Literacy tests for trainee teachers: shadows across the secondary classroom?

Haworth, Avril (2002) Literacy tests for trainee teachers: shadows across the secondary classroom? Cambridge journal of education, 32 (3). pp. 289-302. ISSN 0305-764X

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Abstract

This paper examines the models of literacy implicit in two recent cross-curricular policy initiatives that concern secondary ITE providers and trainee teachers in the UK. Taking the QTS Skills Tests in literacy as a starting-point, the paper seeks to explore the literacy practices and perceptions of a small volunteer sample of trainees, focussing on punctuation and grammar. Drawing on models from adult literacy, the findings suggest that undergraduates and postgraduates can benefit from the presentation of literacy as an evolving and contested set of cultural practices, within which individual trainees can develop and articulate their preferred style of writing.