Session Information
WERA SES 08 D, Higher Education Research and Training: Agendas and Standards World-Wide
Paper Session
Contribution
Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in various issues related to the provision of higher education. Policy-driven outcome-oriented reform strategies (e.g., Bologna Reform, OECD’s Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcome (AHELO), and the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA)) have changed the higher education sector in a sustainable way, particularly in OECD countries. These changes stem partly from consequences of the massification of, and immense increase in access to, higher education, and partly from the effects of internationalization (e.g., mobility of students). These changes have led to an urgent need for international benchmarking standards to provide comparable evidence of student learning outcomes in higher education (see Coates 2014; Land & Gordon 2013; Tremblay et al. 2012; Liu 2011).
In the course of internationalization, stakeholders (e.g., policy makers) seek information on accountability and efficiency of higher education institutions and their quality. They also seek evidence of positive student learning outcomes. To provide this information, research on higher education requires a sound theoretical and empirical basis. Higher education programs and courses can be effective only if learning outcomes are assessed formatively and summatively, and relevant determinants such as basic generic and domain-specific skills and competencies are taken into account. Findings from empirical research on the effectiveness of higher education programs can serve as a basis for sustainable development and reforms on structural, organizational, and individual levels. Nevertheless, higher education is still underrepresented in international empirical educational research, and the related literature is relatively limited compared to that, for example, dealing with the scholarship of teaching and learning (Land & Gordon 2013).
These conclusions were supported by the comprehensive and systematic analysis of the international state of research in the field of learning outcomes assessment in higher education by Kuhn and Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia in2011. Their analysis showed that there were some approaches to structural stabilization of empirical higher education research. Regardless, this kind of research was still highly underrepresented. Their analysis provided a sound basis for the conceptualization and implementation of the German research program Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education (KoKoHs). The KoKoHs program addresses the specific challenges of modeling and assessing learning outcomes in higher education in Germany and promotes foundational research by pursuing the following three general objectives:
maintaining the quality of the higher education system in Germany in the face of growing international competition;
contributing to international research on competencies in higher education by ensuring international compatibility and visibility of KoKoHs research; and
creating a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of higher education to enable evidence-based policy decisions and institutional assessment.
The KoKoHs project (Blömeke & Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia 2013; Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al. 2014) has attracted considerable research interest. There are 23 research alliances including 70 single projects organized among almost 50 higher education institutions. The projects went beyond determining prerequisites for higher education admissions tests, collecting data on learning opportunities, and using subjective measures. To connect the funding activities to international research activities, students’ learning outcomes in different study domains and at different universities were taken into account, and researchers created a basis for eventually drawing evidence-based conclusions from the outcomes of the very heterogeneous higher education sector. Analysis of the international state of research recently has been updated (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Shavelson & Kuhn 2015) and results of this will be presented. Moreover, preliminary results form the KoKoHs projects will be discussed in relation to the results of this re-analysis.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Blömeke, S. & Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O. (2013). The German Funding Initiative “Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education”: 23 Research Projects on Engineering, Economics and Social Sciences, Education and Generic Skills of Higher Education Students. (KoKoHs Working Papers, 3). Berlin and Mainz: Humboldt University and Johannes Gutenberg University. Coates, H. (2014). Higher Education Learning Outcomes Assessment – International Perspectives. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Kuhn, C. & Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O. (2011). Assessment of Competencies among University Students and Graduates – Analyzing the State of Research and Perspectives. Mainz: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Working Paper Business Education, 59. http://www.wipaed.uni-mainz.de/ls/ArbeitspapiereWP/gr_Nr.59.pdf Land, R. & Gordon, G. (2013). Enhancing Quality in Higher Education – International Perspectives. London & New York: Routledge. Liu, L. (2011). Outcomes Assessment in Higher Education: Challenges and Future Research in the Context of Voluntary System of Accountability. In Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice 30(3), pp. 2-9. Tremblay, K., Lalancette, D. and Roseveare, D. (2012). Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes. Feasibility Study Report. Volume 1 – Design and Implementation. OECD. http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/AHELOFSReportVolume1.pdf Weinert, F. E. (2001). Concept of competence: A Conceptual Clarification. In Rychen, D. S. and Salganik, L. H. (Eds.), Defining and Selecting Key Competencies. Seattle, WA: Hogrefe and Huber Publishers, pp. 45–65. Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Kuhn, C. & Toepper, M. (2014). Modelling and assessing higher education learning outcomes in Germany. In H. Coates (Ed.). Higher Education Learning Outcomes Assessment – International Perspectives (pp. 213-235). Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang. Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Shavelson, R. J. & Kuhn, C. (2015). The International State of Research on Measurement of Competency in Higher Education. In Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O. & Shavelson, R. (2015). Assessment of Competence in Higher Education. Special Issue in the Journal Studies in Higher Education (in press).
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