In the Australian higher education scene the importance of recognizing effective teaching is gaining increasing prominence. Issues of academic accountability and the increasing scarcity of financial resources for higher education have added pressure to the debate about what constitutes quality in higher education. Central to this debate is the…

After discussing the demand for public accountability in Australian education, the first section of this paper treats the scope of accountability and details the responsibilities of a state minister of education, other key administrators, schools and teachers, and the national system itself. The second section examines what the public wants to…

Explanations are sought for Western Australia's disillusionment during the Great Depression with the state's education system and subsequent policies to impose accountability and economy and foster a utilitarian emphasis in the curricula. Community attitudes in the 1930s resemble those during the recession of the 1970s. (MSE)

Examines ways in which the demand for quality and changes affecting teaching and learning are intersecting in Australian higher education, and forecasts ways quality will be managed in the next century. Discusses the trend toward institutional diversity, the impact of communication and information technologies, rise of collaborative teaching on…

The thought of Samuel Messick has influenced language testing in 2 main ways: in proposing a new understanding of how inferences made based on tests must be challenged, and in drawing attention to the consequences of test use. The former has had a powerful impact on language-testing research, most notably in Bachman's work on validity and the…

This paper discusses the role of quality assurance in New South Wales school systems, which was created from the restructuring of traditional centralized bureaucracies. The emergent structure is comprised of devolved networks of schools operating within decentralized state systems. The purposes of these school systems are to enhance network…

This book demonstrates that liberal policy cannot adequately address deep-seated assumptions and traditional practices that undermine minorities and women in schools. Chapters focus on educational policy and its implementation at all levels of school politics in the United States, Australia, and Israel. Part 1, "Cutting Across Race and…

Proceedings are presented of a conference that examined the purposes and setting of tertiary education in Australia in the changing social order of the 1980s, the future roles for tertiary education in Australia, and the pattern and form of accountability appropriate to Australian tertiary education in the late twentieth century. Papers and…

Accountability, in the sense of educational efficiency, has popular political appeal in Australia. Yet there is urgent need for Australian educators to influence how accountability is to be defined and to determine how it is to be implemented at the school level. One useful definition of accountability, satisfactory to both teachers and the…

This book presents the results of a study that examined major changes in academic work in recent years and how staff in universities have experienced these changes, along with a discussion of how to increase learning at universities. Data were obtained from an international survey of 161 academic staff in Australia and the United Kingdom. Results…

Australia's national policy concerning equity in higher education is examined, particularly policy concerning funding and accountability mechanisms. The absence of any analytical or theoretical basis for planning and prioritization of equity initiatives and resulting limitations on their effectiveness are discussed. (MSE)

Accountability has become a politically incorrect issue because governments have encountered the limitations of simplistic market thinking while pressures for intervention in education have waned. However, accepting responsibility in education implies public accountability, which in turn requires formative evaluation, educative reporting…

To frame the larger research agenda requires an intimate blending of knowledge of the situations of foreign research universities and those of public research universities in the United States. The first step was to bring together for a two-day symposium a group of scholars and practitioners, some with deep and varied knowledge of United States…

Schools represent a major social investment in Australia. Assessment of Australian schools' performance depends on how one defines what they should be doing and on how well they can be expected to do it. In the official account, schools are of "high quality and modest cost" when compared with their own past and other school systems. An…

This book reports on the outcomes of an international policy-research project concerned with how power is used in education to construct and discharge obligations among stakeholders. The collection of articles suggests how such processes might better serve educational ends. The research examines how the politics of education at the site and…