Formative assessment
Self-regulated learning
Agency and self-efficacy
Teachers' capacity building
13
Scopus Publications
433
Scholar Citations
10
Scholar h-index
11
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Intentional Teaching for the World of Work: Building Children’s Career Aspirations and Knowledge in Early Childhood Education Vicki Hargraves, Claire McLachlan, Anna Fletcher, Stuart Levy Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 2026 While opportunities to learn about potential careers in early childhood are often limited to stereotypical role play contexts, a project undertaken in collaboration with three early childhood centres in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, demonstrated that early childhood settings can play an important role in supporting children to expand their understandings of potential careers in the World of Work [WoW], and help interrupt trajectories of disadvantage and unemployment. For children in this low socioeconomic area, families’ ability to support their educational and career aspirations was sometimes found to be limited by unemployment and a lack of positive educational experiences. Intentional Teaching was identified as an important pedagogy to address children’s lack of knowledge about potential careers and in particular, highlighted the rich potential for drawing attention to the WoW through children’s play interests and incidental conversations.
Self-assessment as a student-agentic zone of proximate competence development Anna Katarina Fletcher Educational Review, 2024 Student agency in the form of students’ active involvement in developing self-regulated learning skills by setting goals, monitoring, and adjusting their own learning process, is increasingly recognised as a key component of classroom self-assessment among researchers. The purpose of this article is to offer a conceptual and practical framework for scaffolding students’ agentic engagement in formative self-assessment as a co-regulatory, three-phase process centred around students’ competence development within the Zone of Proximate Development (ZPD). Agentic engagement in learning occurs when students make proactive, intentional, and constructive contributions to a learning activity, by offering input and making suggestions. This article explores process, product, and competence dimensions of formative self-assessment. It draws upon data from 256 Australian primary students involved in a one-setting practitioner study, conducted as a writing project in which students used a planning template. The findings show that when the planning template was used to scaffold teacher–learner transactions, a range of both direct and indirect teacher–learner transactions occurred, which were prompted by students’ agentic engagement in their learning. The direct teacher–learner transactions included joint, two-way transactions focused on co-regulation, which were either initiated by the learner or by the teacher. The findings also included examples of one-way teacher–learner transactions that involved interactions in which the transaction was aimed at addressing a specific learning need or challenge. These findings imply that using a self-assessment planning template to foster learning through co-regulation enables both instruction and feedback to occur at the point of need, in a task-specific context within the student’s ZPD.
Global challenges: South African and Australian students’ experiences of emergency remote teaching Michelle Joubert, , Ana Larsen, Bryce Magnuson, David Waldron, Ellen Sabo, Anna Fletcher, , , , , and Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2023 The COVID-19 pandemic forced universities worldwide to move their teaching online within an unprecedentedly short timeframe. Whilst the move online learning has increased the reach of tertiary educational delivery it has also raised significant issues of equity, accessibility and student engagement. This includes concerns around access to technology and reliable internet connectivity, academic and digital literacy, and other factors such as mental health and work-life balance. This paper examines two studies of student engagement with online learning during 2020 when then pandemic began. One study was conducted in South Africa the other in a small regional university in South-Eastern Australia. A mixed method approach was used in both studies and then student responses were analysed using the student engagement framework presented by Kahu and Nelson (2018). A key focus in this analysis is the critical importance the educational interface and shared mutually formative experience of learning between students and universities. Findings show that despite the two different contexts, student concerns around digital literacy and engagement in an online learning environment share many similarities.
‘More than Marking and Moderation’: A Self-Study of Teacher Educator Learning through Engaging with Graduate Teaching Performance Assessment Robyn Brandenburg, Anna Fletcher, Anitra Gorriss-Hunter, Cameron Van der Smee, Wendy Holcombe, Katrina Griffiths, Karen Schneider Studying Teacher Education, 2023 Global attention continues to focus on the quality of teaching, teacher quality, teacher education programs and the preparation of graduates who are ready to teach. This self-study research focuses on one aspect of the preparation and assessment of graduates for teaching: the marking and moderation of a Teaching Assessment Performance (TPA), a mandated assessment tool implemented in Australian universities and education institutions that is used as one key determinant to assess graduate readiness for the profession. While there is a developing field of research related to the implementation and effectiveness of TPAs, less is known about the teacher educator expertise required to mark and moderate these assessments. The purpose of this self-study, conducted at Federation University, a regional university in Australia, aimed to identify and examine teacher educator marker and moderator experience and expertise through the establishment of a professional learning community (PLC). Using audio-recorded transcripts of team meetings and teacher educator vignettes, the data were analysed using NVivo and were individually and collectively categorised and coded. Reflecting in and on our practice, we focused on critical moments, interactions, and experiences to interrogate the data. The key themes included: 1) collaboration through marking and moderation; 2) reflection through critical engagement; 3) growth as a teacher educator and 4) enactment in teacher educator practice. This self-study of practice, using a PLC, enabled us to make our often-tacit knowledge, understanding and expertise explicit, and provided frameworks and structures for enacting this new knowledge in practice.
