English version: Becoming Teacher & Learning to Notice Quality (LTNQ)

The project started August 2021, involves eight teacher educators, three classes of student teachers, and is led by senior associate professor Stefan Ting Graf and associate professor Hanne Fie Rasmussen. The project is carried out at the Centre for Applied Research in Schools and in collaboration with researchers in the Nordic Centre of Excellence QUINT - Quality in Nordic Teaching.

The project is divided into two tracks with a common research interest in student teachers’ development of teaching quality. Firstly, we work with the student teachers’ noticing of, reasoning on and decision-making for quality in teaching as core teacher competences by the means of video recorded teaching: Learning To Notice Quality. Second, we explore how student teachers develop as professional teachers with a high sense of teaching quality at least over their four-year long teacher education: Becoming Teacher.

Learning to Notice Quality

In this part of the project, five didactic designs for learning to notice quality with classroom videos are developed, carried out and documented in three parallel subject didactical courses: Danish (L1), Mathematics and English (L2). Thus, the project combines theories from general didactic and subject didactic as well as criteria for quality in teaching.

In all designs, video clips of teaching in primary and lower secondary are used for observation and reasoning in a systematic way. The student teachers are asked firstly only to describe real teaching situations, afterwards explain and reason about what they observed, and finally engage in predicting possible consequence of decisions and acting. Central for observing and reasoning is the shift of focus between teachers’ doing and pupils’ learning opportunities.

The five didactic designs support progression for student teachers in noticing quality during the two first years of teacher education. Thus, this part of the project investigates the student teachers´ professional developing processes and understanding of quality of teaching throughout the teacher education program. The aim is to create a stronger starting point in educating skilled teachers who can support their pupils’ personal and academic development and experience of relevant and qualified teaching.

The learning to notice approach claims that observation is crucial for teaching and has been known internationally for the last twenty years, especially in mathematics. The Learning to Notice Quality projects using classroom videos in campus teaching in a systematical way is the first of its kind in Denmark. New is especially the coordinated and simultaneously introduction of the approach into three parallel subject didactical courses. Further, our focus on observing teaching quality sharpens the gaze on significant observations.

The overall research question is:

How can student teachers’ noticing of teaching quality be enhanced through course designs using classroom videos that are integrated in the first two years of the teacher education program in Denmark?

The overall research question is examined through the following partial studies:

• Danish student teachers’ development of noticing and reasoning in a longitudinal perspective.
• How does shaping support L1 teachers development of noticing competences?
• Adopting a stance of inquiry when using classroom videos in mathematics in teacher education.
• Students meaning making process in understanding practice through theory.
• First-year student teachers’ experiences, knowledge and values when noticing teaching praxis in a Learning to notice course.
• Can noticing competences support the development of L2 English student teachers.

Data are collected in three parallel classes with students who have either Danish, Mathematics, or English as their main subject during the first two years of their education (N=75). The empiric material consists of recordings of campus teaching and group conversations, collections of the students’ thinking writing, written and visual products, and interviews with 15 selected students.

Becoming Teacher

In this part of the project, 15 student teachers are followed throughout their teacher education. The study makes it possible to map out the students’ development of teacher competences over time from the perspective of teacher education and its theoretical as well as practical elements.

The aim is to be able to identify significant elements in teacher education concerning student teachers’ development of competences in planning, carrying out, evaluating, and developing qualified teaching. The project aims at understanding both the students’ experiences of the intention of the educational activities and their self-understanding as future teachers. The longitudinal perspective makes it possible to examine the students’ tracks throughout their education.

The overall research question is:

How do student teachers develop to become teachers in the meeting with the practical and theoretical elements of teacher education?

The empirical collection based on the selected students consists of two individual interviews per semester, a collection of assignments, tasks, exam products, and others. Besides, the empirical collection includes mapping out of the different educational offers the students from the three classes receive during their first two years of studying, e.g. teaching plans, short descriptions, and evaluation of the Learning to Notice Quality progress.