Developing Assessments of Content Knowledge for Teaching Using Evidence-centered Design

Preliminary Evidence on Measurement Characteristics for the Foundational Assessment of Competencies for Teaching Performance Tasks

“…They provide a common structure to describe CKT generally and are then elaborated in ways specific to subject matter teaching that supports students in developing the core concepts … [Learning] targets then provide a starting point for modeling CKT by identifying the core concepts that students should come to understand through instruction in a domain. (Phelps et al, 2020, p. 6)This practice‐based approach provides a means to directly link student learning, tasks of teaching, and teacher content knowledge. CKT and the associated assessment tasks are defined at the intersection of learning targets and tasks of teaching.…”

“…To investigate the viability of this approach for developing a FACT test, it will be important to carry out a more complete ECD process. This needs to start by specifying a test design framework followed by task development that is explicitly focused on providing evidence for each of the identified framework components (see for example, Phelps et al, 2020). Without a full ECD process it is difficult to evaluate the extent to which the pool of tasks that were developed for the pilot (Table 1) represent the desired construct, and whether task performance was associated with underlying construct dimensions or differences in task quality.…”

PRAXIS® Content Knowledge for Teaching: Initial Reliability and Validity Results for Elementary Reading Language Arts and Mathematics

“…In developing an ECD approach for assessing CKT, Phelps et al (2020) began by distinguishing between componential and integrated approaches to assessing teacher knowledge. In a componential model, relevant aspects of knowledge are identified, and specific assessment tasks are designed to assess discrete knowledge components .…”

“…Adopting such an approach to assessing teaching breaks complex performances into discrete skills, and the associated knowledge can fall short in capturing the coordination among skills and the range of knowledge that is necessary to carry out an integrated task. (Phelps et al, 2020, p. 3) Phelps et al (2020) argued instead for an integrated approach that starts by modeling how teachers use their knowledge (CKT) to engage in multiple and coordinated tasks such as asking questions, interpreting student responses, providing explanations and helping students develop their own explanations, asking follow-up questions, promoting discussions, etc . .…”

“…Rather than drawing hard distinctions among the types of knowledge that make up CKT in mathematics, the emphasis is instead placed on identifying the tasks that make up the mathematical work of teaching and then identifying the complex of mathematical knowledge that is characteristic of this work. Phelps et al (2020) formalized these arguments into an ECD approach to assessing CKT. They argued for a framework that has two major components-tasks of teaching and student learning targets-and argued that it is necessary to represent both in frameworks for assessing CKT:…”