Using Performance Tasks to Provide Feedback and Assess Progress in Teacher Preparation

Abstract

This report presents results from a survey of 64 elementary mathematics and reading language arts teacher educators providing feedback on a new type of short performance task. The performance tasks each present a brief teaching scenario and then require a short performance as if teaching actual students. Teacher educators participating in the study first reviewed six performance tasks, followed by a more in-depth review of two of the tasks. After reviewing the tasks, teacher educators completed an online survey providing input on the value of the tasks and on potential uses to support teacher preparation. The survey responses were positive with the majority of teacher educators supporting a variety of different uses of the performance tasks to support teacher preparation. The report concludes by proposing a larger theory for how the performance tasks can be used as both formative assessment tools to support teacher learning and summative assessments to guide decisions about candidates' readiness for the classroom.