Getting the practical teaching element right: A guide for literacy, numeracy and ESOL teacher educators

A guide for literacy, numeracy and ESOL teacher educators

Written assignments

Key to the integration of theory and practice on any teacher education course is
the written assignment, which requires a trainee to address a theoretical issue
with specific reference to their own classroom experience. These assignments
are drafted, developed and marked in terms of the effectiveness of links made
between theory and practice, requiring trainees to draw upon their own
developing classroom experience:

‘If the assignment is looking at a theoretical aspect I would expect it to be
illustrated all the way through with examples from their recent practice.’

NRDC research shows that assignments which required explicit links to
classroom experience were by far the most popular with trainees, and indeed for
all aspects of the course trainees wanted things to be related directly and clearly
to teaching practice.

> Formative and summative assessment

The methods of assessment outlined above are seen by the teacher educators we
interviewed as primarily formative; teaching practice assessment exists to develop
and formalise classroom experience, to record those issues discussed in the
classroom, with peers, with teacher trainers, to generate new ideas in post-
discussion reflection, and to continue a spiral of watching, thinking, trying,
learning, thinking, trying... These assessment methods are - in the best practice
discussed by both trainers and trainees - opportunities for nurturing a reflective
mode. They embody connections made in the trainees’ minds: between aspects of
the course; between trainees, between trainees and trainers; and between
trainees and learners.

All of these connections contribute to the construction of a network of experience.
Yet, the summative, graded (whether pass/fail or with differentiated grades) aspect
of teacher education is also essential to literacy, numeracy and ESOL teaching as
professions. So how are these two related?

In our interviews with teacher educators it was clear that there is tension in the
assessment of teaching practice between two main reasons for assessment:
assessment as a tool to diagnose learning needs, strengths and weaknesses and
to review and develop learning, and assessment as a tool to decide whether or not

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