Candidate: Shari Stockero

Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy

Department: Mathematics

Title: The Effect of Using Video Cases of Mathematics on Preservice Teachers’ Development of a Reflective Stance Towards Teaching

Committee: Dr. Laura Van Zoest , Chair
Dr. Theresa Grant
Dr. Jon Davis
Dr. Miriam Sherin

Date: Thursday, June 29, 2006 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
6225 Everett Tower

Abstract: This study investigates the effects of using a coherent video-case curriculum in a university methods course. In particular, three issues are addressed: (1) how the use of a video-case curriculum affects the reflective stance of preservice teachers; (2) the extent to which a reflective stance developed while reflecting on other teachers’ practice transfers to reflecting on one’s own practice; and (3) how preservice teachers’ reflective stance that is developed via sustained and focused reflection using a video-case curriculum compares to the reflective stance of peers who engaged in less sustained and focused reflection. Although video cases are increasingly being used in teacher education as a means of situating learning and developing habits of reflection, there has been little evidence of the outcomes of such use.

Data from two semesters of a middle school mathematics methods course—before and after a video-case curriculum was introduced into the course—were analyzed to gain insight into the issues above. Data sources included video tapes of the methods course sessions and preservice teachers’ written work. Both qualitative and quantitative analytical methods were used, including comparative analyses and chi-square contingency table analyses.

The preservice teachers who engaged with a coherent video-case curriculum showed increases in their level of reflection, their tendency to ground their analyses in evidence, and their focus on student thinking. In particular, they began to analyze teaching in terms of how it affects student thinking, to consider multiple interpretations of student thinking, and to develop a more tentative stance of inquiry. More significantly, the reflective stance developed via the video curriculum transferred to the preservice teachers’ self-reflection in a course field experience. There were also important differences in the reflective stances of the preservice teachers who reflected via video as compared with their peers—an overall greater focus on students, an increased focus on individual student thinking as compared to making generalizations about student thinking, and a greater tendency to justify analyses with evidence. The results of this study speak to the power of using a video-case curriculum as a means of developing a reflective stance in preservice teachers.

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