The tensions of preparing pre-service teachers to be assessment capable and profession-ready

ABSTRACT

There is both a growing appreciation of teacher assessment capability for the improvement of school student learning and achievement and a commensurate drive for graduates in Australian Initial Teacher Education institutions to demonstrate impact on school student learning as part of a national accreditation process. We argue in this article that if institutions are to prepare assessment capable graduates who are “profession-ready”, attention to practice architectures is warranted. Practice architectures are the features in schools that enable and/or constrain practice. Skills, knowledge and understandings do not just cleanly transfer across Initial Teacher Education institutions and practicum contexts into graduate teacher classrooms. Practitioner identities are produced through “relatings” within specific social-political arrangement, “doings” that constitute activities afforded in material-economic conditions, and “sayings” that are a dominating medium in cultural-discursive frameworks.

KEYWORDS:

• Initial teacher education
• pre-service teachers
• assessment
• profession ready

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Charteris

Jennifer Charteris conducts research into teacher and student learning and assessment. Jennifer has worked across the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors.

Joanne Dargusch

Joanne Dargusch teaches in Primary and Secondary education programs, oversees professional practice, and coordinates several secondary education courses. She researches assessment practices in schools and teacher education.