Perceived Influence of Cooperating Teachers on edTPA Performance

Abstract

The Education Teaching Performance Assessment (edTPA) is a performance assessment of teacher effectiveness that is increasingly used to make decisions about licensure for teacher candidates, including candidates seeking certification in world languages. Because of the high-stakes nature of this assessment, it is important to isolate and better understand the factors that may have an effect on teacher candidates' scores. This mixed-methods study examined the results of a survey of 22 recent teacher candidates who completed the edTPA and of participant interviews with 13 of those candidates. Candidates' interview data were triangulated with data obtained from interviews with six cooperating teachers (CTs), survey data from seven CTs, and teacher candidates' scores on the edTPA. Teacher candidates perceived that aspects of their placement, including the amount of guidance provided by their CT, had an impact on their edTPA performance, particularly in the areas of target language use and communicative vs. grammar-based approaches.

Communicative Learning Outcomes and World Language edTPA: Characteristics of High-scoring Portfolios

“…While the WL edTPA remains under researched (Behney 2016;Hildebrandt and Swanson 2016;Kissau and Algozzine 2017;Russell and Davidson Devall 2016;Troyan and Kaplan 2015), this research expands the literature base by examining teacher educators' analyses of edTPA portfolios.…”

“…Research shows that teachers tend to teach as they were taught (Britzman 1991;Goodlad 1982;Lortie 1975), which is "influential enough to override the effects of teacher education programs" (McMillan 1985: 85). Further, cooperating teachers can exert a substantial influence on teacher candidate pedagogical practices (Behney 2016;Kennedy 1999), and participants may have felt pressure to acquiesce to a more form-focused approaches to teaching language (Kennedy 1999;Oleson and Hora 2014). The new paradigm explored in their methods classes may have differed from the reality that participants found in their student teaching placements.…”

“…Behney (2016) explored mentor teachers' and placement settings' influences on WL teacher candidate edTPA performance, finding that cooperating teachers "modeled a more grammar-based approach than what [student teachers] had been taught to use in their standardsbased methods classes" and that they "seemed to implicitly equate language learning with students' increasing grammatical knowledge" (283). She also found that cooperating teachers and cooperating teachers "recognized that there were important philosophical and instructional differences concerning 90% target language use" (283).…”

“…edTPA's subject specificity, widespread usage, high-stakes nature, and focus on learning objectives prompt the present investigation. Given its widespread usage across the country, the World Language (WL) edTPA remains understudied despite recent investigations of the topic (e.g., Behney 2016;Hildebrandt and Swanson 2016;Kissau and Algozzine 2017;Russell and Davidson Devall 2016;Troyan and Kaplan 2015).…”

Future directions in assessment: Influences of standards and implications for language learning

“…For example, Glisan, Swender, and Surface (, p. 276) found that 45% of 1,957 preservice teachers from 2006 to 2012 did not meet the minimum proficiency level for teacher certification. In light of the dramatic and ongoing shortage of language teachers across the nation (Russell & Davidson Devall, ), researchers have proposed changes to teaching curricula that address the proficiency needs of preservice teachers (Behney, ; e.g., Kissau, ; Troyan & Kaplan, ).…”