Investigating Teachers' Practices and Beliefs of Data Literacy to Enhance Preservice Teacher Education

• In Event: Teacher Reflection and Shifting Instructional Practices

Abstract

This study assesses K-12 teachers’ beliefs, contextual supports, and actual uses of student data, to inform how to modify training in assessment literacy for pre-service teachers. Results showed that teachers’ beliefs, school environments, and engagement in substantive data-driven analyses are associated with their use of periodic and classroom-based data to inform their instruction and communications with instructional coaches, students and their parents. Explicated in this paper are specific recommendations for substantive changes in teacher training, as well as considerations regarding when preservice teachers can build skills along the continuum of their professional development. Both are of great relevancy in providing teacher training that truly cultivates educators’ data literacy, and their capacity to expand opportunity for all students through data-driven practice.

Authors

• Megan Schramm-Possinger, Winthrop University

• Lisa W. Harris, Winthrop University