Entries Tagged: Examinations

An archive of entries with keywords: "Examinations"

Switch to condensed view

Education observed by an American: Isaac Kandel

Australia and New Zealand, 1930-1940

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd. Posted .

In the wake of the World War I, but more so, the second world war, United States governments began to assume a leadership role in world politics. Closely associated philanthropic agencies such as the Carnegie Corporation supported such a development. The colonies and dominions of the declining British Empire were of interest for a number of reasons, one of which was to bolster them as potential allies as Bolshevism and fascism threatened the “free” world.… Continue Reading »

Australian education observed by Sidney and Beatrice Webb

Australia, 1898

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd. Posted .

At the end of the nineteenth century there was much to interest visitors from Britain and Europe in Australia. The country was pioneering innovative forms of democracy such as votes for women, reducing the property franchise for various groups of voters and the use of the secret ballot at elections. There was also government sponsored industrial conciliation and arbitration, a response to the strikes and industrial turmoil of the early 1890s.… Continue Reading »

Mackillop, Mary: Common school teacher

Victoria, 1863-1866

By Carole Hooper, TITC BA BEd PhD, Independent scholar. Posted .

Mary Mackillop is the only Australian to be deemed a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She has been widely recognised for her involvement in education; particularly her work with schools conducted  by a religious order she co-founded with the Rev. Julian Woods in 1866: the Institute of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.… Continue Reading »

School assessment and testing; public examinations and credentials

Australia, 1780-2020

By Craig Campbell, PhD., Dip.Ed.. Posted .

Teachers no matter what forms of pedagogy they engage have usually been concerned to evaluate the learning of their students. The historical tendency, especially in the last two hundred years has been to formalise the process. Written tests and examinations have mainly displaced oral displays of achievement. Concentration on the testing of individual mastery has tended to displace interest in collective achievement, though the latter was resurgent from the late twentieth century as nation states collected data especially on the literacy and numeracy of cohorts of young people at different stages of their school education.… Continue Reading »

The Wyndham Scheme

New South Wales, 1957-1965

By John Hughes, Ph.D., University of Western Sydney. Posted .

The problem of how best to deliver universal secondary education to youth exercised many national systems of education through the twentieth century. Among the democracies, the United States and Scandinavian countries were pioneers of a particular approach: comprehensive secondary schooling. Pressures towards the comprehensive school increased after World War II.… Continue Reading »

Adelaide High School: Inventing a state high school

South Australia, 1875-1920

By Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd, University of Sydney. Posted .

The Education Act of 1875 in South Australia provided for the foundation of a system of public, mainly elementary schools. It also allowed “infant schools, evening schools, schools for the teaching of any branch of science or art, and advanced schools for continuing the education of scholars who shall have obtained prizes at public schools, or otherwise proved themselves qualified for admission: Provided that the course of training in all such schools shall be secular” (clause 12).… Continue Reading »

Payment by results: Teachers’ work, remuneration, and student assessment

Victoria, 1863-1906

By Carole Hooper, TITC, BA, BEd, PhD, Independent scholar. Posted .

The performance-based system, known colloquially as ‘payment-by-results’, whereby teachers’ remuneration was partly determined by the success of their pupils at prescribed examinations, was introduced into Victorian government-aided schools in early1864. Although criticised by many throughout its 40-year existence, the system was not finally abolished until 1906, following the recommendation of a Royal Commission on Education (Fink).… Continue Reading »

Milner, Frank

New Zealand, 1875-1944

By Gregory Lee and Howard Lee, University of Canterbury, Massey University. Posted .

Among the many New Zealand male and female secondary school principals who served their respective institutions and communities dutifully throughout the twentieth century were a small number of school leaders whose educational and societal contributions were, and are, especially noteworthy. Frank Milner features prominently within their ranks. His educational work has been—and remains—significant for several reasons.… Continue Reading »