Assessment in teacher education: Leading change in schools' use of learning development data

The changing face of education over the past ten to twenty years has seen the introduction of large-scale standardized testing with the expectation that schools and classroom teachers improve student learning achievement. For this to be achieved there has been a call to action for greater understanding of theories of student learning along with new knowledge and skills. This call was the impetus for this case study that involved one school and the use of an on-line survey, individual and focus group interviews with members of the Administration and teachers to explore this issue. Results indicate that teachers do not consider that assessment helps learners know how to improve and indicated that there was a lack of clear direction or understanding in relation to the purpose of assessment. Findings from this study suggest that the way forward is for pre-service teacher education to establish clear understandings about how to judge student learning development.