Education; Videotape Recordings

Preservice teacher preparation programs seek to provide experiences that support this process primarily through clinical and field components. More professional courses include field-based experiences. In addition, interest in and use of cases has been introduced as part of preservice programs to help prospective teachers focus on the dilemmas of teaching throughout their preparation. In this study, variations of case methodology making use of a variety of videotapes were integrated into a methods course for teaching elementary school mathematics. Based on the analysis of the data from five teacher candidates being interviewed twice and a review of selected documents of eight teacher candidates ' written work, it indicates that by the end of the course, teacher candidates expressed a desire to be accepting of a variety of student responses and to be open to more than one "right " way of solving problems. Teacher candidates also stressed the importance of using different strategies and probes to "get at" student thinking both in mathematics and other subject areas they will be teaching. Teacher candidates cited the videotaped cases as worthwhile. (Contains 23 references.) (ASK) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document