Using Performance-Based Assessments of Equitable Teaching Practice to Assess Actual Teaching Practice

• In Event: 75.039 - Social Foundations for Teaching Practice

Abstract

Objectives
We study the alignment between (1) a written assessment designed to measure interns’ ethical commitments and (2) interns’ instructional designs for actual students in their student teaching placement. This adds in important ways to national efforts to assess what novice teachers can actually do with students in classrooms, by illustrating how teacher educators might assess interns’ ethical practice.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Our work is situated within an ongoing reform effort to identify and research the most critical practices that effective teachers must master in order to become successful teachers (Ball and Forzani, 2009; Darling-Hammond 2006; Hammerness, Darling-Hammond, Grossman, Rust, and Shulman, 2005). We propose the development of a set of key practices that are culturally relevant, and the coupling of these with the content-specific practices. Our work is built upon the work of Ball and Wilson (1996), who wrote that the intellectual and the moral work of teaching are inextricably fused.

Data sources
Our study involves analysis of two main sources of data. The pre- and post- program assessment asks interns to reflect upon another teacher’s practice and identify the degree to which this teacher does or does not employ a strong ethical commitment. Analysis of the interns’ coursework allows us to determine interns’ competency in attending to the diverse resources and needs of their own students and to design instruction that draws upon cultural and community-based knowledge bases.

Methods
Researchers scored interns’ assessments and teaching designs for their course assignments, and look to attend to their evolving dispositions toward the ethical teaching practice of all learners in a diverse society. The assessment scoring rubric allows scorers to determine if interns: employ or are aware of deficit perspectives; attend to resources extant in families and communities; and draw upon diversity as resources for instruction. After scoring intern work, we compare results across the assessments and course work to determine the degree to which the indicators of ethical commitment in the two sources align.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Interns made substantive growth from pre- to post- test. Further, anecdotal reports from the instructor indicate that the amount of growth parallels intern performance on the course assignments. Thus, we find that the written assessment is a strong indicator of interns’ ability to teach equitably and draw upon diversity during student teaching.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
Much progress has been made towards the development of “core” or “high leverage practices” (HLPs) necessary for competent novice teaching. But, less progress has been made on developing and assessing HLPs for ethically sound pedagogy. It is crucial that as the field moves towards privileging what teachers can actually do that we can assess that they in fact can teach in ways that are equitable and ambitious. Thus, this work adds in important ways by illuminating how we might assess interns’ abilities to teach real students ethically and competently.

Authors

• Debi Khasnabis, University of Michigan

• Simona Goldin, University of Michigan

• Kelly McMahon, Northwestern University