Learning to see new things: using criteria to support pre-service teachers’ discernment in the context of teachers’ relational work

Assessment is a two tier process, where the first stage involves the discernment of distinguishing properties (i.e. criteria) in the performance to be assessed. The second stage involves making a judgment about the quality of the performance, based on the identified criteria. In the context of student self-assessment, this means that students first have to be able to discern the criteria, as they are operationalized in their performance, in order to make a valid judgment of quality. In this paper, we present and discuss findings from a study investigating how the access to explicit criteria affected preservice teachers’ discernment of significant dimensions of quality in teachers’ relational work (i.e. the capacity to create and maintain supportive relationships between teacher and students). Digital video was used as a tool for preservice teachers to analyze classroom interaction focusing on teachers’ relational competency. Data used was preservice teachers’ written analyzes of classroom interactions, simulated through digital video before and after the access to explicit criteria. Findings suggest that the access to explicit criteria positively affected preservice teachers’ capacity to discern significant dimensions of quality in teacher performance, which is evidenced by the quality and focus of their analyzes.