Examining edTPA's Educative Nature and Its Alignment to Standards of Effective Teaching

Abstract

This chapter advances the idea that completing the edTPA project is an educative experience that has potential to support teachers' development of high-leverage instructional practices. An inductive analysis of teacher candidates' reflections about completing the practice edTPA indicated that teacher candidates found value in some aspects of the project, such as planning, examining their video, and assessing students' work, but many of the participants perceived that the writing of the commentaries was not relevant. The chapter also describes a strategy called edPASR, which support teacher candidates through the edTPA process as an educative experience based in performance assessment. The chapter examines vignettes of teacher candidates experiences with the edTPA portfolio and concludes with a discussion of the relationship between edTPA and the day-to-day practice of teaching.