ASSESSMENT OF VOCATIONAL SKILLS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES IN VET: A REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES

There is a growing need for valid tools for assessing skills and certifying qualifications in the context of increasing labour migration and mobility. Due to the growing internationalization of business activities, companies are interested in standardized skills assessments that ensure valid and comparable ratings of job applicants and employees. At the same time, assessment of professional or vocational skills, which are highly domain-specific and numerous, remains challenging, especially in terms of comparability. Therefore, objective skills assessment tops the list of challenges faced by national VET systems. This paper presents an overview of practices and tools for assessing vocational skills and VET learning outcomes, and covers the following issues: a) current practices and challenges in measuring vocational skills and learning outcomes in VET; b) initiatives for internationally comparable assessment of vocational skills, including PISA-VET and WorldSkills competitions; c) national initiatives for assessment of VET learning outcomes in the cases of Germany and Russia; d) labor market- and industry-driven initiatives in skills assessment for job seekers and qualification assurance. This paper contributes to the literature on skills assessment by providing a more comprehensive picture of approaches to skills assessments, including well-established ones and emerging initiatives outside the field of measuring learning outcomes in education.

PROMOTING LIBERAL EDUCATION THROUGH THE LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF CRITICAL THINKING: A RATIONALE AND PLAN

In recent years, U.S. higher education has received much criticism for inadequately preparing students for the ‘real world.’ There is substantial empirical evidence (e.g., Arum & Roksa, 2011) that many students graduate with limited proficiency in key 21st century skills such as critical thinking (CT). Despite its importance in achieving personal advancement and professional success, there has been surprisingly little rigorous research on the development of CT during the undergraduate years. We believe this is a missed opportunity for higher education to better understand the various trajectories of CT development and to generate credible evidence to inform policies, programs, and practices – while also strengthening its standing among its various stakeholders. We argue that, despite a number of challenges, it is feasible to design and implement a comprehensive, longitudinal study of the development of CT (and related constructs). Although CT is an important learning objective at all colleges, it has special resonance for schools and programs that aim to provide a liberal education. For various reasons we propose that the initial study be conducted within a particular subset of such institutions; namely, a sample of American Jesuit colleges and universities. We discuss a number of technical issues germane to such a study, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of our preferred choice of an institutional sample.

FROM CERTIFICATES TO PERFORMANCE: A PARADIGM SHIFT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH

Against the backdrop of recent social and technological developments, the relationship between the educational system and the employment system has also changed. The “lifelong learning” paradigm is now firmly established within the field of educational research. In this article, we argue that empirical researchers have shifted using certificates to capture educational attainment, focusing instead on competence and performance. We define “performance” as the ability to react adequately and flexibly to new situations within job-related contexts. This paper thus aims to describe the shifting research paradigm in the context of political agenda-setting and presents some examples from different disciplinary perspectives to illustrate the potential of interdisciplinary research. Interdisciplinary, collaborative research, we suggest, shows great potential for providing empirical evidence to measure the consequences—intended and unintended—of political reforms in higher education. Even though our arguments and implications are formulated from the perspective of the German education and science system, their essence can also be applied to other national contexts.

WORLDSKILLS RESPONSE TO TRANSVERSAL SKILLS

Developing and maintaining the skills of an increasingly global workforce is a challenge all governments face, particularly as the world emerges from the effects of the2020/21 pandemic. Coupled with the impact of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” working lives are changing at an unprecedented rate. This article looks at the critical role of transversal skills in enabling ‘employability’, as traditional occupations reconfigure, shift and new roles rapidly appear. Whilst definitions and classifications vary it is agreed that transversal skills are those which an individual can apply across all work roles and life situations, - they are a platform for flexibility, adaptability, and progression. For over 70 years WorldSkills International (WSI) has been working with governments to raise the profile of technical and vocational education (TVET), principally through a biennial global skills competition focusing on excellence. In recent years WSI has been investing in a strong research base working with global partners such as the OECD, ILO and UNESCO. In 2012 it began a project to develop WorldSkills Occupational Standards (WSOS). This article plots the journey WSI has taken to strengthen and embed transversal skills within its standards to ensure the currency of the Competition and more widely drive global skills development forward.

MAPPING COMPETENCY ACQUISITION IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND ITS INFLUENCES: A META-STUDY

In the 10-year research program "Modelling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education (KoKoHs)" that ran from 2011 until 2020, more than 100 theoretically sound models and corresponding tests were developed to analyze the level and development of students’ competencies. Using these newly developed assessments, generic and domain-specific competencies of more than 75,000 students at more than 350 German universities in numerous disciplines (e.g., economics, teacher education) were measured in 39 interdisciplinary collaborative KoKoHs projects. Method: In these measurements, a nationally and internationally unique database was created that contains information on the level, acquisition, and development of competencies, as well as corresponding personal and contextual influences, among students at different stages throughout their studies. A comprehensive meta-analysis of the students’ competencies as well as of the central factors influencing the acquisition of competencies in higher education had not been conducted so far. The existing KoKoHs data had only been analyzed in isolation within the individual KoKoHs projects until then. Accordingly, the obtained results related only to the individual project level. To address this research deficit, the meta-study presented in this paper conducted a research synthesis, i.e., a systematic and structured meta-analysis of the KoKoHs database. Results: The meta-study describes the acquisition of competencies in higher education across domains and provides empirical evidence on generalizable versus specific influencing factors and, thus, evidence-based practical knowledge for higher education practice and policy.

