252520learning%252520management%252520systems.pdf

A critical examination of the effects of learning management systems on university teaching and learning

Knowing how campus‐based students engage in key online and general learning practices can play a central role in managing and developing university education. Knowledge in this area is limited, however, despite recent advances in student engagement research, and widespread adoption of online learning systems. This paper responds to the need to develop such knowledge, by documenting the development and application of a typological model of online and general campus‐based student engagement. It reports the statistical analyses used to develop the model, and analyses the model’s structure and substance. The model is exemplified by considering what it says about how increasingly powerful and pervasive online technologies might be leveraged to enhance campus‐based student engagement.

A model of online and general campus-based student engagement

chapter one: Engaging students in campus-based online learning chapter two: The idea of student engagement chapter three: Campus-based online education chapter four: Online learning management systems chapter five: A model of student engagement chapter six: Campus-based and online student engagement chapter seven: Leveraging online sytems to enhance engagement chapter eight: Factoring engagement measures into quality assurance chapter nine: Developing learners not users

Hamish Coates

Papers

Students’ engagement in first‐year university

The value of student engagement for higher education quality assurance

A critical examination of the effects of learning management systems on university teaching and learning

A model of online and general campus-based student engagement

Student Engagement in Campus-Based and Online Education: University Connections