In 2016, following the recommendations of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG, 2014), the Australian Commonwealth Government requested that the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) assist initial teacher education providers with developing and introducing teaching performance assessment tools with the objective of ensuring:

• a more robust and consistent assessment of students who have undergone initial teacher education; and
• greater quality assurance of initial teacher education.

Standard 1.2 of the National Program Standards contains the details of what a Teaching Performance Assessment must address. AITSL also provides detailed guidance and support about Teaching Performance Assessments (TPAs) and how institutions develop them.

The AfGT is designed to capture the sophisticated intellectual work of teaching and enable pre-service teachers to demonstrate the various ways in which they can meet the  Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate level). The AfGT is the result of collegial and collaborative actions of Consortium members, who have worked — and who continue to work — together on every step in developing, implementing and evaluating the instrument.

The AfGT is a culminating assessment of teacher performance and is both a research project and a mandated coursework requirement that pre-service teachers must pass prior to graduation. The AfGT employs multiple measures to evaluate a pre-service teacher’s teaching and professional decision making. In following sound design and measurement principles, the AfGT utilises multiple forms of data and evidence, and is subject to continuous improvement processes. The AfGT has been designed, trialled and refined, to generate an assessment instrument that represents a robust, comprehensive and authentic series of tasks that reflect teaching.

The Consortium represents the diversity of Initial Teacher Education programs amongst Australian higher education providers in terms of geography, student population, program types (undergraduate, postgraduate), course offerings and delivery modes. Since its development in 2017, the AfGT Consortium has demonstrated a robust and adaptable approach to advancing the assessment of graduate teaching capabilities, ensuring its relevance and effectiveness in the changing landscape of teacher education.

The Consortium believes that the value and impact of the AfGT is built and sustained through a commitment to inclusive and collegiate practices and this has been achieved by people sharing their diverse experiences and expertise on committees, as key contacts and/or as assessors. AfGT researchers have contributed to national and international conferences and have published in a range of academic publications. The Consortium's work has been marked by a commitment to evidence-informed practices, collaborative innovation, and a proactive stance on policy and standards in initial teacher education, contributing significantly to the field both nationally and internationally.

The benefits of being in a consortium

We are a consortium of over 10 universities both large and small. Our collaboration enables all participating institutions to reduce our workloads and learn from each other. We have developed a reliable moderation process which has shown itself to be mature and valid in meeting accreditation requirements. With news of changes coming to AITSL, the AfGT is prepared and able to respond quickly to the updated needs of initial tertiary education providers. The consortium also provides many opportunities for professional development among our participating staff, including secondment positions of leadership and research collaborations.

Thinking about becoming a member

            Contact: afgt.help@sydney.edu.au

Publications

Tognolini, J., & Clinton, J. (2025). Building a measurement scale for teacher quality to assess the predictive validity of teaching performance assessments. In White, R. and Simpson, A (eds.) What’s the evidence? An investigation into teacher quality. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003542575-7

Keamy, R., Clinton, J., Lan, K. & Smith, L. (2024). Assessment for graduate teaching summary report: Executive summary prepared for the AfGT consortium collaborators and licensees. AfGT Consortium. Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne. https:/doi.org/10.26188/28943468

Brownlee, P., McGraw, A., Talbot, D., & Buchanan, J. (2023). Intellectual freedom and teaching performance assessment in Australia. The Australian Educational Researcher. 51: 781-797. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-023-00623-x

Kriewaldt, J., Ziebell, N., Tan, K., & Crane, N. (2023). Insights into an Australian practice-oriented teaching performance assessment for prospective teachers: Benefits and complexities. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. 52(1): 101–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2023.2231861

Keamy, R. K., & Selkrig, M. A. (2022). Interrupting practice traditions: Using readers’ theatre to show the impact of a nationally mandated assessment task on initial teacher educators’ work. Teaching Education. 33(4): 419-433. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2021.1951198   

Kriewaldt, J., Walker, R., Morey, V. & Morrison, C. (2021). Activating and reinforcing graduates’ capabilities: Early lessons learned from a Teaching Performance Assessment. Australian Education Researcher. 48(1): 1-16.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-020-00418-4  

McGraw, A., Keamy, R. K., Kriewaldt, J., Brandenburg, R., Walker, R., & Crane, N. (2021). Collaboratively designing a national, mandated teaching performance assessment in a multi-university consortium: Leadership, dispositions and tensions. Australian Journal of Teacher Education. 46(5): 40-53. http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2021v46n5.3

Stacey, M., Talbot, D., Buchanan, J., & Mayer, D. (2019). The development of an Australian teacher performance assessment: Lessons from the international literature. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. 48(5): 508-519. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2019.1669137

Presentations 

Clinton, J., Mikkilä-Erdman, M.,  Keamy, R., Selkrig, M., Tan, K., Smith, L, Aston, R. & Ilieva, V. (2023). Understanding the role of teacher dispositions in preparing new and prospective teachers for a complex and diverse future. European Conference for Educational Research, Glasgow.

