Student and staff expectations of NZQA levels

Lopez, M. and Lopez, D.

In this cross-sectional study, we surveyed 275 students from representative courses across four levels of the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) to elicit their expectations of the nature of the skills and knowledge, and the degree of self-management and collaboration, required for their courses. We compared their responses to the expectations set out in the qualifications framework. We also surveyed 9 lecturers and compared their expectations to both students and the framework. We found significant differences between student and framework expectations; student expectations were clearly lower than the framework. Moreover, student expectations remained at a low level, even in higher level courses and the gap was wider at the higher levels. We also found significant differences between student and lecturer expectations. At the higher course levels, lecturer expectations were broadly between those of students and the framework, which suggests that lecturer expectations are a compromise between both of these. Any misalignment of expectations poses a challenge for educators. We suggest practical measures for aligning these expectations.

Cite as: Lopez, M. and Lopez, D. (2014). Student and staff expectations of NZQA levels. In Proc. Sixteenth Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE2014) Auckland, New Zealand. CRPIT, 148. Whalley, J. and D\'Souza, D. Eds., ACS. 31-39

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