Journal Article

Authentically assessing graduate teaching : outside and beyond neo-liberal constructs

Andrea C. Allard, Diane Mayer, Julianne Moss

2014

Overview

In this paper, the authors challenge the current focus on 'best practice', graduate teacher tests, and student test scores as the panacea for ensuring teaching quality and argue for ways of thinking about evidence of quality beginning teaching outside and beyond the current neoliberal accountability discourses circulating in Australia and other countries. They suggest that teacher educators need to reinsert themselves as key players in the debates around quality beginning teaching, rather than being viewed as a source of the problem. To enable teacher educators to assume accountability for quality beginning teachers, the authors propose the framework of a capstone teacher performance assessment - a structured portfolio called the Authentic Teacher Assessment (ATA) - and examine examples of these assessments through the lens of critical discourse analysis. As a measure of 'readiness to teach', the ATA is compared with supervising teachers' assessments of preservice teachers. The authors argue that structured portfolios that include artefacts derived from preservice teachers' practice in classrooms along with graduate teacher self assessments provide a stronger accountability measure of effective beginning teaching and demonstrably address the current anxiety regarding 'evidence'. The authors suggest that such an approach should be reliable enough to be 'read' by external assessors (and moderated across other teacher education institutions). Rigorous research on a national basis is called for in order to develop and implement a structured portfolio as rich evidence of graduates' quality and readiness to teach. [Author abstract, ed]

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: 20th century / Accountability / Accreditation / Australia / Beginning Teachers / Best Practices / Decision making / Discourse Analysis / Education / Educational leadership / Educational Policy and Politics / Educational Psychology / Educational quality / Evidence / Foreign Countries / Higher education / Instructional Effectiveness / Instructional Leadership / Knowledge / Learning / Neoliberalism / Performance based assessment / Portfolios (Background Materials) / Preservice teacher education / Preservice Teachers / Professional practice / Professional standards / Reflective teaching / Registration / Scores / Self Evaluation (Individuals) / Student assessment / Student Teachers / Students / Teacher education / Teacher Education Programs / Teacher Educators / Teacher Effectiveness / Teacher Evaluation / Teaching and Teacher Education / Teaching effectiveness / Thinking Skills