The document discusses the overwhelming focus on assessment within the vocational education and training (VET) sector, which has shifted attention away from teaching itself. This assessment obsession has led to increased bureaucracy, compliance demands, and a culture of risk aversion that hampers innovation and effective lesson planning. Ultimately, this shift has resulted in educators spending more time on administrative tasks rather than on delivering quality educational outcomes.

1. THE ASSESSMENT OBSESSION –
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO
TEACHING?
Michael Coghlan
NewLearning
5/9/14

2. ASSESSMENT ↔ OVER-REGULATION
Creative Commons image
https://www.flickr.com/photos/intrepidflame/8431952864/sizes/n/

3. 2003: I KNEW WE WERE IN TROUBLE
• “Can’t come to the PD
session today Michael.
Sorry – we’re being
audited next week.”

4. CHARACTERISTICS OF A
GOOD TEACHER?

5. WHAT MAKES A
GOOD TEACHER?
Care
Knows their subject
patience
understanding
empathy
Good listener
Able to motivate
flexible
fair
punctual
reliable
Good communication skills
Sense of humour

6. EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
FOR
TEACHERS/TRAINERS

7. TEACHING AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
(circa 2000)

8. Cert IV TRAINING And Assessment
Units of Competence

9. Cert IV TRAINING And Assessment
Outcomes – 2014

10. HOW WE’VE CHANGED:
• The focus of VET has shifted from LEARNING
to ASSESSMENT.

11. Victor Callan (The University of Queensland)
Berwyn Clayton (Victoria University)
http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/files/Eassessment_AQTF_final.pdf

12. TIME SPENT ON ASSESSENT
– the last 5 years -

13. TEACHER COMMENTS:
• wasting a huge amount of time on bureaucracy to meet auditors needs rather than
on delivery of outcomes to students
• the Audit /ASQA requirements for VET and Tafe training has increased the time
needed prepare and assess in training
• a lot of the time is spent on the quality requirements now e.g. filing assessments,
tracking training plans etc
• marking, documenting, recording, student information systems, fulfilling auditable
requirements takes the largest proportion of our time
• Very little time available for research, and development of materials past what is
already available due to the increased demands time for assessment ... Too much
time spent doing tasks that should be done by administrative staff.... Quality
system also demands multiple records of many outcomes and this takes significant
time also
• Administration and compliance requirements, especially in relation to assessment,
have significantly reduced the time available for quality lesson planning and
resource development

14. What an assessor in the Australian
VET sector needs to show!
• Provide evidence to support your
decision to approve student X
competent in unit of competence Y on
day Z last semester
• extreme cases: need to report on every
student on every unit of competence
for every day

15. WHY HAS THIS HAPPENED?
because a couple of kids mucked around in class

16. • Sugata Mitra:
"the stupidity and short-sighted self-interest of
politicians combined with the laziness and
cowardice of many who work in education is a
powerful and deadly brake upon change."
(Sugata Mitra)

17. WHERE DID THE ASSESSMENT
OBSESSION COME FROM?
• RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) – you could be
assessed without doing the course - GOOD
• National standards > regulator > auditing to ensure
consistent outcomes - GOOD
• The whole class must stay in at lunchtime (or we all
suffer for the sins of a few); weeding out the bad guys
(Dodgy Brothers RTOs; lazy, entrenched, permanent
TAFE employees) – NEEDED BUT WENT TOO FAR
• RESULT: Risk aversion ↔ culture of compliance – JUST
REALLY SAD
• New funding models are outcome focused – THE LAST
STRAW

18. STEMMING THE TIDE
Two questions:
1. Will this improve my
teaching?
2. Will it reduce the
amount of time I have
to prepare lessons?
Greg Whitby

19. THE PROBLEM:
"The dominant culture of education has come to focus not on teaching
and learning, but testing...this...leads to a culture of compliance rather
than creativity.“
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley.html

20. Skills of the VET Teacher/Trainer
Many practitioners not sure
what is acceptable to auditors –
results in a culture of meek
compliance > unwillingness to
innovate

21. In Addition..... 
• Auditor’s comment:
“I suggest you steer away
from collaborative
assessment.” (2013)

22. The Australian (23/7/14)

23. Gunningham:
Gunningham said the reforms were being driven by Treasury and
were “all about reducing costs … Is it really that good to be
bottom of the barrel on costs? At the end of the day, quality
costs money.”
“Many of my counterparts feel quite inhibited saying things because we’re public
servants. You’ve got to pay the mortgage and all that kind of stuff. I’m past that.”

24. OTHER ISSUES
• No time for PD – audits and new TPs - unless it’s
about compliance and regulation
• The history of public VET (TAFE) v private VET
• Deskilling/dumbing down of the workforce
• Intellectually bereft
• Ann Dening:
"across the VET system as a whole there has been
little focus on pedagogy, and particularly on VET
pedagogy."
http://www.lhmartininstitute.edu.au/insights-blog/2014/06/183-workforce-development-
in-the-vet-sector

25. KWALITY WITH A ‘K’
Under the guise of Kwality I saw:
• an increasing lack of trust in dedicated professionals
• a growing obsession with assessment and auditing
• the amount of time people had to prepare for teaching
drastically reduced
• the amount of time needed for assessment and
reporting drastically increase
• a noticeable drop-off in attendance at PD sessions
(because staff had no time for such things)
• all in the name of ‘kwality’!

26. KWALITY IS ABOUT SYSTEMS
QUALITY IS ABOUT PEOPLE

29. No strings attached funding

30. END OF
TODAY’S
SESSION
Unless otherwise stated all images used in this presentation are Creative
Commons images by mikecogh - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/
Slides available from
http://www.slideshare.net/michaelc/
Michael Coghlan
NewLearning
michaelc@chariot.net.au