ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to consider some of the issues confronting PGCE (secondary) students as they begin to form their identities as teachers, specifically issues relating to initiating and assessing work produced in the classroom. For many student teachers their PGCE year and their initial years of teaching are the most challenging as they begin to establish themselves as effective teachers. Although in England the Standards for the Award of Qualified Teacher Status (Teacher Training Agency 2000a, 2000b, 2001) provide a list of requirements that all intending teachers must satisfy, it is also evident to most people with a knowledge and experience of teaching, that teaching involves much more than this. Some years ago when profiles of teacher competences were being developed, a colleague made the point that when all the statements were taken together they still didn’t capture the reality of teaching.
