ERIC Number: EJ1105854
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Jun
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0157-244X
EISSN: N/A
Eliciting, Identifying, Interpreting, and Responding to Students' Ideas: Teacher Candidates' Growth in Formative Assessment Practices
Gotwals, Amelia Wenk; Birmingham, Daniel
Research in Science Education, v46 n3 p365-388 Jun 2016
With the goal of helping teacher candidates become well-started beginners, it is important that methods courses in teacher education programs focus on high-leverage practices. Using responsive teaching practices, specifically eliciting, identifying, interpreting, and responding to students' science ideas (i.e., formative assessment), can be used to support all students in learning science successfully. This study follows seven secondary science teacher candidates in a yearlong practice-based methods course. Course assignments (i.e., plans for and reflections on teaching) as well as teaching videos were analyzed using a recursive qualitative approach. In this paper, we present themes and patterns in teacher candidates' abilities to elicit, identify, interpret, and respond to students' ideas. Specifically, we found that those teacher candidates who grew in the ways in which they elicited students' ideas from fall to spring were also those who were able to adopt a more balanced reflection approach (considering both teacher and student moves). However, we found that even the teacher candidates who grew in these practices did not move toward seeing students' ideas as nuanced; rather, they saw students' ideas in a dichotomous fashion: right or wrong. We discuss implications for teacher preparation, specifically for how to promote productive reflection and tools for better understanding students' ideas.
Descriptors: Preservice Teachers, Formative Evaluation, Methods Courses, Teacher Education Programs, Teaching Methods, Secondary School Science, Video Technology, Teacher Education, Secondary School Teachers, Secondary School Students, Qualitative Research
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A