153There is long-term value in promoting preservice teachers’ self-regulation of
their learning (Hodkinson & Hodkinson, 2005 ; Tynjala, 2008 ). The use of rubrics
combined with self-assessment, goal setting and self-reflection can provide students
the opportunity to perceive learning progress which can lead to a powerful ‘mastery
experience’ (van Dinther, Dochy, & Segers, 2011 , p. 105). This can create a strong
sense of self-efficacy that plays a key role in human agency (van Dinther et al.,
2011 ). The findings of this study suggest that the rubric and self-assessment and
goal-setting processes provide preservice teachers with an awareness of their emerg-
ing capabilities and sense of personal agency in their own learning (Billet, 2008 ).
The qualitative statements emerging from the survey and the focus groups indicated
that there had been a significant change in preservice teachers’ personal agency in
regard to their management of their learning in contrast to their counterparts of
previous years. Preservice teachers were prompted to adopt a proactive role in plan-
ning and managing their learning whilst undertaking professional experience. This
may support the formation of their professional identity as they critically ponder
what they are doing and why (Ruohotie-Lyhty & Moate, 2016 ).
A question arising from this study is what evidence supervising teachers, school
coordinators, teacher educators and preservice teachers have when making assess-
ment judgements using the rubric. The findings suggest that whilst the introduction
of the rubric had a positive impact on conversations about the different types of
evidence relevant to demonstrating preservice teachers’ developing capabilities,
this did not occur consistently or in a systematic way. This is problematic as the
intent of the rubric was to facilitate a more transparent, focused, consistent and
accountable assessment of preservice teachers’ development during their profes-
sional experience. This necessitates making judgements about, and reporting on,
preservice teachers’ development based on evidence rather than intuition. Jonsson
and Mattsson ( 2011 ) described a similar challenge in their study where they found
that very little data was documented or could be used to re-evaluate preservice
teachers’ performance.
With the introduction of new national teacher education requirements related to
a teaching performance assessment for final-year preservice teachers, and creation
of a portfolio of evidence of their achievement of the graduate level standards, there
is an opportunity to support preservice teachers’ collection of evidence which cap-
tures the multifaceted nature of teaching in a comprehensive manner by focusing on
the four interconnected stages of teaching: ‘(i) Planning and preparation; (ii)
Classroom instruction and implementation; (iii) Assessment and feedback; (iv)
Reflection and professional dialogue’ (QCT, 2012 , p. 28).
This study has provided coherent evidence that the new developmental assess-
ment rubric, self-assessment and goal-setting processes have made a positive impact
on the approaches of all stakeholders to the assessment of third- and fourth-year
preservice teachers’ professional knowledge, practice and engagement. The find-
ings of this study confirm those reported by Panadero and Jonsson ( 2013 ), showing
that rubrics can assist students to engage with feedback and develop a realistic opin-
ion about their developing capabilities. These findings are also confirmed by Sim
et al. in their 2012 report. The findings indicated that compared to previous years,
9 Using a Developmental Assessment Rubric to Revitalise Stakeholder Conversations...