Clayton, Berwyn (2002) Impacting on policy and practice: Implications of assessment research. In: National Vocational Education Research Training Conference: 11th, 2002, Brisbane, Australia, July, 2002, Brisbane, Australia.

Abstract

It is extremely rare in the Australian Vocational Education and Training environment for researchers to feel that they have an opportunity to influence policy and practice with their research findings. Generally, researchers discover that the timing and priorities are not quite right for their recommendations to be readily accepted by policy-makers, while making the connections between research and practitioners is often an even more difficult challenge. Since 1999, however, numerous research projects have been funded to examine various aspects of competency-based assessment. These studies, initiated as a consequence of a general questioning of the quality and consistency of approaches and outcomes, have provided the cumulative evidence required to influence change in both policy and practice. The timing was right to inform the new Australian Quality Training Framework and the review of the Training Package for Assessment and Workplace Training. The outcomes were also useful in determining which assessment materials needed to be developed to support more consistent assessment. Recommendations relating to improved initial training and ongoing in-depth professional development for practitioners, however, have yet to be taken up despite the consistency of their occurrence across the research reports. For the practitioners who provided information to researchers, the enhancement of their assessment skills and knowledge is a high order priority.

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