(Un)Critical Reflection: Examining Reflective Discourse in Teacher Education Standards and Performance Assessments

• In Event: 68.061 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 68.061-4 - Co-Designing Research, Examining Teacher Performance Assessments, and Rethinking Professional Development

Abstract

Though teacher candidates must develop a reflective skill set on which they will be summatively assessed, the language around reflection processes is often inconsistently applied. Accordingly, this paper untangles the ways in which the InTASC standards and edTPA and PPAT performance assessments portray the concept of reflection to teacher candidates. Applying Van Manen’s (1977) framework, which separates teacher reflection processes into technical, practical, and critical levels, we find that 99.5% of mentions of reflection within and across the data sources represent practical reflection, and, at 0.46%, the mode of critical reflection is almost absent. Implications for teacher educators working to position their students to think, and teach, in more socially conscious ways, are discussed.

Authors

• Brandon Lee Sams, Auburn University

• Jeanne Dyches, Iowa State University