STEM Teaching Tool #50: How can preservice teachers orient to students’ ideas and sensemaking practices?

STEM Teaching Tool #50
STEM Teaching Tool #50

By Victoria Schilling, TJ McKenna, Todd Campbell and UConn Teacher Mentoring Collaborative

When preservice teachers receive feedback as part of their experiences in teacher education programs (for example, from clinical supervisors or mentoring teachers) the focus of this feedback is often on their actions as new teachers or their enactments of instructional practices, such as their early attempts to lead whole class discussions. However, focusing on students’ ideas and sense-making practices is at the core of three-dimensional learning approach in the NRC Framework vision. This tool suggests strategies for orienting preservice teachers to students’ ideas as well as the ways in which students work ‘on’ and ‘with’ those ideas.

http://stemteachingtools.org/brief/50