Developing Understanding of Research-based Pedagogy with Preservice Teachers: An Instrumental Case Study

Preservice teachers have difficulty incorporating research-based instructional strategies and often revert to those observed during their own school years. This study describes how preservice teachers used a framework of planning, implementation, feedback, and reflection to try research-based teaching practices from their methods courses and examine their notions of effective pedagogy. This instrumental case study of 50 preservice teachers in a two-day-per-week field experience includes intensive interviews of six selected students. Findings include kinds of support reported as helpful in implementing new instructional strategies, difficulties experienced in the implementation of strategies, and new understandings of effective teaching during use of the framework. Participants used the framework to identify and examine preconceived notions of effective pedagogy, but also revealed some unplanned learnings.