Learning to Teach within Practice-Based Methods Courses

Supporting prospective teachers to enact high quality instruction requires transforming their methods preparation. This study follows three teachers through a practice-based elementary methods course. Weekly class sessions took place in an elementary school. The setting afforded opportunities for prospective teachers to engage in cycles of investigation and enactment. The course was focused on learning teaching practices through planning, rehearsing, enacting and reflecting on routine instructional activities that travel back and forth between field-based methods course and field placements. All three teachers grew in their capacity to lead goal-directed lessons by eliciting and responding to students' thinking. Our analysis connects the teachers' learning to the intentional design of the methods course.