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Implementing A Teaching Performance Assessment: An Australian Case Study, John Buchanan, George Harb, Terry Fitzgerald

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on the implementation of a Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA), a component of graduation recently introduced into the teaching workforce in Australia. The TPA typically requires graduates to demonstrate that they can plan, implement, assess and reflect on a series of lessons given to school students. This case study used grounded theory to analyse the initial implementation of a TPA at an Australian university, based on interviews, student focus groups, and a classroom readiness survey. We investigated the TPA’s contribution to final-year pre-service teachers’ learning and professional readiness. We conclude that the TPA, as a threshold task, is …