ABSTRACT
Over the last two decades there has been a slow but significant change in the assessment of the classroom performance of student teachers. This process of change, as with many aspects of teacher education, has gained increasing impetus over the last two or three years. As an aspect of this, there has also been a shift towards the process of change being increasingly driven by centralized agencies. In general this change has focused on three main areas; what is assessed, who assesses it and how it is assessed. The actual speed and direction of change have differed between different institutions but the overall effects and outcomes have been very similar. In order to identify and examine the issues raised by this process the experience of one college, specializing in primary teacher education, will be explored in some detail.
