In this chapter, we discuss historical, methodological, and social issues pertaining to the relationship between context and language learning and assessment in first, second, and heritage languages (henceforth, L1, L2, and HL, respectively). We begin with an overview of the contextual factors that shape L1 development and discuss issues of language policy in formal L1 educational contexts. In the second and third sections, we briefly review the development of the fields of L2 learning and assessment, with attention to contextual happenings and trends that have affected them, and discuss psychological, social, cultural, and literacy-based approaches to language learning. In the fourth section, we examine the case of HL learners as an example of how context affects the development and maintenance of the HL in both informal (e.g., how young children acquire the HL) and formal settings (e.g., how current L2 teaching methods are not adequate to teach HL learners). The chapter concludes with a discussion of what we see as possible future trends and directions in the fields.

This chapter focuses on literacy and linguistic diversity in Australia. Literacy educators in Australian schools face challenges, including cultural and linguistic diversity among students, communities, and workplaces; variable support from governments in fiscally unstable times; and continual professional and public debates over curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, and over the role of research and policy. But Australian educators also encounter distinctive, and some at least distinctively inflected historical, cultural, and economic features that have a bearing on their literacy efforts. To background our discussion of those efforts, the chapter opens with a selection of Australia’s demographic and administrative characteristics. This is followed by a discussion of the challenges and opportunities presented to research, practice, and policy by educational engagements with Aboriginal and migrant communities. Implications for the close relationship of literacy to community languages, to pedagogy, to policy formation and maintenance, and to research are also highlighted. Finally, international perspectives on Australian literacy education are presented, including those based on national and international assessment programs.

An overview of testing and measurement in North America is provided, covering topics related to privacy laws and regulations, online proctoring, artificial intelligence, accommodations, accessibility, and the “opt out of testing” movement that are currently defining measurement in North America. This is not to say that these challenges are unique to North America; in fact, the challenges related to these topics are being faced all over the world in varying degrees and the same opportunities exist, but these topics are of particular importance when it comes to measurement and assessment in North America. Building on these observations, a discussion of how advances in technology and computing power provide an opportunity to challenge the status quo related to assessment; these advancements will allow assessment of skills in more authentic ways that will provide better insight into someone’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. The question we should be asking and attempting to answer is “How can assessment developers leverage the power of the cloud and technology to measure skills more accurately and create higher fidelity in the assessment process?”

This chapter reviews the potential of technological innovations to advance assessment of psychological variables in education and the labor market in South America. We discuss in more detail SENNA kids, an electronic assessment tool developed in Brazil, to facilitate the formative assessment of social-emotional skills in young children. For the labour market, we describe an employee-experience tool developed by BONDI-X, a South American start-up, to track employees’ experience and foster communication between employees and organizations. We discuss how features of these two systems and their technologies can be integrated and contribute to a technology-supported self-directed experience system putting individuals in the driver seat of their personal development across their educational and employment careers.

General capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities, literacy, critical and creative thinking, digital literacy, ethical understanding, intercultural understanding, personal and social capability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, Sustainability

This chapter covers the appraisal of published and unpublished works in fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry, in single volumes, monographs, series and collections. These works are intended, for the most part, to be published in book formats or in formal journal publications, in print, electronically and online.

Previous chapters showed that learners are ready to engage in instruction that addresses sophistication. It therefore behooves the field to examine what the construct of “pronunciation” means to both learners and practitioners.

The present chapter explores the need for new assessment criteria; it makes a call for research incorporating variables that would examine, for example, L2 learners’ awareness of what we call “sophisticated-language use” so as to match their manifested beliefs with how they are able to describe what advancedness should look like.

Are we, as scholars, helping to perpetuate elite-bilingualism and nativespeakerism? And how do we affect identity construction among L2 learners and heritage speakers? We assert that the communicative approach in teaching and assessment needs to shift to a more holistic and sociocognitive approach. This also extends to the need to reconceptualize our focus of assessment so that all skills, as well as other forms of literacy and cultural awareness are included.

