Using Guided Experiences with Video to Help Teachers Interpret Children’s Thinking with Appropriate Intellectual Modesty

Many things guide good teaching: a robust understanding of content, a mastery of pedagogical techniques, an understanding of how children think and learn. Schools of education attempt to prepare teachers in each of these areas. Nevertheless, learning how to teach effectively often ends up happening on the job, when the teacher is dealing with real children in a complex classroom setting. In this new context, some of the ideas and skills teachers learn during their years of preparation may transfer well, such as how to design a lesson or how to teach a particular topic, but others are more elusive. This paper addresses one particularly challenging need: how to help teachers better understand what children know and can do, and to motivate them to learn more about their children as part of an ongoing process of formative assessment to guide teaching.