Professional knowledge learned and professional knowledge applied: A case study of two trainee English teachers

Abstract

This article reports on one strand of a collaborative research project undertaken at the Faculty of Education, which sought to explore trainee teachers’ development of assessment understandings and practices during their PGCE, and over the following two years. Using two case studies of English trainees, we explore the ways in which they seek to bring together effective assessment principles embedded in the research literatures they encountered in their training with the classroom focused, ‘tried and tested’ approaches in their placement schools. The resulting demands on professional knowledge ‘pure’ and ‘applied’, and some resulting tensions are investigated though interviews with the trainees concerned.