Blended learning, TESOL teacher preparation and quality assessment: Are they compatible?

This paper discusses a micro-teaching assessment task that is part of a Master of TESOL course at an Australian university. It is a task that has been used in the course for a number of years. In 2014 the course was changed to a blended format organised around a 12 hour face-to face and 24 hour online structure. The majority of students undertaking this course are international students who it is expected will return home on course completion to teach or work in areas associated with the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). There is also a much smaller number of domestic students enrolled who are currently teachers of English as an Additional Language (EAL) or who wish to become teachers of EFL or adult EAL. The paper will discuss the challenges that the blended format creates for a micro-teaching assessment task. It will do this by evaluating the task against key assessment principles and the university’s own set of principles about quality assessment and feedback, and by using initial student reactions to this task in their solicited and unsolicited evaluations.