Multi-modal formative feedback: Facilitating change during teaching practice

1. Multi-modal formative feedback: Facilitating change during teaching practice 12th Southern Africa Association for Education Assessment (SAAEA) Conference, Pretoria 13-16 May 2018 Prof Carisma Nel* & Dr. Elma Marais *North-West University *Visiting Professor – Department of Childhood Education, University of Johannesburg

2. Purpose • Background related to Achilles heel of teacher preparation programmes – practicum/teaching practice • Type of assessment and feedback to ensure professional growth • Multi-modal formative feedback – screen capture technology

3. Background • SA school learners scoring poorly in national and international assessments. • Teacher/teaching a key determinant of learner achievement. • Focus –Initial teacher Education. • Practicum – inconsistencies in the amount and quality of feedback and assessment. • Much of what teachers need to learn must be learned in and from practice rather than in preparing for practice.

4. Feedback during Practicum • Without feedback, good practice is not reinforced, poor performance is not corrected, and the path to improvement not identified. • Precarious, vague, none-specific, inconsistent, infrequent; • Reproduces “academic assessment” in the workplace context; • An act of compliance; • Perception – student teachers only interested in mark/grade; • Little attention given to reading, taking notice of and learning from the feedback; • Problem - students value feedback, but choose not to read it because they do not understand it. • It is closing the gap between where the student is and where they are aiming to be which leads to the power of feedback.

5. Lesson Feedback

6. Practicum Assessment: Dual Role • Summative - aligned with the grading processes of the institution, and has implications for the students’ progress through or completion of a course of study (i.e., judgement function). • Formative - demonstrated practice of the student teacher, for the purposes of giving feedback that will support reflection, and professional learning, growth and transformation (i.e., learning function).

7. Performance Assessment: Characteristics • ONE way to evaluate the effectiveness and readiness of pre-service teachers. • Sample the actual knowledge, skills, and dispositions desired of teachers in real teaching and learning contexts (e.g., integrate ICT, manage learning environments, plan, instruct, assess, reflect, etc.) • Integrate multiple facets of knowledge and skill used in teaching practice; • Multiple sources of evidence are collected over time and in diverse contexts; • Assessment evidence is evaluated by individuals with relevant expertise against an agreed-on set of standards that matter for teaching performance (Darling-Hammond & Snyder, 2000)

8. Portfolios: Features • Alignment with professional teaching standards as well as individual and school goals; • Selected examples of both learner and student teacher work; • Captions and commentaries that explain and reflect; • Mentored or coached experiences including conversations with school-based colleagues and university supervisors (Danielson & McGreal, 2000:94). • NB source of feedback • The rubric which identifies criteria for assessment. • Descriptors which describe the quality of the student teacher’s work.

9. Rubric

10. One University’s Approach • Redesigning the WIL curriculum (e.g., embedding [not add on] performance assessments (i.e., portfolio) in the curriculum – Darling-Hammond & Snyder, 2000) [o]nce the activities of teachers are identified, the curriculum of teacher education programs should focus on preparing teacher student teachers to know and do these things. Teachers should be evaluated on how well they know and do them rather than on the completion of certain required courses (Zeichner, 2012:377) • Changing student teacher placements – greater monitoring & supervision. • Supporting & providing feedback to student teachers (on campus and distance) before and during the Practicum.

13. Lesson feedback

14. Student question

15. Learning from practice

16. Conclusion • The way that we provide feedback (e.g., multi-modal screen capturing, etc.) to student teachers during the practicum should take into consideration the three functions of assessment: • supporting the process of learning • judging students’ achievement in relation to course requirements • maintaining the standards of the profession (Joughin, 2009:1) • All three are vital – If ITE programmes and other stakeholders want to answer the question: • what type of evidence is needed to safely say that an aspiring teacher has not only grasped the essential notions and concepts from the teacher education course, but is also able to implement them in real world classroom situations? (Bannink, 2009:244).