Abstract
Performance assessment has emerged as a useful measure of teacher performance and is a valuable form of assessment. The chapter elaborates on the benefits of performance assessment in pre-service teacher training and will present findings of a study which focuses on two English Language Didactics courses of a Higher Education pre-service teacher training program for potential secondary state school ELT teachers of the Republic of Cyprus. The aim of the research was to investigate the trainees' progress, potential teaching ability, and confidence via the means of their assessment. The study conducted supported a mixed method approach, where there was sequential data gathering. The initial phase involved direct observations of student teachers' performance in combination with an evaluation of the lesson plans they would follow. This process informed the second type of data collection, which was conducted via evaluation forms, where student teachers were given the opportunity to evaluate and reflect upon the assessment process.
TopBackground
Quality teaching and teacher effectiveness has risen to the top of the education policy agenda across the globe, as stakeholders and policy makers are now convinced that effective teaching is one of the most important school-related factors in student achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2017). The teaching quality schools are in need of strong instruction that facilitates learning. Such teaching meets the demands of the discipline, the instructor's goals, and the students’ needs (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Comparative analyses of student learning outcomes are often used to impose mechanisms on the teaching and teacher education, including standard setting, teacher testing and evaluation (Tatto, 2006). Huber and Skedsmo (2018) have argued that from the turn of the century, teacher assessment and evaluation have been debated as vital strategies for assuring and developing educational qualities. Assessing outcomes requires a definition of what is expected of potential teachers in means of skills, dispositions and means of measuring these skills (Darling-Hammond & Snyder, 2000).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Language Education: Refers to the process and practice of acquiring a second or foreign language in any education context.
Direct Assessment: A measure of student teacher performance which is based on a variety of types of actual student work.
Professional Development: Is learning to earn professional credentials and learning opportunities situated in practice. It is known to be intensive and collaborative, ideally incorporating an evaluative stage.
English Language Teaching (ELT): Refers to teaching of the English language to students of any age with different first languages.
Teacher Education: Refers to policies and provision designed to equip future teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and skills they need to be effective practitioners.
Pre-Service Training: The training experience before one begins their service as a full-time, appointed teacher in their own classroom.
Performance Assessment: Also known as alternative assessment, is a form of testing that requires student teachers to perform a task rather than being tested via formative assessment.
Teacher Performance: Is a teacher's demonstrated impact on students' learning as established through achievement scores, observed pedagogical practices, or student surveys.