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Activating and reinforcing graduates’ capabilities: early lessons learned from a Teaching Performance Assessment

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Abstract

Australian initial teacher education accreditation requirements have, since 2016, mandated a capstone teaching performance assessment (TPA) to assess pre-service teachers (PSTs) against the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. This research examines how a standardised TPA known as the Assessment for Graduate Teaching (AfGT) can impact on PSTs’ readiness to teach. The AfGT comprises PSTs’ analysis of their teaching practice using video of teaching episodes, observation feedback, and students’ work samples augmented by an online situational judgement task. The researchers used thematic data analysis of surveys to investigate how the AfGT impacted on PSTs’ perspectives of what matters in teaching. The research established that the process of completing the TPA can activate and reinforce reflection and professional reasoning, and expand PSTs’ knowledge of how their teaching improved student learning. The results provide insights into how a complex and high-stakes TPA can foster professional growth while signalling key enabling conditions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the seed funding from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) in the first year of the project (2017) and the significant and ongoing financial support provided by the member institutions of the AfGT Consortium. The authors also thank the members of the AfGT Consortium for the enthusiastic and collaborative work in developing the Assessment for Graduate Teaching.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Jeana Kriewaldt

  2. Curtin School of Education, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Rebecca Walker, Valerie Morey & Chad Morrison

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  1. Jeana Kriewaldt
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  2. Rebecca Walker
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Correspondence to Rebecca Walker.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the interpretation of the data by all members of the AfGT Consortium.

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Kriewaldt, J., Walker, R., Morey, V. et al. Activating and reinforcing graduates’ capabilities: early lessons learned from a Teaching Performance Assessment. Aust. Educ. Res. 48, 681–696 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-020-00418-4

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