Sylvia Yee Fan TANG

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Issues in field experience assessment in teacher
education
Seminar at the Department of Education,
University of Oxford 7 October 2008

• Sylvia Yee Fan TANG
• Department of Educational Policy Administration
• The Hong Kong Institute of EducationHong Kong
  SAR, ChinaE-mailstang_at_ied.edu.hk
• Acknowledgement of academic non-academic
  colleagues of the HKIEd

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Outline of the presentation

• Teaching and teacher education in Hong Kong
• The Professional Development Progress Map Project
• The development of the Progress Map
• Researching into the trial use of the Progress
  Map
• Learning-oriented Assessment feedback in teaching
  supervision
• Issues in field experience assessment in a
  standards-based context
• Insights from the Project
• Implications for field experience assessment
  practices in the HKIEd
• Further thoughts on professional standards

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Outline of the presentation

• Teaching and teacher education in Hong Kong

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An overview

• Towards an all graduate all trained profession
• Initial teacher education
• Two routes Undergraduate (e.g. B.Ed.) PGCE /
  PGDE
• Full-time / Part-time
• Summative assessment in Field Experience
  Tertiary teaching supervisors
• Mandatory qualification requirements in certain
  subjects
• Physical Education
• Language Proficiency Requirement for English
  Language Putonghua (Mandarin) teachers
• Language Major degree or equivalent for Chinese
  Language English Language teachers
• Professional Standards for reference
• Teacher Competencies Framework (Nov 2003)
• Voluntary arrangement of a formal induction year
  by schools (Sept 2008)

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Professional Standards for reference Purpose
context of use
ACTEQ (2003) Teacher Competencies Framework
http//www.acteq.hk/ http//www.acteq.hk/catego
ry.asp?langencid56pid41
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Generic Teacher Competencies Framework
An Overview of the Teacher Competencies Framework
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Expert track vs leadership track
Accomplished
Threshold
Competent
????????????(2003)?????.??????????????????????
??
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Field Experience (FE) assessment in teacher
education in the HKIEd
Field Experience (FE) Supervision
Form Accompanied by a set of generic grade
descriptors Before Sept 2008, the form was used
in FE assessment in a range of programmes (except
Early Childhood prog), including FE in English
Putonghua Immersion
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Field Experience (FE) assessment in initial
teacher education in the HKIEd
Field Experience (FE) Supervision
Form Accompanied by a set of generic grade
descriptors
D / C / P / F for discrete items not supposed
to add up as the FE grade
Overall performance - FE grade for non-final year
/ semester Pass / Fail
Overall performance - FE grade for final year /
semester Distinction / Credit / Pass / Fail
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Outline of the presentation

• The Professional Development Progress Map Project
• The development of the Progress Map
• Researching into the trial use of the Progress
  Map
• Learning-oriented Assessment feedback in teaching
  supervision
• Issues in field experience assessment in a
  standards-based context
• Insights from the Project
• Selected publications from the Project
• Tang, S.Y.F., Cheng, M.M.H. So, W.W.M. (2006).
  Supporting student teachers professional
  learning with standards-referenced assessment.
  Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 34(2),
  223-244.
• Tang, S.Y.F. Chow, A.W.K. (2007). Communicating
  feedback in teaching practice supervision in a
  Learning-oriented Field Experience Assessment
  Framework. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(7),
  1066-1085.
• Tang, S.Y.F. (2008). Issues in field experience
  assessment in teacher education in a
  standards-based context. Journal of Education for
  Teaching, 34(1), 17-32.

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The Professional Development Progress Map
Research development project

• The Progress Map presents a framework of
  standards which can be used to map and monitor a
  teacher candidates progress and achievement as a
  teacher over time.
• The idea of a map in the Teacher Competencies
  Framework (ACTEQ, 2003)
• By laying out the landscape of professional
  growth, the Progress Map provides teacher
  candidates with a sense of where I am in the
  journey to fuller professional maturity
• Pointing the direction of professional
  development, i.e. providing a sense of where to
  go

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(No Transcript)
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Teaching and Learning
Understanding and organizing subject matter /
content for student learning
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. TEACHING AND LEARNING
2
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Principles of learning oriented assessment
Making evidence-based judgment
Setting targets for improvement
. TEACHING AND LEARNING
Where I am
Where to go
2
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Level Descriptors
Feedback Form
Progress Map
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Key difference from the FE supervision form shown
earlier
Levels vs grades
Organizing the TL domains differently
New domain
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Informed by different strands of literature

• Literature informing the development of the
  Progress Map
• Teacher professional development Professional
  standards
• Learning-oriented assessment
• Literature informing the research aspect of the
  project
• Teaching supervision
• Assessment of teaching competence in field
  experience formative vs summative assessment

