ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we are concerned with the theories of learning underpinning models of assessment for preservice teachers in urban contexts. One fundamental premise in this chapter is that teacher performance assessment ought to document teacher learning. In outlining this perspective, we draw specifically on the sociocultural perspectives on learning and development that have grown primarily out of the work of Russian psychologists Vygotsky, Leont’ev, and Luria (Cole, 1996; Daniels, 2001; Tharp & Gallimore, 1988; Werstch, 1985b). A sociocultural perspective is our chosen stance on learning because it offers a socially just approach to learning and assessment, concurring with Oakes and Lipton’s (1999) rationale that “sociocultural theories are important at the turn of the twenty-first century, because they shift the burden of low achievement from culturally and linguistically diverse groups…to where it belongs: on schools and the larger society” (p. 78).
