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Abstract
This paper examines the student perception of oral examination on a pre-service teacher education course at the Institute of Education, University of London. Students are required to carry out a school-based project and to present their findings at master’s level to a group of peers and examiners. Initial student evaluations showed the experience to be overwhelmingly positive, yet the qualitative comments suggested there were negative emotions unrepresented in the quantitative data. This study reports on a more detailed evaluation completed by 254 students in the 2009–2010 cohort, which explored the tension between the positive overall student experience and the complex emotions involved. In examining the student perspective in greater depth, it became clear that the combination of a school-based enquiry and an assessed oral presentation created an authentic learning context. Although there were anxieties associated with presenting findings to an audience, students felt there was a constructive alignment between their learning and the mode of assessment and the process supported the students’ developing professional identity.
Notes
1. The Postgraduate Certificate in Education: a full-time one year or part-time two year course of initial teacher education which, at the Institute of Education, includes three teaching placements in two different schools totalling a minimum of 19 weeks.
2. Students select one specialism from 12 subjects related to future professional responsibilities: Art & Design, Drama & Role Play, English Language & Literacy, Geography, History, Language & Literacy in Multilingual classrooms, Mathematics, Modern Foreign Languages (French or Spanish), Music, New Media and Science.
3. 2008: 139 returns out of a cohort of 187; 2009: 205 returns out of a cohort of 226.