Teaching development grants final and financial report: Assessment for integrating learning in teacher education

Students at present are assessed on specific learning outcomes for individual course units. However, professional practice requires that these be integrated and knowledge and skill exercised in a seamless manner. Integrating assessment is intended to prepare students for the world of practice through introducing them at an early stage to the importance of bringing together their learning across the curriculum and relating it to their experience and aspirations. It is designed to both focus students' attention on the importance of integration and to make judgements about the effectiveness of this integration in their own learning and development. Integrating assessment is based on the principle that if the final outcome is to be integrated practice, assessment activities should reflect this goal. In light of these considerations, the project is a supportive measure for enhancing the quality of the BEd programme. It seeks to develop a set of integrating assessment tasks and related practices that link student learning across different knowledge and skill domains in each year of the BEd programme. These tasks and practices will serve both to assess students' integration of learning and to encourage such integration.