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In this study, we document pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) opportunities to learn about planning for equitable and ambitious instruction during clinical placements. We also test whether these opportunities vary by the level of participants’ perceived congruence between the vision of science teaching supported in their university coursework and the instructional practices and learning culture of their host classrooms. We analyzed interview and survey responses of 65 science PSTs from three preparation programs which required their novices to learn about planning and teaching that was consistent with research-based reforms. In placements where novices could participate in planning practices that were perceived as congruent with these reform-based visions, they were more likely than peers in low-congruence classrooms to engage in educative co-planning with a mentor, to take up responsibilities for planning lessons earlier in the school year and for longer periods of time, and to receive useful feedback from mentors.
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Learning to teach science during the clinical experience: Agency, opportunity, and struggle
Agency has been used as a lens to focus on how educators learn through pedagogical risk-taking, advocacy for curricular reform, and resisting policies that are not focused on the needs of students. We explored the role of agency as 65 preservice science teachers created learning opportunities for themselves during their clinical placements. Specifically, we investigated whether the types of agentive episodes varied by the level of congruence novices perceived between the vision of science teaching supported in their university coursework and the prevailing practices and culture of their host classrooms. Interview and survey data of participants from three preparation programs indicate that those in highly congruent placements experienced earlier and more mentor-scaffolded opportunities to take on active roles in teaching, and exercised agency to extend research-informed practices or tools they observed their mentors using. This resulted in participants seeing the richness of students' thinking and how capable they were of challenging work, given strategic supports. Those in low congruence placements had fewer chances to play active roles in teaching, were more likely to draw upon agency to make minor adjustments as they emulated their mentors' instructionally conservative lessons, and expressed concern they were “getting better” at aspects of teaching they viewed as inequitable or less responsive to students. Regardless of congruence, however, even simple acts of agency such as asking mentors to explain their instructional decisions were remarkably rare.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1852960
- PAR ID:
- 10281831
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Science Education
- ISSN:
- 0036-8326
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21667
