Source: The Teacher Educator, 48(2), p. 128–142, 2013
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)
This study aimed to explore the pedagogical conditions that supported teacher candidates’ learning about assessment.
Methods
The participants were teacher candidates enrolled in an assessment education course as to the instructional strategies that facilitated their assessment literacy development.
Data were collected through three open-ended questionnaires administered at equal time intervals throughout the course.
This study revealed four pedagogical constructs that teacher candidates perceived as effectively supporting their learning. These constructs were (a) perspective-building conversations, (b) praxis: connecting theory to practice, (c) modeling: practice what you preach, and (d) critical reflection and planning for learning. These pedagogies constitute a basis for articulating the ‘‘how’’ of assessment education.
Each of these constructs served to connect assessment theory, practice, and philosophy together to support a multifaceted understanding of assessment in education. These constructs were able to engage with the complexity of educational assessment, rather than simply presenting teacher candidates with a ‘‘how to’’ for assessment.
The authors argue that engaging assessment as a multifaceted educational competency is at the core of developing assessment literate teachers. These teachers who can meaningfully integrate assessment with other aspects of their teaching and learning while considering the technical, ethical, and pragmatic elements of assessing student learning.
Furthermore, the authors also wanted to present descriptive accounts of specific activities that aligned with each pedagogy to guide future assessment educators as they implement the theoretical constructs identified in this research. They believe that since assessment education scholarship is relatively new as a demarcated field in teacher education, providing descriptive, empirically supported pedagogical strategies will be useful in expanding teacher education in this area to support teacher candidates as they develop expertise in assessment.