What remains to be examined in the next chapters is learners’ self-perception, identity construction and awareness of their own social agency as L2 speakers

The consultation is likely to be the first experience the patient has of a psychodynamic way of thinking and it has the potential to be an experience of being deeply heard and understood. In the consultation period the aim is for the therapist to have an experience of the internal world of the patient and the patient an experience of what the therapy will be like. A consultation over a series of meetings may even give the opportunity of developing a patient’s capacity to undertake therapeutic work. It is a complex process that often starts before the patient even enters the room. There are different approaches to the consultation process and some of these are discussed. Given that the psychodynamic consultation is an encounter which will, in all likelihood, create anxiety and a sense of vulnerability in the patient, we can expect to see defences emerging in the moment-by-moment interaction and these are considered. A tripartite structure of psychodynamic formulation is outlined as a helpful framework for picking out the relational dynamic

To suggest that social work theory and empirical research necessarily inform and strengthen practice under-estimates the difficulties involved in bringing together conceptual and practical endeavours. Building linkages between theory, research and practice has been a long-standing challenge in social work. Busy practitioners have little opportunity to keep abreast of new research, and the higher-order nature of some theories and perspectives means that they lack the capacity for straightforward translation into practice. As a consequence, models of practice have emerged from theoretical ideas. These function as bridges between broader theoretical ideas and intervention strategies used in daily practice. For example, empowerment perspectives (see Chapter 8) do not provide a tractable practice pathway, yet the family group conference is a good example of a practice model that can trace its roots to the empowerment tradition. This is an example of a practice model that has emerged from theoretical concepts and ideas. When theory, knowledge and practice come together in this way, the result becomes part of a rich and continually evolving intellectual tradition within social work.

Developmental teaching has a long history starting with Vygotsky’s ideas of teaching reaching into the zone of proximal development, an accomplishment that only are possible with the help of qualified teachers. Developmental teaching is oriented both to children’s acquisition of competence and to their formation as persons acquiring theoretical thinking and motive orientation. Central ideas in developmental teaching are that general knowledge in the form of core relations should come before specific and concrete knowledge, and that children through agentic but also teacher-guided exploration should be able to acknowledge these conceptual relations. These ideas have been extended with Hedegaard’s ideas of the double move in teaching and learning. In this process, teaching is a double and moving back to qualify children’s… knowledge to subject matter knowledge and back to quality children’s concept formation. This is illustrated in a project focusing on the subjects of biology, human geography and history working with oppositions, using children’s everyday knowledge and questions to create their activities and motivation for exploration. The Radical-Local approach extends the double move with inclusion of aspects of children’s community as a process of movement from the local to the general and the general to the local. The chapter also addresses assessment challenges through presenting a questionnaire addressing the child’s social situation of development, to capture the child’s perspective on their participation in school practices.

This chapter explains the role of national and state/territory education authorities in providing guidance for teachers when assessing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in primary science education. It also presents a range of strategies which allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and understandings at various time points (before, during and after) in science learning sequences. While the notion of assessment often relates to teacher judgements of what students do or do not know and how well they know it, a key goal in education is to develop students’ metacognitive abilities so that they can judge their own learning themselves. The focus needs to be on inclusive strategies and resources that improve not prove learning (Skamp & Preston, 2021), while positioning students as knowledge constructors and sharers rather than knowledge consumers. Strategies for identifying students’ learning in the Australian Curriculum: Science will be explored.

Change is inevitable. We have a choice: we can either act to maintain control as much as possible during change, or we can let changes occur to us, which leads to pain and loss of independence. This chapter defines strategies for Adaptability. Be realistic. Don’t be fearful of slowing down. Collect information on resources designed for older adults. Join support groups. Volunteer. Engage in social events. Take advantage of digital world to communicate with family. Learn to use new gadgets. Ask for help. Don’t wait for red flags. Research transportation options. Realize early when you need more help. Make your home or apartment safe. View adapting as an opportunity to discover new things about yourself.

The research methods we use to assess prosociality in young children are the ultimate arbiter for our understanding of prosocial development. The theoretical conclusions we base on empirical data are nested, if not entirely rooted, in the ways in which we measure and statistically model children’s prosociality. This chapter focuses on early ontogeny and systematizes the landscape of research methodologies currently used to study prosocial development. It offers a critical reflection on some of the methodological and statistical constraints under which current research on prosocial development is being conducted. The chapter closes by arguing that new technological advances have paved the way for a more inclusive and systematic study of prosociality in the early years of development. Embracing these ongoing efforts will require a new kind of discussion about the ways in which we statistically model development and how we draw inferences about “significant” effects in early ontogeny.

Whilst representing a relatively small proportion of the overall offender population, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with diverse needs and issues that can challenge mainstream forensic services. The specific topics discussed in this chapter focus on those related to the assessment of individuals withASD in forensic settings, notably obtaining a diagnosis of ASD, completing a forensic risk formulation and therapeutic needs profile, the assessment of psychopathy in ASD and presence of any co-occurring neurodevelopmental and/or psychiatric disorders. Therapeutic approaches within forensic settings in the form of psychological and pharmacological interventions are also reviewed, including the role of organisational and staff training in ASD. A case example is also provided. The potential additional needs that women with ASD who offend present with are discussed. A final summary is provided including potential research targets to inform the future direction of assessments and therapeutic approaches for people with ASD within forensic settings.