Preparing Teachers to Formatively Assess

Timothy Boerst, Meghan Shaughnessy, Rosalie DeFino, Merrie Blunk, Susanna Farmer, Erin Pfaff, D'Anna Pynes

OAI: oai:igi-global.com:240561 • DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-0323-2.ch005

To engage in formative assessment, preservice teachers (PSTs) need to develop skill with the practice of interpretation. The initial preparation of teachers would benefit from having a sense of the interpretation skills brought by PSTs to teacher preparation. We articulate the nature of interpreting as a teaching practice including: articulating inferences, sampling evidence, developing and applying guiding criteria, and monitoring and redressing bias and distortion. We use a teaching simulation to identify the assets of PSTs' initial interpretive skills and areas in which PSTs might need to reconsider and change. An investigation with a group of PSTs from one teacher education program suggests that many PSTs bring skills with making evidence-based interpretations about a student's process for solving a mathematics problem. However, their skills are much more limited for making interpretations about a student's understanding and have potential for bias and distortion. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

K-12 Education Education Learning Assessment and Measurement Social Sciences and Humanities