During initial education and training (ITET), trainee teachers are required to ‘make sense’ of ideas about assessment, including the distinctions between assessment of learning (AoL) and assessment for learning (AfL) (Black & Wiliam 1998; ARG 1999; Black et al. 2002). Teachers' pedagogy is influenced by such developing conceptions (Brown et al. 2004). Since a seminal review by Black & Wiliam (1998), a number of studies (e.g. Black & Harrison 2001; Wiliam et al. 2004) have reinforced the rationale and practices identified as underpinning effective AfL. However, in schools, research suggests that AfL is often subordinated beneath a focus on AoL (Tierney 2006). ITET providers', and schools’ and subject departments’ approaches to assessment reflect a balance between AoL and AfL. Tierney (2006) suggests ways in which this balance may be influenced in schools; mediating factors are likely to include school and department policies, themselves influenced by educational research and government policy, and professional development opportunities. The effect of such mediating factors will be filtered through teachers’ experience and values developed over their careers. Trainees are subject to these same influences, although their ideas about assessment may also be influenced by prior experiences and understandings on entering their ITET course (in the present study, the Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the University of Cambridge) (Jensen et al. 2001), which will affect what they learn from both Faculty seminars, and their participation in communities of practice during school placements. The approach of the Cambridge PGCE course may also mean they are more directly familiar with and receptive to research, and more critically analytical of policy than qualified teachers. In addition, their professional development is likely to be influenced strongly by not only their own values, but by the values of their school mentors and other teachers.Their practice and conceptions of assessment, working under the care of a nominated mentor, in a department of qualified teachers, and overseen by a senior member of school staff, may even be strongly directed by the advice and practice of those teachers (Butterfield et al. 1999). Such considerations informed our decision to investigate the developing ideas and practice of trainees in relation to assessment during this crucial formative period. James & Pedder (2006) found distinctions between what experienced teachers reported as ideal (their values and beliefs), and their practice in the classroom. Such findings indicate the balance between teachers’ values and beliefs, and those mediating factors identified above (Tierney 2006), is complex. Examining trainees’ developing values and practice, and comparing their conceptions to those of qualified teachers, should enable identification of foci for professional development (Borko et al. 1997; Cohen & Hill 2000). As such, our study addressed the following questions: (1) What dimensions underpin trainees’ practice and how do they relate to those dimensions identified as underpinning qualified teachers' practice? (2) What dimensions underpin trainees’ values and how do they relate to the dimensions underpinning practice? (3) How do trainee teachers cluster into groups according to their values and practice responses? (4) How do the values and practice of trainee teachers develop over their training year?

This study used a survey methodology. The survey instrument was drawn from James & Pedder (2006), and was composed of questionnaire items that sought to elicit how trainees valued different classroom assessment practices, and the extent to which their own teaching complied with such values. The sample comprised approximately 250 trainee teachers studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, an initial teacher training and education (ITET) course, at the University of Cambridge, UK. Survey responses were analysed using varimax-rotated principal components analyses and cluster analysis (using Ward's method).

We expect to report upon and examine the dimensions which underpin trainee teachers' values and practice. Initial findings indicate these to be similar to those underpinning the values and practice of qualified teachers, but with exceptions and distinctions which we will examine. The way in which trainee teachers cluster into groups based on the dimensions underpinning their values and practice appears to be associated with subject discipline. Examination of how trainees' conceptions of assessment change during their PGCE course is still ongoing. Implications for teacher education will be discussed.