Narratives of Impact: Assessing Assessment-Capable Preservice Teachers

• In Event: 45.047 - The Current Context for Assessment Education in Preservice Preparatory Programs: A Symposium of International Perspectives

Abstract

Objectives: This paper contrasts two emerging narratives of assessment capability in Australia; the narrative of the assessment-assured 'classroom ready' preservice teacher apparent in national initial teacher education (ITE) accreditation documentation and the personal digital narratives of graduating preservice teachers highlighting the embodied reconciliation of accountability and development assessment discourses.
Perspective: Using Bernstein's (2001) concept of symbolic control, a critical analysis established how relays of communication work to legitimate forms of consciousness and cultural reproduction in each narrative approach. From 2018 ITE graduates from over 400 courses from 40 ITE providers are required to provide assessment evidence of "positive impact on student learning", and ITE courses evidence of "post program impact of graduates …on student learning" (AITSL, 2016, p. 45). This technical approach to education is a growing discourse (Bourke et al., 2016) as more teachers internalize national assessment data as an indicator of their effectiveness (Thompson & Mockler, 2016).

Yet teacher assessment capability involves multiple assessment literacies (Author b) and situated, emotional and responsive negotiations (Author c). Some ITE institutions reconcile effectiveness narratives with developmental discourses of assessment through authentic portfolio performances to enable collaborative, self-reflective aspects of assessment capability to be learned (Mayer et al., 2016). Preservice teachers also need awareness of emerging assessment innovations such as learning analytics (LA) that involve rapid collection, analysis and responding to data about learners in their contexts (Siemens, 2012). Learning analytics enabled insights into preservice teacher assessment capability in situated practice to be gathered through digital reflections in several Queensland case studies (Author e; Crosswell et al, 2018), which then informed ITE practice.

Methods: Narratives in ITE accreditation policy documents, and a sample of 350 assessment unit outlines in 15 universities were analysed to identify the assessment capabilities that were being legitimized through the strength of the framing (control of the message) and classification (authoritative definition) of assessment capability (Bernstein, 2001). These were contrasted with the assessment capabilities evident in 535 digital reflections recorded by 56 preservice or early career teachers. The longitudinal plotlines and reflexive entries were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using reflective writing analytics, enabling data visualisation (Gibson, 2017).

Results: Assessment capability is being simultaneously prioritised and narrowed within Australian ITE courses. While graduates confidently used data to monitor student progress, and initiate new assessment processes, they felt unprepared for assessment collaborations with colleagues, parent expectations, and assessing children with disabilities. Turbulent emotions in the digital plotlines, were a stark contrast to the linear representations of assessment capability in ITE documents.

Significance: Assessment capability requires that teachers practice ongoing inquiries into learning with learners, in diverse contexts. When used as an accreditation tool, ITE assessment may perpetuate a narrow measure of how assessment serves learning as the experience legitimizes this assessment process. Online digital tools have the potential to connect development discourses with effectiveness and accountability discourses in ITE. This affordance however also raises questions of the extended temporal consequences and audiences of aggregated smaller-scale assessment performances.

Authors

• Jill Willis, Queensland University of Technology

• Andrew Gibson, Queensland University of Technology