Clinton, J., Keamy, R., Cotton, W., Maher, D., White, M., Morey, V. & Tan, K. (2022). Moderation within and across institutions in the AfGT Consortium: The why, the how and the what next? Australian Association for Research in Education Conference Symposium, Adelaide.

Clinton, J., Keamy, R., Cotton, W., Maher, D., Kriewaldt, J., Tan, K., Zieball, N. & Crane, N. (2022). The AfGT: Responding to the shifting context of Australian initial teacher education…looking out, looking in, looking beyond! Australian Teacher Education Association Conference Symposium.

Kriewaldt, J., Crane, N., McGraw, A., 2 , Keamy, R., 1 , Brandenburg, R. & Walker, R., (2021). Partnering to build a teaching performance assessment: Perspectives on designing a national, mandated assessment instrument in a cross-university collaboration. European Educational Research Association Conference, Geneva.

Clinton, J., Keamy, R., Kriewaldt, J., Morey, V., Buchanan, J., Talbot, D., Crane, N., Walker, R., Selrig, M. & Brandenburg, R. (2021). The Tudge Review: How the AfGT teaching performance assessment represents professionalism during rapid policy churn and frequent review of Initial Teacher Education. Australian Association for Research in Education Conference Symposium.

Clinton, J., Keamy, R., Tan, K., Morey, V., Cotton, W. & Hills, E. (2021). Determining the Sustainability of Teaching Performance Assessments. Paper presentation at the Australian Association for Research in Education Conference.

Keamy, R. & Selkrig, M (2019). Game-changing: The Assessment for Graduate Teaching and its impact on initial teacher education in Australia. European Educational Research Association Conference, Hamburg.

Clinton, J., Mikkilä-Erdman, M., Ell, F., Fawson, P. & Throndsen, J. (2019). Graduate teaching performance a global perspective: An example from Australia. Australian Association for Research in Education Conference Symposium.

Simpson, A., Ell, F., Harbon, L., Carter, D., Buchanan, J., Yoo, J., Galstaun, V., Cotton, W., Brownlee, P., Morey, V., Walker, R., Morrison, C., Keamy, R. & Selkrig, M. (2019). Mobilising, implementing and embedding TPAs: Experiences in the life course of the AfGT. Australian Association for Research in Education Conference Symposium.

Keamy, R., Walker, R., Morey, V., Loxton, J., Galstaun, V., Sallis, R., Brandenberg, R., Crane, N. & Anderson, M. (2019). Teaching performance assessments: Collaboration, partnerships and ethical practice in designing and implementing the AfGT. Australian Teacher Education Association Conference Symposium.

Keamy, R. (2018). The Assessment for Graduate Teaching. Australian Council of Deans Education Conference Paper. 

Clinton, J., Gore, J., Brownlee, P., Talbot, D., McGraw, A., Buchanan, J., Keamy, R., Crane, N., Ziebell, N., Galstaun, V., Simpson, A., Walker, R., Angelico, T., Selkrig, M. (2018). Teaching Performance Assessments: From foundational work to engaging with emerging complexities. Australian Association for Research in Education Conference Symposium.

Clinton, J., Tognolini, J., Dawson, G., Tan, K., Adie, L, Haynes, M., Wyatt-Smith, C. & Colbert, P. (2018). Next steps in teacher education: Issues of quality, moderation and standards. Australian Association for Research in Education Conference Symposium.

Mclean Davies, M., Mayer, D., Keamy, R., Wildy, H., Walker, R., Talbot, D., Stacey, M., Brownlee, P., Cotton, W., Buchanan, J., Bobis, J., Simpson, A., Kriewaldt, J., Anderson, M., Blackley, S., Buckworth, J., & McGraw, A.  (2017). Impacting on debates about teacher education: the development and trial of the national Assessment for Graduate Teaching. Australian Association for Research in Education Conference Symposium.

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June 2025