Student Responses to an ICT-Based E-Assessment Application for the Teaching Practicum/ Teaching Practice MODULE

Introduction

While e-assessment is becoming increasingly popular in higher education, assessment of the teaching practicum in e-format seems to be more challenging and less prevalent. As a concept, e-assessment covers a broad range of activities in which digital technologies are used. E-assessment activities include the designing and delivery of assessment, marking by computers – or human-assisted marking by scanners and online tools – and all processes of reporting, storing and transferring of data associated with public and internal assessment (JISC, 2007, p. 6). This study proposes an ICT-based assessment solution for the teaching practicum. Current teaching practicum assessment practices have largely remained unchanged, despite rapid technological developments in e-assessment. The need for innovative and integrated e-assessment formats is not restricted to South Africa. This study heeds the call made at the European Commission’s conference to enhance technology learning, namely that e-assessment pedagogy should reflect the core competences congruent with the 21^st century expectations (Redecker et al., 2012). This article points to the polemic that if teacher education does not consider the impact of current technologies and social media on the ways that student teachers learn, the institutions of teacher education are in danger of becoming irrelevant (Burden, Aubusson, Brindley & Schuck, 2016, p. 4).

For the purpose of this study, e-assessment is understood as the deployment of an ICT application, downloadable to a mobile device as an interactive mediatory digital platform between student, supervisor and the mentor-teacher. Because teacher education is managed by higher education institutions, it is understood that the software will be compatible and adaptable to the learning management system (LMS) of these institutions. Given the variations in universities’ administrative and e-learning systems, a downloadable application that can connect to the LMS is preferred for the purpose of flexibility, simplicity and practicality.

Arguably, education students enter their studies with at least twelve years' prior exposure to pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1986, p. 4). Students also possess technological knowledge, but teachers do not always integrate it into pedagogy. Not only university students themselves, but their future learners are already moving away from the traditional methods of learning. 'We need to move away from those old methods and introduce technology so we can attract attention of the learners, because they are techno savvy,' was a comment made by a school principal at the launch of an e-learning system at his school (Vuk’uzenzele, 2016, p. 2). The pervasiveness of ICT in our modern living spaces has led to education being redefined and redesigned. These changes require fundamental shifts in the way in which teaching and learning takes place (Angeli & Valanides, 2009, p. 154). However, the transition to technology-integrated education has not been smooth. On the contrary, combining new technologies with effective pedagogy has become a daunting task for both: Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and in-service training institutions (Jung, 2005, p. 94). Based on a review of literature, Redecker et al. (2012) argue that the more pressing task is to transcend the testing paradigm and conceptually develop e-assessment strategies that foster the development of 21^st century skills.

In addition to PCK, which comprises the dominant descriptors of the pedagogical process, technology has become part of its defining elements. However, the use of ICT in the assessment of the teaching practicum is lagging behind the rest of the industry. It can be taken for granted that students possess valuable resources that can enhance the quality of teacher education. To incorporate technology as part of a new pedagogy, the literature refers to technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK), which is an extension of Shulman’s pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) (Keating & Evans, 2001; Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Kramarski & Michalsky, 2010). This study recognises the potential of student teachers’ TPCK as an untapped source of knowledge that can play a transformative role during their training as future teachers.