A Flourishing Brain in the 21st Century: A Scoping Review of the Impact of Developing Good Habits for Mind, Brain, Well-Being, and Learning Rolf Ekman, Anna Fletcher, Joanna Giota, Axel Eriksson, Bertil Thomas, Fredrik Bååthe Mind Brain and Education, 2022 ABSTRACT Emerging scientific knowledge such as the role of epigenetics and neuroplasticity—the brain's capability to constantly rewire with every action, experience, and thought—is fundamentally changing our understanding of the potential impact we can have on our brain. Our brain is formed by our habits in interaction with our body, the environment, influenced by our lifestyle, successes, failures, and traumas. Neuroplasticity proves that every student's brain is a work in progress, and it is never too late to take better care of one's cognitive fitness. This review presents a repertoire of good habits (GHs). Combined, we suggest that these GHs provide conditions for optimal brain health, by acting as a “Mental Vaccine” which enhances the brain's resilience to brain health‐degrading challenges. We argue that schools have a crucial role to play in empowering students to increase their own stress resilience, well‐being, and learning by developing their own GHs profile.
Australia’s National Assessment Programme rubrics: An impetus for self-assessment? Anna Fletcher Educational Research, 2021 Background: On an annual basis, students across Australia in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed on their literacy and numeracy skills via the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), with the student performance data used for purposes including national accountability. Purpose: Against this backdrop of large-scale national assessment, this practitioner-research case study explored the possibilities of using existing NAPLAN writing assessment rubrics as a basis for formative assessment purposes. Specifically, the aim was to galvanise and encourage a culture of self-assessment within one school, using the notion of intelligent accountability. Sample: Participants included seven teachers and 126 students in Years 2, 4 and 6 (students aged approximately 7, 9 and 11 years), at an independent school in Northern Territory, Australia. Design and methods: The data presented here derive from a larger study which aimed to explore ways in which assessment can be used to scaffold students’ ability to self-regulate their learning, as part of a classroom writing project. Data sources included planning templates, writing samples, interviews with students and teachers, and email correspondence with teachers. The data were analysed for emerging themes and interpreted within a framework of social cognitive theory. Findings: The analysis identified that students used the self-assessment process to set specific learning goals for developing a number of aspects of their writing. In terms of intelligent accountability, three elements of difference were distinguished: time, confidence and experience. Conclusions: The findings from this study highlight the crucial role of self-assessment within classroom practice. The researcher-practitioner self-assessment framework developed suggests the potential for utilising large-scale assessment rubrics as a basis for formative assessment activity.
An invited outsider or an enriched insider? Challenging contextual knowledge as a critical friend researcher Anna Fletcher Educational Researchers and the Regional University Agents of Regional Global Transformations, 2019 Researchers conducting studies in communities have long taken an interest in exploring the different merits of positioning themselves as “insiders”, “outsiders”, or “in-betweeners” in relation to their participants. Yet research exploring the role of the researcher as a “critical friend”—a supportive yet challenging facilitator in self-evaluation processes—has not been fully examined. This chapter speaks to the FUGuE element of transformation—which in the present context, I define as a process where structures and forms undergo conversion. The chapter provides my account as a FUGuE researcher of exploring the methodological implications of my research with a small group of teachers at a primary school located in the Latrobe Valley in Central Gippsland. The emergent relationship now informs my teaching and research practices. The discussion draws on a recently commenced longitudinal study exploring teachers’ use of strategies and processes aimed at improving literacy practices—a phenomenon known as capacity building—through collaboration in a professional learning team, within a context of school improvement. Due to a prior connection with the school, I was invited to become a critical friend and active participant as the school initiated a new Professional Learning Team (PLT) in literacy. Informed by recorded conversations from the PLT meetings, my aim was to conceptualize the role and transformative implications of researching as an invited critical friend within a professional community. This chapter contributes to the methodological discourse of educational research by offering a contextualized analysis of the tensions among the notions of trust, credibility, and positionality as a critical friend researcher.
Help seeking: agentic learners initiating feedback Anna Katarina Fletcher Educational Review, 2018 Effective feedback is an essential tool for making learning explicit and an essential feature of classroom practice that promotes learner autonomy. Yet, it remains a pressing challenge for teachers to scaffold the active involvement of students as critical, reflective and autonomous learners who use feedback constructively. This paper seeks to present a recalibrated perspective of feedback by exploring the concept as a student-initiated learning action, manifested within classroom practice as help seeking for learning. Teachers and students from years 2, 4 and 6 at an Australian primary school worked together on a writing project, which was structured as a three-phase learning process. The value of this approach was revealed by data gathered through students’ planning templates, writing samples, interviews with students and teachers along with email correspondence with the teachers. A framework of social cognitive theory guided the analysis. It is suggested that the three-phase Assessment as Learning (AaL) process has the potential to support teachers in scaffolding students to seek help at a time when they are receptive to feedback. Furthermore, this AaL approach appears to have enhanced the teachers’ practice, particularly in respect to providing support for students during the forethought stage of the learning process. Practical techniques for scaffolding students’ adaptive help seeking and autonomy as learners are presented in the paper.
