Formative performance assessment in preservice teacher education - working through the black boxes

Teaching performance assessments (TPA) are a trending feature of initial teacher education. Founded in the United States of America, TPAs have emerged in the Australian context as a capstone assessment of preservice teacher competence. However, the inclusion of the TPA in initial teacher education places additional pressure on tertiary institutions to prepare their graduates for the rigour of the test alongside the rigour of the classroom. This paper examines the ways in which preservice teachers may best be prepared for both the test and the teaching profession, exploring notions of the TPA and teacher quality, and the tensions between theory and practice. It does so in the context of part-time and distance initial teacher education, where the gap between university and the classroom, theory and practice is magnified. PrExConnex is introduced as one way in which preservice teachers can be appropriately scaffolded in learning how to negotiate the TPA during professional experience, whilst also being supported in becoming professionals, engaging in professional dialogue and reflective practice. Here, we leverage the metaphor of the classroom as a “black box;” the complex space in which connections occur between teacher and school inputs and student educational output.