Barry McGaw to lead international educational assessment project
Media Release, Tuesday 13 January 2009
Professor Barry McGaw, Director of the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Education Research Institute (MERI), has been appointed executive director of an international multi-sector research project aimed at transforming global educational assessment and improving learning outcomes.
The project which will be run through the University of Melbourne is a collaboration by three leading technology companies - Cisco, Intel and Microsoft – designed to develop new assessment approaches, methods and technologies for measuring the success of 21st-century teaching and learning in classrooms around the world. Educational leaders, governments and other corporations have been called on to join in the effort.
Professor McGaw’s leadership of the three-year project was announced today (13 January) 2009) at the Learning and Technology World Forum in London. He will oversee an executive committee and project lead team, as well as up to 50 leading experts and innovators in academia and government to collaborate on the research and assist in influencing the future of international and national assessments.
Barry McGaw has been Director of MERI since 2006. Previously he was Director for Education in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) based in Paris, and earlier served as Executive Director of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).
With a distinguished research record in educational measurement and learning, he has extensive experience in curriculum development and assessment management in the upper secondary years. He has chaired governmental review committees dealing with higher education issues in two Australian states and in a third, acted as sole reviewer and author of a public discussion paper. He has chaired or been a member of government committees on education in England, Canada and Ireland.
In 2000, Professor McGaw was a key figure in the development of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures the reading, mathematics and scientific skills of 250 000 students in 32 countries.
Professor McGaw says the international education assessments in PISA focus on key competencies in reading, mathematics and science but “we always wanted to extend the scope to cover important new skills”.
“Reforming assessment is essential to enabling any systemic change in education. And change on a global scale is required to equip students of today with the skills they need to succeed in the workforce of tomorrow,” he says.
“In PISA 2003, we took a step by adding an assessment of problem solving, but one limited to analogical reasoning. We hoped to add information and communications technology (ICT) competence in PISA 2006 but did not succeed. We all need now to work together to advance assessment practice.”
Professor McGaw says that shrinking resources and market pressures mean that education can no longer be the sole responsibility of governments. “Building the future workforce will require a commitment from the private sector to partner with public institutions.”
The assessment research and development project spearheaded by the Cisco, Intel and Microsoft collaboration has received the support of major international assessment organizations. Specifically, OECD and the International Association of the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) have expressed interest in using the evidence-based and verifiable output of
the 21st-century skills assessment to inform the development of the next versions of their respective international benchmarks, PISA and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
|
|
