Beginning Science Teachers’ Use of Tools to Learn Ambitious Instruction

Abstract

A lack of coherence about norms for instruction between preparation contexts often results in tensions for beginners about learning to teach. I wondered if planning tools created in a university setting, designed to support ambitious instruction, could act as boundary objects to help novices bring ambitious teaching into classrooms. As such, I examined how three participants used the tools to plan for ambitious instruction in ways that changed their own understanding of subject matter and pedagogy. Their mentor teachers, however, prompted the novices to use the tools and teach in ways that were inconsistent with the participants’ planning. I found that the tools prompted the novices to try out pieces of ambitious instruction, yet the tools alone do not encourage coherence or communication between beginning and mentor teachers.