QUALITY ASSURANCE: A PRESSING PROBLEM FOR EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Journal Title: Problems of Education in the 21st Century - Year 2011, Vol 32, Issue 7
Abstract
Quality assurance in secondary schools (ages about 12-18) and in higher education has been a growth industry for many years, with all kinds of agencies being funded. With apparently endless growth in education at all levels, with insistent demands on more resources, the political pressures in ensuring value for money have increased. This study looks at what is meant by quality assurance, challenges some of the current procedures and points to some better ways forward for the 21st century. Specifically, it argues that quality assurance must focus on the key goals for education at each stage with the learner always at the focus of all procedures to assess quality. Finally, the study illustrates this approach by considering what 793 secondary students thought of their experiences at the point when they were almost completing their education journey in secondary schools in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The research aim is to show how focusing on the actual learners can identify key issues that need addressed to enrich education provision. These issues include the emphasizing understanding and not memorization, the need for more group work and dialogue, restoring the visual-spatial aspects of learning, re-thinking curriculum balance, and re-examining national examination systems. The most fundamental question of all is whether quality assurance has improved quality - a key issue for the 21st century?
Authors and Affiliations
Khaled Almadani, Norman Reid, Susan Rodrigues
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP34983
- DOI -
- Views 240
- Downloads 0
THE IMPACT OF MOBILE TABLET USE ON STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF LEARNING PROCESSES
The purpose of the current research was to explore the impact of tablet use for various subjects in Israeli schools on students' perception of learning processes in the cognitive and affective dimensions. For this purpo...
MAKING GENDER A SUBJECT OF DISCUSSION - A MISSION (IM) POSSIBLE IN THE 21TH CENTURY?! STUDENTS OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES AS AN EXAMPLE WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF ACADEMIA
Higher education is supposed to create open-minded graduates within social topics. General assumptions about educational science transfer a quiet sensitive picture across in particular gender issues and the awareness of...
E-ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS BASED ON PERSONAL RESPONSE SYSTEM
Tools for electronic assessment are being developed mainly with growth of distance learning platforms. However, the possibility of electronic testing seems to be valuable also in the classroom, which is not usually equ...
PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS’ CREATIVITY FOSTERING BEHAVIORS, PERCEPTIONS ON THEIR TECHNOLOGY SKILLS AND SUCCESS IN PROJECT BASED MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT
In this study it was determined how pre-service chemistry teachers’ creativity fostering behaviours and their perceptions of their technology skills predict their success in Project Based Educational Technology and Mate...
STUDY PROGRAM “HOME ENVIRONMENT AND INFORMATICS IN EDUCATION” DEVELOPING OPPORTUNITIES
The aim of the research is to clear up the necessity of the information and communication technologies (ICT) integration methodology, offered by author, in the household and home economic education. Studies with the IC...