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Conducting a Three-phase Research Development
Project

• Phase 1 Informing the design of the Progress Map
  (Nov 2003 Jan 2004)
• 6 consultation sessions, with meeting notes
• Stakeholders including teacher education faculty,
  school mentors, teacher participants of the
  Institutes part-time programmes
• Phase 2 Trying out the use of the Progress Map in
  teaching supervision (Feb to Nov 2004)
• 16 supervisors 21 participants
• Lesson observation (2 rounds of visits), 32
  pre-lesson post lesson conferences, completion
  of forms audio-recording of post-lesson
  conferences
• Interviews with supervisors participants
• (Limitation of the study a small sample of
  voluntary users, with NO summative assessment)
• Phase 3 Reviewing the use of the Progress Map in
  FE assessment (2005)
• 5 consultation sessions, with meeting notes
• Stakeholders including teacher education policy
  makers, faculty student teachers of the
  Institutes full-time programmes

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Addressing research questions

• 1. How was feedback communicated in post-lesson
  conferences in teaching supervision within the
  Learning Oriented Field Experience Assessment
  framework?
• (Analysis of interview data post-lesson
  conferences in Phase 2 of the Project)
• 2. What are the issues of field experience
  assessment?
• (Analysis of interview data in Phase 2 of the
  Project analysis of meeting notes of 2 rounds of
  consultation Phases 1 3 of the Project)

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Coding of post-lesson conferences within the
Learning Oriented Field Experience Assessment
framework
Frequencies of feedback items between Supervisor
(S) and Participant (P) in the post-lesson
conference.
Each occurrence which is an idea unit a
distinguishable idea, which can be a phrase, a
sentence or a number of sentences in the
post-lesson conference.
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Coding of post-lesson conferences within the
Learning Oriented Field Experience Assessment
framework
Frequencies of feedback items between Supervisor
(S) and Participant (P) in the post-lesson
conference.
Judgment without evidence
Evidence without judgment
Evidence with judgment
Learning-oriented assessment feedback
item Evidence with Judgment
Judgment without evidence
Evidence without Judgment
Each occurrence is an idea unit a
distinguishable idea, which can be a phrase, a
sentence or a number of sentences in the
post-lesson conference.
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Learning Oriented Assessment Feedback in teaching
supervision
Focus on teaching learning
Involvement in ed community evidence provided by
participant
Learning-oriented assessment feedback
- Distribution between S P
a/ Some examples of learner participation in
making judgment on performance (evidence-based
judgment, reference to Progress Map) b/ Some
examples of learner participation in
target-setting
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Conceptualization of learning-oriented assessment
supervisory practices
Teacher construction of professional knowledge
Self-regulated learning and a growth orientation
Learning-oriented assessment supervisory
practices to meet the teachers developmental
needs
Developing a shared understanding of criteria
Facilitating teacher participation in making
evidence-based judgment setting target for
improvement
Source Tang, S.Y.F. Chow, A.W.K. (2007).
Communicating feedback in teaching practice
supervision in a Learning-oriented Field
Experience Assessment Framework. Teaching and
Teacher Education, 23(7), 1066-1085.
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Issues in FE assessment in a standards-based
context

• Holistic judgments in the assessment of
  professional competence in teaching
• Problems of using the Progress Map in summative
  assessment in field experience
• The enhancement of professional learning in field
  experience assessment
• Implementation concerns of using the Progress Map

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Issues in FE assessment in a standards-based
context

• Holistic judgments in the assessment of
  professional competence in teaching
• The assessment of teaching - making qualitative
  judgments rather than following a set of explicit
  criteria
• Supervisors tacit knowledge of conceptions of
  quality performance in teaching
• Supervisors holistic appraisal of teaching
  performance taking into account of factors in the
  teaching contexts
• Supervisors judgment grounded on expertise
  tacit knowledge of conceptions of quality
  developed in the assessment practices over time
  and across situations rather than a set of
  explicit criteria the difficulty in assessing
  Involvement in education community

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Issues in FE assessment in a standards-based
context

• Holistic judgments in the assessment of
  professional competence in teaching
• The potential danger of engendering
  standards-driven teaching, fostering a
  technical-rational approach to teaching
• the problems of using standards mechanistically
  as a set of prescriptions for checking discrete
  teaching behaviours
• student teachers possible obsession with
  performing teaching behaviours and producing
  evidence to fulfill the requirements stated by
  the descriptors
• template-oriented application cautions the
  appearance of compliance with standards without
  the substance of good teaching

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Issues in FE assessment in a standards-based
context

• Problems of using the Progress Map in summative
  assessment in field experience
• The concern of establishing a grading scheme to
  differentiate individual performance how to
  convert the levels into grades and how to work
  out the overall FE grade?
• The development of a grading scheme on the basis
  of the Progress Map is likely to make its users
  focus on the technical application of the
  Progress Map as outcome measures in making
  summative decisions.

