ABSTRACT

This study investigated how practice-based science methods courses, at three different institutions, provided opportunities for preservice teachers (PSTs) to develop new ways of enacting and noticing ambitious teaching through analyzing rehearsal lessons. We examined 194 written rehearsal reflections for similarities and differences in the types of evidence the PSTs attended to, how they reasoned about what they noticed, and their revision ideas for improving their instruction. The findings suggest the PSTs at the three institutions (a) attended to aspects of their teacher practice and student actions as evidence to decide how to adapt their teaching; (b) used improvement to learning as a key reason to modify the instruction; and (c) focused on ways to revise how they scaffolded science practices for students and supported student sensemaking of core ideas. These findings offer insights into the unique affordances of rehearsal-based reflections in providing opportunities for PSTs to notice and analyze critical features of science teaching.