This article troubles a pervasive concept within higher education studies: authentic assessment. Authentic assessment is well-established within higher education, and yet its common usage leaves it limited in possibility. Often understood as a practice focused on tasks, where assessments represent a 'reality' beyond universities, authentic…

Assessment and feedback guide learning. In light of this, the assessment practices of teacher education have received little research. This qualitative study examines student teachers' discussions in a study unit built on authentic assessment practices: self- and peer assessment of videotapes from authentic performance with research-based rubrics.…

Novice teachers are more likely than their more experienced counterparts to leave the field teaching, which further exacerbates the national teacher shortage. This creates a need to take concerted steps to prepare and retain novice teachers. The Every Student Succeeds Act emphasizes using evidence-based classroom and behavior management practices…

Within this issue of "Teacher Education Quarterly," the authors examine the social justice knowledge of teachers, reflective practices, and predictors of performance on the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA). This article is a response to those articles and offers continued probes into who should be allowed to teach our…

To ensure that new teachers enter classrooms poised for success, we need more evidence regarding supports that can expedite skill development during teacher education. In this study, we capitalize on mixed-reality simulations as a setting for evaluating such supports. Using a randomized control trial, we examine the extent to which coaching…

Global attention continues to focus on the quality of teaching, teacher quality, teacher education programs and the preparation of graduates who are ready to teach. This self-study research focuses on one aspect of the preparation and assessment of graduates for teaching: the marking and moderation of a Teaching Assessment Performance (TPA), a…

Guided by an inquiry as stance approach, this study aimed to explore the perspectives of early childhood and elementary pre-service student teachers on the impact of the edTPA (Teacher Performance Assessment) on their student teaching experiences. The analysis of an online open-ended questionnaire revealed that the claims made by the edTPA…

Initial teacher education in England is characterised by lesson observation and assessment of teaching evidence against criterion-referenced teachers' standards. In UK-based international teacher training, these situated practices are more challenging because of staff and trainees working in different time zones. In 2020, COVID-19 travel…

The process of reflection is assumed to be important for developing professional knowledge through practical experience in science teaching. However, this claim requires more evidence, based on a clear definition of reflection. The main goal of the present study is to explore how reflection skills influence the development of professional…

The case study intends to study edTPA as a measure for teacher readiness. The case study examined four first year teachers' edTPA experience, performance, and their perspectives on edTPA as a tool to measure teacher readiness in light of their first year teaching experiences and TKES assessment results. Three research questions were used to guide…

The edTPA Teacher Performance Assessment was recently implemented at a regional public university to replace the previous paper-and-pencil evaluation of candidates' teaching effectiveness. To determine the teacher educators' professional beliefs toward using the edTPA as an assessment of readiness to teach, semi-structured interviews were…

Reflection is a vital process in teacher preparation and development. Dewey (1933) pioneered the concept of pedagogical reflection, an iterative process examining the pragmatic aspects of teaching through querying one's pedagogical choices, embracing doubt, and adjusting instruction to promote student achievement. Scholars have since offered a…

This study takes a fine-grained look at the inaugural implementation of a high-stakes teacher performance assessment (the edTPA) from multiple perspectives and chronicles how participants used the reading, writing, and discussion of poetry to cope with and sometimes critique the edTPA. Teacher researchers sought to understand multiple perspectives…

The edTPA, a national performance assessment for teacher candidates, has seen rapid adoption across the country since its development in 2009. Against the national backdrop of high stakes testing and accountability, the edTPA was developed to be an indicator of teachers' readiness to teach. The varying perspectives and responses to edTPA in…

A total of 620 staff from all 38 REACH schools responded to the Spring survey and 149 staff at the 18 newest REACH schools attended focus groups to provide their thoughts about specific aspects of AISD REACH. Results are summarized in this report.