Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition to online learning, with synchronous e-learning becoming a critical modality in higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide. This shift, while ensuring educational continuity, has unveiled numerous challenges, especially in developing nations where resources and infrastructure…

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about an abrupt transition from face-to-face to online learning, which caught higher education institutions off guard. Universities had to scramble for solutions to ensure that learning was not disrupted and there was adequate technological infrastructure to conduct classes online; that academics were…

Background: South African primary school learners have participated in several national and international literacy (reading and writing) studies that measure learners' achievement in different grades and at different intervals. Numerous scholars have analysed the results of these assessments. We extended their analyses by investigating the grade…

In education, formal assessment focuses on summative assessment with the objective of allocating grades, limiting learning by students. Formative assessment, in the form of self-assessment, has been proposed as beneficial to student learning in various fields. This study explores the perceptions of accounting students of the self-assessment…

This article explored conceptions that teachers hold about classroom assessment and how these conceptions influence their classroom assessment practices. The qualitative study employed a case study approach. Semi-structured interviews, observations and document analyses were used. The study utilized Brown's (2004) conceptual framework on…

The rationale for the introduction of standards in the United States in the late 1980s was that the quality of education would improve. Assessment instruments in the form of written tests were constructed in order to perform a monitoring function. The introduction of standards and the associated monitoring have been replicated in South Africa. It…

Criterion-referenced assessments have become more common around the world, with performance standards being set to differentiate different levels of student performance. However, use of standard setting methods developed in the United States may be complicated by factors related to the political and educational contexts within another country. In…

Research has revealed that the academic performances of learners in South Africa are below the required level. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) launched the literacy and numeracy strategy 2006-2016 in response to the low literacy and numeracy levels. In addition, the WCED introduced the Grade 1 baseline assessment in 2006, as part of…

Recent educational journals on both sides of the Atlantic have seen a resurgence of debate about the nature of educational research. As a contribution to these debates, this paper draws on theoretical and methodological "thinking tools" of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Specifically, the paper explores what Jenkins [Jenkins, R.…

A study into how academics learn to assess student performance affirms the significance of context in understanding learning in the academic workplace. The study involved three case studies in academic departments with significant differences in the teaching, research and professional dimensions of academic life. This article reports on the…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2016--END 2016, taking place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 12 to 14 of June. Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the human being, in the way one thinks,…

This study investigated the challenges that history learners in rural black schools are faced with during assessments when using English as the language of learning and teaching. The aim of the study was to investigate whether English, which is used as a language of learning and teaching in schools, is a barrier to the learning and teaching of…

The increased use of new teaching and learning technologies in higher education environments makes it possible for academic staff to meet the challenge of having to teach students who are diverse in terms of academic, social and language backgrounds. This study reports how the incorporation of podcasts to supplement visual histology learning…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2013, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 1 to 3 of June. Education, in a global sense, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the human being, in the way one thinks, feels and acts. One of the…

In 2003 the University of Cape Town introduced an anonymous examination policy. This article reports on a study of the impact of the implementation of this policy on student performance. Comparisons of student results pre- and post policy implementation showed no evidence of negative or positive discrimination of students in the examination…