Using Online Collaboration to Improve Prospective Teachers' Analysis of Teaching

Abstract

For prospective teachers (PTs) to engage in lifelong systematic learning, they must be prepared to analyze teaching on the basis of its effects on student learning. We present the results of an intervention study aimed at developing PTs' ability to analyze a classroom video sample. The intervention used an online discussion board activity structured along three research-based dimensions, which allowed PTs to build their analysis skills outside of class time. Evidence for the effectiveness of this intervention includes findings that PTs engaged deeply with their peers' ideas, with many changing their mind about the lesson's success, and that PTs' final reflections showed increased attention to the mathematics of the learning goal. However, after the intervention, many PTs continued to take nonmathematical evidence as indicators of student learning. Implications illuminate key design features of interventions as well as the affordances and challenges of using online interactions for improving PTs' lesson analysis skills.