Abstracts - Earli

account when considering instructional support issues because they can give valuable insightsabout the future performance of the students.Evaluation of the ‘received’ ethics curriculum in medical school: students’ experience perspectiveEdna Benshalom, Kaye Cellege of Education, IsraelThe study addressed ethical curricular aspects of medical education, as perceived and evaluated bystudents. The study was based on two theoretical premises: the ‘total curriculum’ as a broadflexible interactive concept (Kelly, 1999), and the ‘received curriculum’, which regards students’experience of the curriculum as a valid and valuable source of its evaluation (Jackson, 1992). Thequalitative-interpretive study was conducted through interviews with six-year medical students (attheir last year in medical school). The results revealed that (I) Students perceived their ‘receivedethics curriculum’ as ‘total curriculum’ - holistically "ethics laden" curriculum, manifested byvarious formats of ethics teaching (courses, panels, symposia, week-conferences, special-guestlectures). (II) Students’ experience, and relevancy to their reality were the major measuring-stickfor students’ perception and evaluation; (III) Students exposed ‘hidden curriculum’ constructs:They seemed to be aware of the modelling aspects of ethical teaching/learning within clinicaltraining; They described the factors delineating the latent processes of experience gathering andethical code construction through conflicts, contradictions and paradoxes; They expressedawareness of the factors that encourage ethical learning, as opposed to factors that hinder it; Theyanalyzed the contradictions between declared and observed norms and between formal andinformal demands. The study sustains the conclusion that a methodology of retrospectiveinterviewing of adult students can provide curriculum planners with significant insights aboutholistic considerations and the relative importance of curricular elements, and about the difficultiesthat a training program might present to students. The paradigmatic strength of students’evaluation-interpretation of the curriculum through their experience lies within its authenticity,awareness and reflection. The study’s implications might enhance processes of curriculum shapingaccording to students’ evaluation, as well as processes of students’ empowerment and studentvoicing.Assessment’s role and effectiveness in developing potentials for student learning: Multipleperspectives on undergraduate distance and online course assessment practices at an AustralianuniversityPatrick Danaher, University of Southern Queensland, AustraliaR. E. (Bobby) Harreveld, Central Queensland University, AustraliaTeresa Moore, Central Queensland University, AustraliaThe contribution of assessment to developing potentials for student learning is complex anddiverse. In order to explore that contribution, this paper analyses findings from an intensive studyof the assessment practices and tasks in a selection of undergraduate distance and online courses atCentral Queensland University, Australia. The study was conducted in the second half of 2004 andentailed a detailed mapping of the course profiles, followed by semi-structured interviews with 20academics representing all five faculties and several disciplines in the university. Interviewtranscripts were analysed using Gee’s (1996a, 1996b) ‘Big D/little d’ D/discourse theory, with aview to identifying and engaging with the powerful yet often unconscious assumptions andworldviews that underpin academics’ attitudes to assessment. These assumptions and worldviewswere made explicit through the interplay between the ‘Big D’ organising structures and the ‘littled’ ‘language bits’ manifested in the course profiles and the interview transcripts. The findingsdemonstrate that the contribution of assessment to developing student learning is embedded in, and– 847 –