“I Would Probably Have to Test All the Time”: Preservice Teachers’ Thinking About Agency and Assessment

• In Event: Teacher Education and Teacher Professional Development in the Social Studies

Abstract

This qualitative case study investigated eight preservice social studies teachers’ thinking about personal agency and assessment. The study was conducted in a semester-long undergraduate methods course. This paper used Bandura’s (2001) work that is concerned with the cognitive aspects of human agency as a theoretical lens. The data suggests that half of the participants had difficulty developing assessments that fit their purpose for teaching social studies. The preservice teachers’ thinking about assessment mandates and their acceptance in future school communities developed a conflict in their thinking, which reprioritized their purpose for teaching social studies. This study demonstrates that this conflict has implications for preservice teachers’ thinking about their personal agency and how they think about curricular decisions.

Author

• J. Spencer Clark, Utah State University