Authentic assessment of teaching in context

The demands of teaching more challenging content to more diverse learners s uggest a need for teacher education that enables teachers to become more so phisticated in their understanding of the effects of context and learner va riability on teaching and learning, Instead of implementing set routines, t eachers need to become ever more skillful in their ability to evaluate teac hing situations and develop teaching responses that can be effective under different circumstances. This article examines how a growing number of teac her education programs are using authentic assessments of teaching - cases, exhibitions, portfolios, and problem-based inquiries (or action research)- as tools to support teacher learning for these new challenges of practice. Using specific teacher education programs as examples, the article examine s how and why these strategies appear to provide support for teacher learni ng and avenues for more valid assessment of teaching. The authors also disc uss circumstances in which these strategies may be less effective and sugge st features of the assessments and programmatic contexts that are associate d with more and less successful use. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rig hts reserved.