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT AND DIGITAL TRAINING FRAMEWORK FOR YOUNG PROFESSIONALS' GENERIC AND DOMAIN-SPECIFIC ONLINE REASONING IN LAW, MEDICINE, AND TEACHER PRACTICE

In the digital age, the Internet is increasingly considered a major information source. This is especially true for informal, e.g., post-university, learning. Evidentially, young professionals are increasingly using online sources as an information and learning tool. Critical reasoning from online information for learning and professional processes in the domains of medicine, law, and teaching is considered a highly relevant competence facet. For example, staying up to date on a multitude of matters, e.g., published in articles and guidelines, as is the case in the medical field, can be challenging when the required competencies to use online media are absent (e.g., Allen et al. 2005, O'Carroll et al. 2015). Current research on students in higher education indicates substantial deficits in their critical online reasoning skills, also among graduates. However, online information seeking and corresponding competencies of young professionals in job-specific educational processes have not been researched yet. There is a lack of both valid domain-specific assessments for different professions and learning tools that can effectively foster the competent use of online information in practice among young professionals. Our research presented here is part of the collaborative BRIDGE project, which is conducted under the umbrella of the program "Research for the Design of Educational Processes under the Conditions of Digital Change." This study is based on our previous work on the assessment of generic skills in higher education in the international projects CLA+, iPAL, and CORA as well as on experiences with job-specific performance assessments from the research programs KoKoHs and ASCOT+, which measured professional competence. To validly measure critical online reasoning among young professionals from three domains — medicine, law, and teacher training —we develop new computer-based online performance assessments and corresponding training tools. The specific aim is to analyze to what extent they improve in using online information with greater reflection when creating job-specific documents after an online training based on process and performance data (using innovative approaches, such as text mining and educational data mining). In this paper, we showcase the conceptual and assessment framework of the newly developed innovative tools to measure and promote generic and domain-specific online reasoning among young professionals in medicine, law, and teacher education. Based on this framework, we discuss how these crucial professional competence facets can be validly measured and effectively fostered in practice.

INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING: FRAMEWORK FOR TRANSLATION AND ADAPTATION

Higher education institutions worldwide claim they impact students’ learning outcomes within and across academic domains. Critical thinking (CT) is prominent among the intended outcomes (Braun et al., 2020). In this context, there is increasing interest in ecologically valid performance assessments (PAs) of CT that can be used internationally (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al., 2018). While several studies have aimed to measure and compare CT skills across countries, this typically has been done using multiple-choice questions. Only a few studies involve adaptation of PAs. Their results point to the need for a more refined adaptation process (Braun et al., 2020), especially in terms of functionally equivalent adaptation and redesign. Based on a review of previous approaches related to test adaptation, with focus on the challenges of achieving cultural responsiveness, we propose a conceptual framework for adapting PAs of CT for international studies. The framework differentiates between two stages and three adaptation designs. The first stage involves a collaborative approach to the design of PAs of CT. The second stage offers three design alternatives which differ in their emphasis on linguistic considerations and cultural responsiveness. While this paper focuses on PAs of CT for higher education, it may be applicable to pre-college education.

NEXT-GENERATION ASSESSMENT SPURS SMARTER LEARNING

Interest in learning has grown well beyond class-based interactions between teachers and students. The value of higher learning keeps growing, spurring the need for education innovation and reform. To this end, this paper introduces the ‘smarter learning’ initiative, spotlights reforms required to achieve underpinning ‘next-generation’ forms of assessment, and articulates feasible steps ahead. The argument driving this paper is that learning is becoming more valuable, that improving learning hinges on assessment reform, and that such innovation will yield major productivity advances for higher education and broader communities.

ESTUDIO DE CASOS SOBRE LOS FACTORES SOCIOCULTURALES Y DE LIDERAZGO QUE AFECTAN LA ENSEÑANZA DE LENGUAS ADICIONALES EN COLEGIOS INTERNACIONALES IB

En este estudio se recogen los resultados hayados en dos estudios de casos de dos colegios con el Programa de la Escuela Primaria (PEP) de la Organizacióin del Bachillerato Internacional (IB) con programas de inmersión lingüística en lenguas adicionales y procedentes de países distintos de habla hipana (España y Uruguay). Se llevaron a cabo entrevistas en profundidad a 48 personas entre directivos, profesores de lenguas adicionales (segunda y tercera) y padres representativos de la comunidad. Se exponen los resultados tras analizar los factores socioculturales, las estrategias organizativas y pedagógicas que contribuyen a la enseñanza de lenguas adicionales y al fomento de la comprensión intercultural mediante un liderazgo escolar eficaz, la indagación estructurada y el aprendizaje basado en conceptos. Los resultados indican que el marco de referencia IB para la Enseñanza de las lenguas es una guía general y flexible, pero la enseñanza de las lenguas adicionales no se lleva a cabo de igual manera en los centros. Hay diferencias en el conocimiento y la experiencia del desarrollo curricular y su puesta en marcha. Se aportan recomendaciones para los líderes de los centros.

IB DIPLOMA PROGRAMME CORE AS A SUPPLIER OF GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

Global citizenship education (GCED) is a growing field in international education. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 4.7 cited GCED as an official aim of the United Nations for 2030 in order to improve sustainable development, and this has created an increase in global research relating to the assessment of GCED within curriculums. The International Baccalaureate (IB), a private international organization known for its mission statement that promotes lifelong education for a peaceful world, prefers the term international mindedness. Consequently, the IB rarely addresses the concept of global citizenship directly in its Diploma Programme (DP). This paper studies the relationship between the existing DP curriculum and GCED through first providing a definition of GCED and its cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioral conceptual domains according to UNESCO’s theoretical framework. The study suggests that the DP curriculum unequally addresses the GCED domains and lacks definitive learning objectives that are recommended by UNESCO. While the IB is known for its international education, the DP does address GCED elements that are crucial to active citizenship within the written curriculum, nor are the existing elements assessed at any point in the program.