Dilemmas in Assessing Teacher Education Program Quality: A Qualitative Case Study of Twelve Student Teachers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Building Capacity for All Future Teachers to Work Effectively With Special Needs and Language Learners

Abstract

Accredited teacher education programs are required to assess teacher candidates’ performance in teaching diverse elementary children. This research contributes to the understanding of how teacher education programs can assess teacher candidates in order to know if they are being prepared to effectively teach diverse elementary children. A team of faculty from ESL and Math collaboratively developed rubrics for nine instructional areas in order to assess the “quality” of teaching through a qualitative case study methodology of 12 teacher candidates from a large elementary education program (6 ESL & 6 non-ESL endorsed). Teaching quality was measured through lesson plans, video clips of teaching, teaching reflections, and pre and post assessments of children’s academic learning in the context of an integrated unit.

Authors

• Jenni L. Harding-DeKam, University of Northern Colorado

• Elizabeth A. Franklin, University of Northern Colorado

• Deborah Romero, University of Northern Colorado

• Boni Hamilton, University of Colorado Denver