Teacher Preparation and Practice: Reconsideration of Assessment for Learning introduces the reader to a collection of thoughtful research-based works by authors that represent current thinking about assessment. What we know is that assessments are designed and implemented in educational settings (both university-based teacher preparation and school-based teacher practice in school classrooms) that serve to inform and guide teaching and learning. We also know that there is a dichotomy between assessment of learning (summative) and assessment for learning (formative) that is recognized on a global level in teacher preparation.
Importantly, the reported research examines assessment and the application of professional judgment guided by assessment for learning in contrast to the more normalizing assessment of learning that currently pervades the nature of assessment in teacher preparation and practice. There is a need in the “work of teaching” for assessments that focus on cultural competence and relational sensitivity, communication skills, and the combination of rigor and imagination fundamental to the teaching and learning practices in classrooms. Each chapter focuses on assessment and the preparation and practice of teachers who will enter classrooms to instruct the next generation of students. Chapter One opens the book with a focus on assessment and its relationship to teaching and learning in the classroom, providing the reader with an introduction to the book and an understanding of the role assessment plays in teacher preparation and practice. The authors of Chapters Two–Nine present field-based research that examines assessment in teacher preparation and practice. Each chapter offers the reader an examination of assessment in teacher preparation and practice based on formal research that provides the reader with insight into how the research study was conducted as well as equally important, the findings and conclusions drawn with respect to assessment and teacher preparation and practice. Finally, Chapter Ten presents an epilogue that focuses on the future of assessment in teacher preparation and practice.
