Teaching practicum assessment in post-apartheid teacher education: is it self-serving or serving students?

Abstract

This article investigates common understandings and practices of a group of supervisors assessing students during the Teaching Practicum in South Africa. In the light of this context and the need for a constructivist approach to develop students to be able to teach in diverse contexts, the question that the research intends to answer is as follows: What are the common foci of supervisors as reflected in their teaching practicum assessment reports? A randomly mixed sample of 33 narrative reports, taken from 5 supervisors was analysed to gain insight into the assessment report. Findings are presented as five assessment dis- courses and an argument is presented for the Teaching Practicum assessment to shift towards a student-oriented developmental approach that is neither hierarchi- cal nor judgmental but aims at serving students’ professional development that meets the challenges of culturally diverse societies.