The shaping of pre-service teachers’ professional knowledge base through assessments

Abstract

Today teachers and their professional knowledge base have become important, since knowledge has become a pivotal aspect of modern society. This study investigates the shaping of preservice teachers' knowledge base by studying the assessment practice in teacher education programmes for primary level teachers. The analytical focus lies on pedagogic discourses and what skills and competencies are legitimized in and through the assessment tasks. The results show that Swedish primary school preservice teachers are primarily trained to work with subject didactics, and focus is placed on being able to plan, carry out, and evaluate teaching in light of descriptive and normative learning theories, as well as the current curricula. One possible effect of this strong subject didactic focus is that teachers are not sufficiently trained to critically analyse the conditions determining their work, especially in view of current global and local policy trends.

Organising the ‘industrialisation of instruction’: Pedagogical discourses in the Swedish Primary Teacher Education programme

“…Responsibility does not end within the universities. This study, together with previous research on the new Swedish PTE programme (Alvunger & Wahlström, 2018;Beach & Bagley, 2012;Beach, Bagley, Eriksson et al, 2014;Nilsson Lindström & Beach, 2015;Player Koro & Sjöberg, 2018;Sjöberg, 2010Sjöberg, , 2018aSjöberg, , 2018bWermke & Höstfält, 2014), clearly show that the conditions under which teacher education operates-strict regulation, constant evaluation, and a lack of financing-must change. If not, the job of educating 'high-quality' educators will become an impossible task.…”

“…With regard to global discourses on education, the most recent reorganisation of Swedish teacher education (SOU 2008:109) has been studied from the perspective of historical change or as a policy trajectory (Alvunger & Wahlström, 2018;Beach & Bagley, 2012Beach et al, 2014;Nilsson Lindström & Beach, 2015;Player Koro & Sjöberg, 2018;Sjöberg, 2010;2018a;2018b;Wermke & Höstfält, 2014). Among other things, these studies show that the TE programmes of 2011 are constructed upon neoliberal and neoconservative rationalities, breaking with a long tradition of continuity in educational logic.…”

“…One of the new programmes established by this reform was the Primary Teacher Education (PTE) programme, with its specialisations for preschool class teachers and teachers of grades 1-3 (K-3), grades 4-6, and teachers working in leisure-time centres. 2 Previous research on pedagogical discourses in the new PTE programme has shown how the subject didactics focus dominates assessment of student teachers' knowledge and skills, that there are subcultures within the programmes due to its assessment practices (Player Koro & Sjöberg, 2018), and that the current curriculum has a substantial influence on teacher education students' knowledge base (Sjöberg, 2018a). Finally, research demonstrates that there are significant differences between the various specialisations and subjects in terms of pedagogical discourses on assessment practice (Sjöberg, 2018b).…”

Pre-service teacher’s self-perception of digital literacy: The case of Israel

“…Urged by educational reforms, educators are under constant pressure to improve, innovate, and display higher skills before their students (Priestley 2011), including the use of technology in the teaching context (Gudmundsdottir and Hatlevik 2018). Educators around the world and in Israel are trying to adapt their educational systems to the changes that characterize current societies (Tsybulsky and Levin 2017;Sjöberg 2018). Accordingly, the constant search for effective means of achieving teachers' ongoing professional development has become a global concern (Bautista and Oretga-Ruiz 2017).…”

Unearthing Motives that Propel Pre-service Teachers Venture into Special Education Career at the University of Zambia

“…It is time the University invested in developing Teachers' Competences for designing Inclusive Learning Experiences as supported by [41,42,43], [38] and [44]. Similarly, [45] noted that teachers in Sweden were not sufficiently trained to critically analyse the conditions determining their work, especially in view of the local and global trends.…”