Student and teacher reflections
المؤلف:
Steve Thornton & Sue Wilson
المصدر:
Enhancing Teaching and Learning through Assessment
الجزء والصفحة:
P136-C13
2025-06-26
470
Student and teacher reflections
Both authors commented upon the maturity of the students, and on how articulate they had been. We were impressed by their "willingness to expose and consider their weaknesses in an interview." We noted that this task had assessed higher order thinking skills such as critical reflection, and had put into practice much of the rhetoric of the teacher education course. We felt that the interview process and portfolio preparation had modelled professional excellence in a very powerful way, by respecting the pre-service teachers' background, knowledge and experiences, and their right to reserve judgement where they had not yet arrived at a firm opinion. We felt that, in this way, the process had been unusual in its value to the students.
The interviews provided strong evidence of developing teacher identity, in particular characteristics such as skepticism, the capacity to reflect on experience to link theory and practice, and a sense of self as a learner. The pre-service teachers' core beliefs about teaching, and about themselves as teachers, were challenged. They recognized their existing professional knowledge and highlighted their shortcomings; they evaluated their own and their supervising teachers' practice honestly and critically; they revealed a developing sense of what they valued in learning.
However, the most surprising outcome was the sense of community generated through the process. The preservice teachers emailed each other after the interview to discuss their feelings about the task. This was an entirely self-motivated undertaking - we had not asked them to share their reflections and had expected that, like every other assessment task we had ever set, students would just be glad that it was over. On learning of this email exchange, we requested a copy with names removed, and the students were happy to provide their reflections.
"When the audience is sitting in front of you, there is more chance that you can adjust your presentation if they appear bored, confused or incredulous."
"Because the interview is so short and the time can disappear so quickly it is very important to be organized and be clear about the main messages in your presentation (just like in a lesson)".
"I think it is a little dangerous to try and assess people on a 15-20 minutes interview, as it tends to favor those who are articulate rather than (necessarily) those who have reflected deeply. Of course, every assessment will have its own bias (essays, after all, will favor those who write well), but I think the danger of assessing style rather than substance are greater in (a) short interview scenario."
"Probably the most I got out of the whole process was how analyzing, reading articles and reflecting continued to challenge me about my teaching. Many of the articles I read had direct relevance to what I had been teaching and raised lots of questions, and provided some answers, in teaching these topics. While I was preparing for an assessment item, I think I got more out of the exercise than the mark Steve gave me."
These pre-service teachers saw the exercise as an important part of their on-going development as teachers of mathematics. They saw themselves as part of a community, and were keen to share their experiences and thoughts with others. Unprompted, they thoughtfully evaluated the validity of the interview process and made links with assessment practices beyond their current course. In this sense the portfolio and interview did "double duty" by focusing on both the immediate and the future, by transmitting what is valued as well as making judgements, and by giving students the reflective skills to attend to their on-going development as excellent teachers of mathematics.
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