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Issues in FE assessment in a standards-based
context

• Problems of using the Progress Map in summative
  assessment in field experience
• Concerns about fairness of the same set of
  assessment criteria applied across contexts of
  teaching and by different supervisors
• Concerns about variation across contexts of
  teaching different demands of classroom
  contexts and varied opportunities of
  participation in the school community
• Variation across different supervisors in making
  judgment with consideration of assessment
  criteria, evidence of teaching performance, and
  factors in the teaching contexts
• These concerns further reveal that summative
  decisions cannot be handled adequately by the
  technical application of a set of standards like
  those in the Progress Map.

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Issues in FE assessment in a standards-based
context

• 3. The enhancement of professional learning in
  field experience assessment
• A conceptual reference for long-term professional
  development
• Assessment criteria stated in the level
  descriptors used as conceptual reference in
• learner self-assessment
• dialogue between supervisor teacher participant
  in teaching supervision
• A shared interpretation of the assessment
  criteria
• Learner participation in the assessment process
• engaging teacher participant in making
  evidence-based judgment on performance and
  setting targets for improvement in teaching
  supervision

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Issues in FE assessment in a standards-based
context

• 4. Implementation concerns of using the Progress
  Map
• Manageability importance of user-friendliness,
  especially the labels of the levels, the domain
  Involvement in education community
• Time for teacher reflection and time for
  post-lesson conference especially in a higher
  education context where teaching supervision has
  low institutional regard?

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Insights from the Project

• Limitations of professional standards
• its incompatibility with the holistic nature of
  teaching and the complexities of assessing
  professional competence in teaching
• the perils of its application in high-stakes
  summative assessment
• can be counter-productive when used
  mechanistically as outcome measures
• The claim that it can foster genuine and
  sustainable improvement in education and
  long-term capacity building of the teaching force
  may be a rhetoric.
• The value of professional standards lies in its
  productive use as a conceptual reference for
  professional development.

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Insights from the Project

• Empowering assessors and the assessed to be
  agents striving for good assessments Assessment
  dialogue among supervisors and with student
  teachers
• Assessment dialogue among supervisors
• making explicit the tacit knowledge embedded in
  judgments on professional competence in teaching
  
• sharing supervisory practices

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Insights from the Project

• Assessment dialogue with student teachers (STs)
• 1. Engaging STs with the assessment criteria
• Engaging STs to make sense of the assessment
  criteria with exemplars
• Reminding STs of the appropriate use of
  assessment criteria, i.e. as conceptual reference
  for professional development rather than
  prescriptions of teaching behaviours
• 2. Engaging STs to take an active role in
  teaching supervision
• Inviting STs to provide their perspective of
  their own teaching with contextual information -
  an input to supervisors and STs making sense of
  using the assessment criteria in judging
  professional competence in context
• engaging STs to take an active role in making
  evidence-based judgment on their own performance
  and setting targets for improving practice

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Outline of the presentation

• Implications for field experience assessment
  practices in the HKIEd

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Revised FE Supervision Form Grade
descriptors From Sept 2008 Scale scope of use
- Use in all programmes, including Early
Childhood and PVE generic term, e.g.
learner Importance of user-friendliness
users readiness to change Domains focusing on
Professional attributes Teaching Learning
(with changes in items descriptors
Others) Keep the grades rather than levels, but
less discrete How will outcome-based learning in
higher education shape the future development?
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Further thoughts on professional standards

• Getting to know the Professional standards for
  teachers in England 2007
• 1. What kinds of teachers are expected?
• 2. The content of the professional standards
• The domains
• Scope of teachers work
• Extended vs restricted professionalism
• The progression
• The descriptors
• Statements of professional competence?
• Statement of statutory requirements?
• Degree of specificity, concreteness

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Further thoughts on professional standards

• Getting to know the Professional standards for
  teachers in England 2007
• 3. The development of professional standards
• Bringing coherence to different sets of existing
  standards
• Development of the whole spectrum from the
  beginning
• 4. Purpose context of use at the system level
• Are there strong components of control in other
  parts of the system?
• How is the set of professional standards linked
  to other components in the system? e.g. career
  structure, high-stakes assessment
• 5. Space for users agency
• Space for the agency of the assessor and the
  assessed

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Thank You for your interest!