The use of theories in the assessment of the school-based part of the teacher education programme

The purpose of this paper is to highlight how theories are used in assessmentdialogues during the last period of a practical, school-based education. The resultis based on 13 assessment dialogues conducted in the school-based part of theswedish teacher education programme and where one of the course objectives is to“in a scientific way, analyse teaching situations based on learning theories”. Theassessment dialogues were analysed drawing from Bernstein’s concepts of‘classification’, ‘framing’, and ‘horizontal and vertical knowledge’. The resultshows that theories are used in an instrumental way to legitimise what is consideredthe “right way” to teach. Only in a minority of the assessment dialogues studentsare expected to use theory as an analytical tool and critically examine their teachingpractice. Although the swedish teacher education have been an academic educationfor 40 years, the reproductive elements still appear clearly today. If a professionalapproach presupposed to be based on theoretical reasoning, then the normative useof theory bocomes problematic.