Education Issues

 

The recent decades have seen profound changes in all aspects of Education, resulting in fundamental shifts in the nature of what we mean by the term Education

In the educational arena, we are increasingly witnessing a change in the view of what education is for, with a growing emphasis on the need to support young people not only to acquire knowledge and information, but to develop the resources and skills necessary to engage with social and technical change, and to continue learning throughout the rest of their lives. ( futurelab Social Software report )

In response to these changes we have witnessed alterations in regualtory regimes around the world. The European Community has initiated the Bologna Process: a process that centralizes regulation in order to guarantee more flexibility. Australia has adopted many of Bologna recommendations, particularly by opening the higher education sector up to NSAIs and for-profit providers.

Pedagogies have also altered in line with this regualtory shift: current best practice is firmly based on constructivist notions of the curriculum and teaching and learning. This pedagogical shift emphasizes measurable indicators that are used to inform systems from Quality Assurance to curriculum design and teaching and learning practice.

In order to remain innovative in this shifting environment, it is important to view it, not just as politically fashionable administrative or governance changes, but as deeper more structurally and strategically significant shifts.

mediagogy aims to develop an informed network of education professionals to investigate and discuss the issues that affect the contemporary education climate. With this in mind mediagogy will, from time to time, produce brief issues papers inviting discussion of these issues from other consultants and professionals.

 

 

Issues

Quality Education

Issues about quality and Quality Assurance in education are coming to the fore in the present regulatory environment. With changes to AQTF 2007, the implementation of the new ESOS Code of Practice, and AUQA beginning to audit more NSAIs, Quality has become a complex and necessary topic .

FEE-HELP for VET

A brief introduction to some of the issues raised by the proposed introduction of FEE- HELP to the VET sector

Economies of Scale in Higher Ed

A brief consideration of the kind of model informing our ideas about Higher Education.