Silly or Substantive?: How Video Club Can Help Science Teacher Candidates See Strengths in Students’ Contributions

Abstract

Teacher learning occurs at the intersection of practice, critical discourse, and reflection. Yet, the fast-paced nature of teaching makes stepping back to see students’ ideas as resources difficult for teacher candidates. Video club (Barnhart & van Es, 2020) affords a collaborative space for teacher candidates to slow down so that they can uncover and challenge underlying assumptions about students and their contributions. This study explores video club as a tool for helping teacher candidates see strengths in students’ contributions. We analyze data from science methods courses for teacher candidates, finding that video club can help them to see value in students’ contributions that they initially perceived as “silly.”