Troubling the edTPA: Un/Standardized Narratives of Teaching and Learning

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Abstract

This research examines the edTPA, a controversial new standardized performance assessment being mandated in teacher education programs across the United States, as a standardized model of reflective practice. Focusing on the epistemological constitution of reflection as it relates to the test, as well as how this epistemic framing gets taken up methodologically, interviews and classroom observations revealed that the assessment reduced reflection to a process of answering preformulated questions. Prompted by scripts, students did not feel that they had the flexibility to reflect beyond the questions provided.

Author

• Cristyne Hebert, University of Regina