Developing Assessment Practices: A Study of the Experiences of Preservice Mathematics Teachers as Learners and the Evolution of their Assessment Practices as Educators

Mathematics education reformers have articulated a new framework for classroom assessment. This framework calls for teachers to merge their assessment with pedagogy, to employ assessments that engage students in the process of "doing mathematics," and to exploit assessment to support learning. This is a dissertation research study of how six preservice teachers learned to use such reform-based assessment practices during teacher preparation. The main questions guiding this research are: (1) How do the assessment perspectives and practices of secondary mathematics preservice teachers evolve over the course of yearlong teacher preparation programs? and (2) How do secondary mathematics preservice teachers' experiences with assessment influence their assessment perspectives and practices? Data includes three in-depth interviews that concentrate on each preservice teacher's views on, and experiences with, assessment. In addition, a series of classroom observations focus on the ways each preservice teacher assessed student learning. Analysis of the data revealed three distinct stages of development. In the first stage, preservice teachers' perspectives and practices involved summative, separate, and procedural tasks that were used for grading purposes or to identify topics to review. These perspectives and practices were influenced by preservice teachers' apprenticeship of observation. In the second stage, preservice teachers' perspectives involved a distinction between graded and ungraded assessment tasks. During this stage, preservice teachers added more tasks to their practice, designed some of these tasks to inform their teaching, and began to implement these tasks at different points of instruction. Preservice teachers' perspectives and practices during this stage were influenced by the introductions to, and discussions of, novel assessment practices during preparation program courses. In the third stage, preservice teachers' perspectives involved a distinction between assessment for grading purposes, and assessment for student and teacher learning. During this stage, preservice teachers began to design and use assessment to facilitate student learning. This final stage of development was largely influenced by preparation program coursework; however, in one case a preservice teacher's apprenticeship with a mentor teacher was also influential. These findings were used to provide implications and recommendations for teacher education to help ensure that contemporary assessment practices are learned, appropriately applied, and sustained throughout a teacher's professional career.