Teaching Performance Assessments as a Cultural Disruptor in Initial Teacher Education: Standards, Evidence and Collaboration

This book explores how well teachers are prepared for professional practice. It is an outcome of a large-scale research and development program that has collected extensive data on the impact of the Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment on Initial Teacher Education programs and preservice teachers’ engagement with the assessment. It contributes to international debates in teacher education by examining an Australian experience of teacher performance assessments as a catalyst for cultural change and practice reform in teacher education. 

The respective chapters describe and critique this unique, multi-institutional investigation into the quality of teacher education and present substantial evidence, drawing on a variety of conceptual, empirical and methodological entry points. Further, they address the intellectual, experiential and personal resources and related expertise that teacher educators and preservice teachers bring to their practice. Taken together, they offer readers clearly conceptualised and evidence-rich accounts of site-specific and cross-site investigations into cultural, pedagogical and assessment change in Initial Teacher Education.  

Claire-Wyatt Smith is the Director of the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education and Professor of Educational Assessment and Evaluation, Australian Catholic University. Her research focuses on teaching and evaluative expertise, the role of standards, professional judgement and moderation and the use of data to inform teaching and improve learning. She is currently leading a large-scale Australian study involving a national collective of universities undertaking the Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment and cross-institutional standards-referenced moderation. Her recent books include Performance assessment, standards and evidence: Professionalising teacher education and teaching (Routledge, in production), Innovation and accountability in teacher education: Setting directions for new cultures in teacher education (Springer, 2018), Assessment for education: Standards, judgement and moderation (Sage, 2014) and Designing assessment for quality learning (Springer,2014). She is the Foundation Editor of The Enabling Power of Assessment Series as well as the series, Teacher Education, Learning Innovation and Accountability.
Lenore Adie is a Senior Research Fellow with the Assessment, Evaluation and Student Learning Research Concentration and Associate Professor in Teacher Education and Assessment at the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University. Her research focuses on assessment and moderation processes to support teachers’ pedagogical practices and student learning. She has an interest in the enactment of assessment policy and the validity of assessment processes. Her research has generated new knowledge in the field of assessment, focusing on quality in assessment practices and processes, in particular within systems of standards-referenced assessment. This work addresses the alignment of curriculum, assessment and pedagogic practices through the design of assessment tasks and the application of criteria and grading. Lenore has extensive professional experience working in schools as a teacher and in leadership positions, and in teacher education for over 30 years. Her recent book chapters include The rubric as a moderating tool in tertiary contexts (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, in production), Research-informed conceptualization and design principles of teacher performance assessments: Wresting with system and site validity (Springer, 2018) and Assessment: The trilogy of standards, evidence and judgement in Australian education reform (Australian Curriculum Studies Association, 2018). 
Joce Nuttall is a Professor at the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University, where she leads the Research Program in Teacher Education, Quality and Professional Practice. Her research focuses on the professional learning of educators from early childhood settings through to tertiary institutions, with a special focus on the development of practice in childcare. Her most recent projects focus on leadership and continuing professional education in early childhood education, particularly in childcare. Her most recent book was Weaving Te Whāriki: Aotearoa New Zealand’s Early Childhood Curriculum in Theory and Practice (3rd edn.) (NZCER Press, 2019), edited with Alexandra Gunn. She is a Former Co-Editor of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education and a Fellow of the Australian Teacher Education Association. She is currently one of the Editors of Bloomsbury’s Reinventing Teacher Education Series.