Assessment to develop students’ strategies and competence as learners Barnes Dr Melissa, Gindidis Dr Maria, Phillipson Sivanes Evidence Based Learning and Teaching A Look into Australian Classrooms, 2018 This chapter explores a unique topic of concern different from the other chapters in this book in emphasising parental role as mediators in children’s future educational decisions. This study examines students’ experiences and their thinking around their senior subject choices, as a result of schools’ career counselling process involving students, their parents, the career counsellor and the subject teacher. Parents and teachers are known to be the mature partners in playing vital roles in the social context in which students learn, being key providers of guidance and support for student thinking around decision-making processes (Vygotsky, 1978). In particular, educators cannot overlook the significance of parental and other adults’ role to develop high school students’ (Years 10-12) thinking abilities around making career choices (Eccles, 1999). The Australian Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR, 2011) has highlighted that significant career pathway advice and support occurs through less formal channels by parents and family members, as well as teachers. This is the case even though student subject selection and career path-way information and services are usually provided formally by career development professionals, such as the career counsellors in schools. As such, information services need to be tailored taking into account key players in career counselling, such as parents, teachers and career counsellors, to allow them to better support those making career decisions (NCDS, 2011). The Australian blueprint for career development emphasises the shared responsibility of schools and parents in supporting students to maximise their career development opportunities (MCEETYA, 2012). Although the quest of policy-makers in bringing together teachers and parents in the best educational interests of their children begins from the early years of education through to the primary years, this chapter especially brings to attention the significance of parent-school partnership in secondary schools as a continuum of children’s learning.
Intentional Teaching for the World of Work: Building Children’s Career Aspirations and Knowledge in Early Childhood Education V Hargraves, C McLachlan, A Fletcher, S Levy Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 18369391251408647 , 2025 2025
Self-assessment as a student-agentic zone of proximate competence development AK Fletcher Educational Review 76 (4), 956-978 , 2024 2024 Citations: 12
‘More than marking and moderation’: A self-study of teacher educator learning through engaging with graduate teaching performance assessment R Brandenburg, A Fletcher, A Gorriss-Hunter, C Van der Smee, ... Studying Teacher Education 19 (3), 330-350 , 2023 2023 Citations: 10
A Possible Me? Inspiring Learning Among Regional Young People for the Future World of Work C Glowrey, S Levy, M Green, A Fletcher, M Plunkett Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice in Education: A Critical … , 2023 2023 Citations: 9
Children’s Self-assessment Plans to Inform Teaching and Provide Summative Data A Fletcher Assessment and Data Systems in Early Childhood Settings: Theory and Practice … , 2023 2023 Citations: 4
A flourishing brain in the 21st century: A scoping review of the impact of developing good habits for mind, brain, well‐being, and learning R Ekman, A Fletcher, J Giota, A Eriksson, B Thomas, F Bååthe Mind, Brain, and Education 16 (1), 13-23 , 2022 2022 Citations: 41
Uncovering missing links in collegial learning conversations A Fletcher, AC Wennergren Forskning og forandring 4 (1), 41-58 , 2021 2021 Citations: 5
Australia’s National Assessment Programme rubrics: An impetus for self-assessment? A Fletcher Educational Research 63 (1), 43-64 , 2021 2021 Citations: 18
Uncovering missing links in collegial learning conversations. Forskning og Forandring, 4 (1), 41-58 A Fletcher, AC Wennergren 2021
An Invited Outsider or an Enriched Insider? Challenging Contextual Knowledge as a Critical Friend Researcher A Fletcher Educational Researchers and the Regional University Agents of Regional … , 2019 2019 Citations: 34
Help seeking: Agentic learners initiating feedback AK Fletcher Educational Review 70 (4), 389-408 , 2018 2018 Citations: 67
11 Assessment to develop students' strategies and competence A Fletcher Evidence-Based Learning and Teaching: A Look into Australian Classrooms , 2018 2018
Pitfalls and possiblities: Collegial conversations about students learning as a reflection of teaching impact A Fletcher, AC Wennergren Australian Association For Research In Education (AARE) Conference 2018 … , 2018 2018
Classroom assessment as a reciprocal practice to develop students’ agency: A social cognitive perspective A Fletcher Assessment Matters 12, 34-57 , 2018 2018 Citations: 28
