Data use as the heart of data literacy: An exploration of pre-service teachers’ data literacy practices in a teaching performance assessment

ABSTRACT

A shifting policy landscape in Australian teacher education has led to the introduction of teaching performance assessment tasks in initial teacher education degrees, foregrounding data literacy practices. The aim of this research was to explore pre-service teachers’ uses of data to inform and evaluate their teaching practice as demonstrated in their Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment task. To do so, we drew on a pool of 37 assessment responses and a group interview held with six assessors and moderators of the task, analysing these through the Data Literacy for Teachers framework. In our analysis, we identified data use as both a central element of this framework and an area in need of further support, as illustrated by some pre-service teachers’ tendency to “throw all the data in”. Our research also confirms the importance of teaching-related knowledge to effectively use data. The findings suggest that such models can be useful for teacher education curriculum renewal in light of increasing requirements for teachers to be data literate. A revision to the model is also suggested, moving away from a linear approach and instead centring data use as the heart of data literacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher education; data literacy
• teaching performance assessment
• Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment
• pre-service teachers

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by a HaSS Teaching and Learning Seed Funding grant from The University of Queensland.

Notes

1. This Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment® Project was created by the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University, and has been implemented in a Collective of higher education institutions in Australia (graduatetpa.com).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ailie McDowall

Dr Ailie McDowall researches the scholarship of higher education, and her interests lie in the intersections between higher education and a critical Indigenous Studies approach.

Carmen Mills

Associate Professor Carmen Mills’ research focuses on social justice in education, schooling in disadvantaged communities and teacher education for the development of socially just dispositions.

Katie Cawte

Dr Katie Cawte’s research interests are in the area of professional experience, preservice teacher education, business education and the retention and professional development of teachers.

Jodie Miller

Dr Jodie Miller’s research focuses on the teaching and learning of mathematics, from both cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives, for students most at risk of marginalisation.