Video-enhanced dialogic assessment (VEDA) of teaching practice portfolios: the dialogic construction of teachers’ standards evidence in an online space

Initial teacher education in the UK is arguably characterised by the signature pedagogies (Shulman, 2005) of lesson observation and assessment of teaching evidence portfolios that demonstrate how far a trainee’s practice meets the criterion-referenced teachers’ standards (DfE, 2011). This form of assessment will be as immediately recognisable to those undertaking initial teacher education in the UK in the last thirty years as now. In an international independent distance learning (IDL) teacher education programme, these practices can be rendered more challenging by Vide Traditional forms of portfolio assessment by tutors may be hindered by the need for selective evidence, which may lack depth or nuance in an effort to remain within file size or word count limits. To fully understand and assess professional practice carried out at a distance requires a change in assessment practices, and one that brings assessor and assessee closer together, and closer to practice. In recent years, the technological affordances of video-enhanced lesson observation and video calling with desktop sharing functionality have augmented the work of teacher educators (Calandra & Rich, 2014; Hidson, 2020; Marsh & Mitchell, 2014). This has the advantage of connecting candidate and assessor in a shared online dialogic space, as outlined by Wegerif (2007) in a process of video-stimulated recall, reflection and dialogue (Nind et al., 2015) combined with exploration of artefacts and evidence of practice. From this perspective, dialogue can encourage reflection on video captured during lessons, elicit tacit knowledge through questioning and discussion, help construct additional evidence and lead to a negotiated appreciation of strengths and areas for development. The Video-Enhanced Dialogic Assessment (VEDA) process implemented makes use of these principles to complement formative and summative assessment of teaching practices and portfolios. It can most easily be imagined as an online viva voce oral examination, building on similar ...