Why Does Consistency in Assessing Teacher Education Students’ Practices Matter?

Anderson, S. (2023) Why Does Consistency in Assessing Teacher Education Students’ Practices Matter? Scottish Educational Research Association Annual Conference (SERA 2023), Musselburgh, UK, 22-24 Nov 2023.

Abstract

This roundtable discussion invites participants into conversation about a common understanding of effective teaching and assessment in initial teacher education (ITE) school-based experiences. Needed is a richer understanding of how classroom-based mentor teachers and university staff judge students’ performance. This discussion aims to explore the nature of shared judgement, consensus, and dissensus of observed teaching effectiveness across a range of views and experience. We seek to expand dialogue across educational boundaries through sharing of practices, policies, and standards. Rationale: It has been noted that ITE students manage to pass into the teaching profession despite sometimes manifesting significant variance in skills, which can be attributed in part to inconsistent professional agreement as to what constitutes a judgment of competence (Raths & Lynman, 2003). Sandholtz and Shea (2011) have called into question the accuracy of supervisors’ assessment of student performance. Haigh and Ell (2014) found that mentors take an ‘idiosyncratic approach’ (p. 19) to reaching decisions about teaching effectiveness, even when judges have a shared vision of quality teaching. There are implications from this variability amongst evaluations for the student and the profession to be explored, as well as discussion regarding how consistency may be gained through strengthened university-school partnerships. The discussion is framed through the lens of social judgement theory, recognizing that professional judgment is a distinctly cognitive act involving indicators and guidelines used by judges and also a socially positioned practice (Allal, 2013)., Methods: A rich and engaging experience will be delivered through a provocation, group dialogue, pair-sharing, and summarization. The session will begin with participants viewing a short teaching video clip and identifying strengths the teacher exhibited. Participants will then be challenged with the provocation: How does educator professional judgement of teaching effectiveness fit within notions of quality assurance? Presenters will engage in the elucidation of and discussion around the findings from our investigation of judgements made by university teacher educators and school-based mentors in their observation, evaluation, and decision-making processes about student teacher effectiveness. The final portion of the session will be focussed on an opportunity for participants to reflect and respond, query, and discuss both in pairs and small groups. Prompting questions will be provided for small group dialogue and consideration of own contexts. The session will conclude with the 3-2-1 summarization strategy in which participants will identify three interesting facts, two new discoveries, and one lingering question.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Keywords: teaching effectiveness, teacher observation, mentor teachers, school-based experiences.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Anderson, Dr Sarah
• Authors: Anderson, S.
• Subjects: L Education > L Education (General)
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education > Professional Learning and Leadership
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Author
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with the permission of the author

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Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
318360		2022 SES National Award	Sarah Anderson	Society for Educational Studies (SES)	N/A	ED - Education