Defining and designing impact consciousness in teacher education

ABSTRACT

This article explores contested possible meanings of the term ‘impact’ used in recent initial teacher education review body and accreditation documentation in Australia. It proposes a model of program design that explicitly evidences graduate capabilities to generate effective teaching and learning in school classrooms. It argues that we cannot expect to recognise, generate, and evidence positive classroom impact unless pre-service teachers are equipped with the pedagogical content knowledge and habitus to look beyond teaching inputs to student outcomes. The article further argues for learning experiences in initial teacher education programs that forge teacher identities that develop pre-service teachers’ and supervising teachers’ awareness of impact consciousness. It draws upon assessment literature and examination of individual practice within a design-based research framework to propose a diagrammatic model of impact. The article presents programmatic assessment as a fresh lens to consider a program model that incrementally develops and evidences increasing levels of pre-service teacher impact consciousness.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher education
• Australia
• impact
• programmatic assessment

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support and guidance provided by Professor Megan Quentin-Baxter

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. L. Kertesz

Dr.J. L. Kertesz is Program Director and Lecturer in Applied Learning in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania. The applied learning programs provide teacher education degree pathways for vocational educators, including as registered teachers in the Design and Technologies area of the Australian Curriculum. John’s teaching practice is informed by management and leadership experience in the Australian Army, twenty highly enjoyable years in primary through to upper secondary school classrooms, and doctoral research that examined teacher evaluation and professional learning in Tasmanian high schools. John’s research focuses on the effective design of teacher education programs, particularly the application of curriculum mapping to verify constructive alignment and the demonstrable achievement of learning outcomes, and the application of innovative technologies such as digital portfolios to authentically portray standards-aligned classroom teaching practice.

P. Brett

Dr. P. Brett is a Senior Lecturer in Humanities and Social Sciences Education at the University of Tasmania and Associate Head of Learning and Teaching. His areas of teaching and research expertise are mainly in History and Civics and Citizenship education. Before moving to Australia in 2011 he was a teacher educator at the University of Cumbria in the north of England from 1993–2008. He was the editor and lead writer of How all teachers can support citizenship and human rights education: a framework for the development of competences (2009) (Council of Europe, Strasbourg).