can result in differentiation practices that continue to marginalise some groups of
students, and result in lower educational expectations and outcomes.
10.3.5 External Assessment Evidence
Most educators are familiar with the Global Educational Reform Movement
(GERM) and the influence this has had on policy and practice, in particular through
the increasing use of high-stakes testing (Sahlberg 2012 ). In the country from which
we write, Australia, high-stakes testing now provides a key form of data about
student achievement regarding literacy and numeracy across the compulsory years
of schooling. Aggregate data for Australian schools has been published online since
2010, and this practice increasingly determines parental perceptions of schools and
teachers (Frawley et al. 2015 ). The imperative for clinical teachers is to make
appropriate use of this data, and to synthesise this with other forms of data collected
over longer periods of time that reflect a more comprehensive view of student
learning. Moreover, the clinical teacher also needs to be aware of the limitations of
achievement data drawn from formal high-stakes tests if they are to use this data
appropriately to inform their teaching practice. Clinical teachers therefore need to
develop and maintain a level of data literacy that enables them to understand,
interpret and critique high-stakes test data.
10.3.6 Research-Informed Evidence
While the forms of evidence we have described have to different degrees often been
intrinsically, if not explicitly mobilised by governments, school leaders and
teachers, research evidence—encountered at universities—can remain outside
teachers’daily practice once they commence autonomous teaching. Research has
often been seen to be the business of university-based teacher education programs
focussed on theoretical or empirical work while the real learning is seen to emerge
from the lived experiences of teachers in the trenches developed through an
apprenticeship model based on trial and error. While practice is undeniably
important in any service profession, a clinical model for teaching presupposes an
iterative dialogue and synthesis of classroom and para-classroom-based evidence,
and research-based knowledge. Together, these constitute evidence-informed
practice focussed on students’learning and development.
Indeed, in determining how best to advance learning for a student or group of
students, the clinical teacher makes ongoing reference to current research-based
knowledge about effective teaching practices. Clinical teachers have a broad
understanding around what the research literature says about effective teaching and
learning, and use this knowledge to decide how to proceed in the classroom. The
clinical teacher adopts a stance of openness to new research evidence about quality
160 J. Kriewaldt et al.