Making Learning Visible: Cases of Teacher Candidates Learning to Respond to Errors Through Multiple Approximations of Practice

Approximations of practice in teacher education provide learning opportunities for teacher candidates (TCs) in a space that is less authentic than classroom teaching, yet still maintains the complexity and interactive nature of core teaching practices. There exists a need for more research focused on documenting TCs’ learning through such pedagogies. In this paper, we highlight two cases of secondary mathematics TC learning around the practice of responding to errors in whole-class discussion. We consider multiple components of resources TCs brought to the work of teaching that were supported by and made visible through two types of approximations—coached rehearsals and scripting tasks—at multiple moments in time over a semester-long methods course. This work contributes to the research on practice-based pedagogies in teacher education by offering detailed images that illustrate the nature of two TCs’ learning over time and by offering approaches for understanding TCs’ practice and development through multiple data sources.