Enhancing the enactment of assessment for learning principles during school placement: preservice teachers as practitioner researchers within a learning community

Enacting Assessment for Learning (AfL) is challenging for teachers and even more for Preservice Teachers (PSTs). The support for those attempting to enact it has been considered insufficient and/or inadequate. This study aims to examine how positioning preservice teachers as practitioner researchers while belonging to a learning community can facilitate PSTs’ enactment of AfL during their school placement. It draws on the triangulation of different qualitative data sources, e.g. focus group, researcher’s field notes, testimonial survey, and school placement report, inquiring the practice of eight PSTs and the interaction within a learning community supported by a researcher, university supervisor and cooperating teachers. Despite belonging to the same learning community, PSTs struggle differently in embedding assessment in the learning experiences, including students, and facilitating students’ understanding of feedback and the teaching-learning process. Teacher education programmes are prompted to consider how best to support PSTs enacting AfL practices.