Valid Assessment of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education: International Perspectives and Methodological Challenges

Session Type: WERA Symposium

Abstract

The aim of this symposium is to present international assessment projects on student learning outcomes (SLOs) in higher education (HE) and innovative methodological approaches in this field. Using examples from Australia, Germany, the U.S. and Italy we would like to contribute to the international discussion on common methodological and organizational challenges, exemplary frameworks, state-of-the-art cross-national adaptation and validation procedures, and results from initial cross-national comparative studies on SLOs in HE. The studies presented comprise approaches to assessing SLOs in generic and domain-specific content areas of HE which all target on obtaining a high degree of validity while taking a cross-national comparative perspective. In addition to discussing comparability issues presenters will share lessons learned and cross-national comparative results of SLO assessments.

Sub Unit

• World Education Research Association

Chairs

• Hans Anand Pant, Humboldt University - Berlin

• Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz

Papers

• Valid Assessment of Competence Change in Higher Education - Jean-Paul Fox, University of Twente; Susanne Schmidt, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

• Academic Competencies of German and Australian Students - Hamish Bennett Coates, University of Melbourne; Miriam Toepper, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz; Corinna Lautenbach, Humboldt University - Berlin

• The Think-Aloud Method in the Process-Related Validation of an Assessment of Academic Student Learning Outcomes - Sebastian Brueckner, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz; James W. Pellegrino, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Assessing Higher Order Students' Skills Internationally: Adaptation of a Performance-Based Test for Italian University Students - Doris Zahner, Council for Aid to Education

Discussant

• Jan-Eric Gustafsson, Goteborg University