Developing assessment literacy through approximations of practice: Exploring secondary mathematics pre-service teachers developing criteria for a rich quadratics task

This study draws on a theoretical model for teacher assessment literacy to investigate the process of how secondary mathematics pre-service teachers (PSTs) might develop theirs through experiencing an approximation of practice. Sixty PSTs participated in designing and then refining assessment criteria for a rich open-ended quadratics task using real student example responses. Data analysis examined variations in the PSTs’ attention to quadratic features and mathematical language as assessment criteria for the task throughout the activity. This paper discusses evidence suggesting that the collaborative analysis of example student responses can make certain, but not all, assessment criteria salient to PSTs.