Assessment to develop students’ strategies and competence as learners A Fletcher Evidence-Based Learning and Teaching: A Look into Australian Classrooms, 123-137 , 2018 2018 Citations: 2
The testing and learning revolution: the future of assessment in education. A Fletcher Studies in Continuing Education, 1-2 , 2017 2017 Citations: 1
Exceeding expectations: scaffolding agentic engagement through assessment as learning AK Fletcher Educational Research , 2016 2016 Citations: 97
Engaging students with assessment as learning: scaffolding classroom practice to build students' self-efficacy and agentic engagement A Fletcher Research and Innovation in Classroom Assessment: International Perspectives … , 2016 2016 Citations: 2
Reimagining and transforming identity as researchers and educators: a (con)textual fugue S Plowright, C Glowrey, M Green, A Fletcher, D Harrison, M Plunkett, ... AARE , 2016 2016 Citations: 3
Assessment as a student-driven, reciprocal practice: a recalibrated, social cognitive perspective A Fletcher AARE , 2016 2016 Citations: 2
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Exceeding expectations: scaffolding agentic engagement through assessment as learning AK Fletcher Educational Research , 2016 2016 Citations: 97
Help seeking: Agentic learners initiating feedback AK Fletcher Educational Review 70 (4), 389-408 , 2018 2018 Citations: 67
How does student-directed assessment affect learning? Using assessment as a learning process A Fletcher, G Shaw International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches 6 (3), 245-263 , 2012 2012 Citations: 52
A flourishing brain in the 21st century: A scoping review of the impact of developing good habits for mind, brain, well‐being, and learning R Ekman, A Fletcher, J Giota, A Eriksson, B Thomas, F Bååthe Mind, Brain, and Education 16 (1), 13-23 , 2022 2022 Citations: 41
How voice-recognition software presents a useful transcription tool for qualitative and mixed methods researchers AK Fletcher, G Shaw International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches 5 (2), 200-206 , 2011 2011 Citations: 35
An Invited Outsider or an Enriched Insider? Challenging Contextual Knowledge as a Critical Friend Researcher A Fletcher Educational Researchers and the Regional University Agents of Regional … , 2019 2019 Citations: 34
Classroom assessment as a reciprocal practice to develop students’ agency: A social cognitive perspective A Fletcher Assessment Matters 12, 34-57 , 2018 2018 Citations: 28
Australia’s National Assessment Programme rubrics: An impetus for self-assessment? A Fletcher Educational Research 63 (1), 43-64 , 2021 2021 Citations: 18
Self-assessment as a student-agentic zone of proximate competence development AK Fletcher Educational Review 76 (4), 956-978 , 2024 2024 Citations: 12
Student-Directed Assessment as a learning process for primary students: A mixed-methods study AIK Fletcher Charles Darwin University , 2015 2015 Citations: 11
‘More than marking and moderation’: A self-study of teacher educator learning through engaging with graduate teaching performance assessment R Brandenburg, A Fletcher, A Gorriss-Hunter, C Van der Smee, ... Studying Teacher Education 19 (3), 330-350 , 2023 2023 Citations: 10
A Possible Me? Inspiring Learning Among Regional Young People for the Future World of Work C Glowrey, S Levy, M Green, A Fletcher, M Plunkett Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice in Education: A Critical … , 2023 2023 Citations: 9
Uncovering missing links in collegial learning conversations A Fletcher, AC Wennergren Forskning og forandring 4 (1), 41-58 , 2021 2021 Citations: 5
Children’s Self-assessment Plans to Inform Teaching and Provide Summative Data A Fletcher Assessment and Data Systems in Early Childhood Settings: Theory and Practice … , 2023 2023 Citations: 4
Reimagining and transforming identity as researchers and educators: a (con)textual fugue S Plowright, C Glowrey, M Green, A Fletcher, D Harrison, M Plunkett, ... AARE , 2016 2016 Citations: 3
Assessment to develop students’ strategies and competence as learners A Fletcher Evidence-Based Learning and Teaching: A Look into Australian Classrooms, 123-137 , 2018 2018 Citations: 2
Engaging students with assessment as learning: scaffolding classroom practice to build students' self-efficacy and agentic engagement A Fletcher Research and Innovation in Classroom Assessment: International Perspectives … , 2016 2016 Citations: 2
Assessment as a student-driven, reciprocal practice: a recalibrated, social cognitive perspective A Fletcher AARE , 2016 2016 Citations: 2
The testing and learning revolution: the future of assessment in education. A Fletcher Studies in Continuing Education, 1-2 , 2017 2017 Citations: 1
Intentional Teaching for the World of Work: Building Children’s Career Aspirations and Knowledge in Early Childhood Education V Hargraves, C McLachlan, A Fletcher, S Levy Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 18369391251408647 , 2025 2025
