ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an innovation using video as a tool to prepare teachers and ground teacher education in the practical work of teachers. The innovation was twofold: During coursework, we used video representations of teaching to illustrate aspects of specific practices of instructional scaffolding in language arts. The student teachers received support in training their ability to notice and reason around specific and relevant events in the videos, using specific tools to guide their observations and conversations. During practicum the student teachers videotaped their own teaching while trying to enact the same practices of instructional scaffolding. The chapter reports on the innovation set at the coursework site of teacher education and contributes with knowledge about how the use of videos can provide an opportunity to study practice during coursework and prepare student teachers for their practicum in schools. Simultaneously, the chapter is interested in the student teachers’ attention to contextual factors of these specific teaching practices. The innovation thus exemplifies one way of grounding teacher preparation more closely to practice, while simultaneously balancing attention to principal knowledge about teaching and learning and the purpose of teaching.
