Section archive - Assessment & Evaluation

This phenomenological research explores the opinions of social studies teacher candidates about self and peer assessment. It is a descriptive study using qualitative data from a sample of 21 teacher candidates. Research data were collected using a semi-structured interview and the researcher's observation notes. The data were analysed using the descriptive content analysis method. The findings showed that self and peer assessment could serve as a powerful learning activity rather than simply an assessment tool. The results also indicated that self and peer assessment support the development of skills, such as self-regulation, critical thinking and decision-making. Teacher candidates reported that self and peer assessment had positive effects, such as recognizing their own shortcomings, learning by sampling from peers’ work, constructive contribution to each other's work, comprehension of the skills and criteria that form the basis of assessment, being part of the assessment process, gaining assessment skills, recognizing individual differences and developing critical thinking skills. Self and peer assessment facilitate the development of a learning environment that is more cooperative, participative and appropriate to the educational needs of initial teacher education students in the 21st century.

A convergent parallel mixed methods study investigated the potential of one teacher preparation approach for promoting candidate reflection. Thirteen candidates participated in clinical field experiences and four corresponding seminar classes with guided video analysis activities. Candidates were systematically guided through focusing on others before focusing on self and explicitly learned about a reflection continuum using an instructional framework to build prerequisite skills and ultimately improve reflective abilities. Results of paired-sample t tests indicated candidates demonstrated significantly higher reflective ability scores over time as measured by a reflection checklist. Qualitative analysis of structured interviews revealed candidates felt activities were (a) a systematic approach to authentic growth, (b) a challenging approach to necessary self-confrontation, and (c) allowed for connections between self and other. Methodological triangulation was used to validate the findings. Implications for teacher preparation research and practice are discussed.

In many teacher preparation programs at institutions of higher education in the United States, pre-service teachers receive mentoring and constructive feedback during their internship placement from an experienced supervising teacher and a university coordinator. Often the feedback loop is closed by asking interns, ‘was this useful?’ To better answer this question, researchers employed a phenomenological approach to collect interview and focus group data on the lived experiences, perceptions, and understandings of six pre-service special education interns during their internship experience. Emerging themes included satisfaction with level of support provided by supervisory stakeholders, a feeling of isolation from peer support, special consideration of the components within the evaluation tool, and a request to be provided with additional background information for their assigned university coordinators. These lessons were aggregated, presented, and then integrated into the experiences provided to forthcoming pre-service educators.

This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study examines the impact of analytic rubric use in peer feedback on preservice teachers’ ability to recognize indicators of best practice for second language lesson planning and lesson delivery. 53 preservice teachers in a university-level, semester-long Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) practicum course received direct instruction on indicators presented in the analytic rubrics. They were then randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. The experimental group used rubrics with the indicators during peer feedback tasks, while the control group used a modified rubric without the indicators. The result from an independent samples t-test on posttest mean scores indicated a significant difference between groups for both lesson planning and lesson delivery, favoring the experimental group. Qualitative data were also collected via written comments on the posttests and from focus-group interviews. From thematic analyses of qualitative data, three key themes emerged, including specific tensions that resulted from the type of feedback preservice teachers desired and the type of feedback they were willing to give to their peers. These findings provide further insight into the use of analytic rubrics in peer feedback practices in second language teacher education (SLTE).