“They're far more prepared to teach children”: Authentic Assessment of the Arts in Primary Initial Teacher Education Degrees in Six Australian Universities

The applied nature of learning in teacher education courses suggests the value of authentic assessment that links classroom learning to “real-world” school teaching. While the features of authentic assessment have been extensively explored, the features of authentic arts assessment are less well-articulated in the literature. We use a collaborative autoethnographic approach to examine our own assessment practices to surface the features of authentic arts assessment in our Australian teacher education courses, and the principles underpinning it. Using existing approaches to authentic learning as analytical frameworks, our research developed three principles for authentic arts assessment in teacher education. Authentic arts assessment: 1) replicates real-world arts making and actual arts teaching, 2) connects theory and practice through application, and 3) engages students in reflective practices. We propose these three principles as a means for teacher educators to reframe their approaches to arts assessment in ITE.