Developing teacher self-regulation through learning-oriented feedback in teaching assessment

This chapter examines the ways in which a learning-oriented assessment framework was used to provide the basis for developing teachers into self-regulated learners. The discourse patterns of thirty two supervisory conferences involving the use of a Professional Development Progress Map were studied for their substantive contents and communicative intent. There is evidence in the data which shows the use of the Progress map as an instrument for a transfer of tacit knowledge in the assessment of teaching within the education discourse community, for facilitating novice teachers’ attempts in connecting pedagogical principles with their practical actions in the classroom, and for developing their capacity and disposition for self-regulated and reflective development. The findings also point to the need for re-framing the assessment culture in teaching practice supervision. This chapter begins with a brief review of the theoretical basis of a constructivist and humanistic approach to teacher education, and the use of supervisory conferences for enhancing the understanding of teachers about the basis of quality teaching, and their capacity for self-regulation and self-renewal. This is then followed by a description of the design and the use of a learning oriented assessment framework, referred to as the Professional Development Progress Map, as well as the research study which investigated its use. The data collected, in the study, from thirty two supervisory conferences and twenty one interviews will be presented next, with evidence illustrating the transfer of tacit knowledge in the assessment of teaching, and the collaborative attempts made during the conferences to conceptualize teachers’ professional experiences for the development of self-regulation in the teachers. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the paradigmatic shift in the culture of assessment for maximizing teacher ownership of the assessment process and promoting teacher self-evaluation for self-regulated professional development. Copyright © 2009 Nova Science Publishers.