UC Santa Cruz

The ability to formatively assess for understanding in the midst of interacting with students is crucial for effective teaching, particularly so for Multilingual Learners (MLs) (Alvarez et al., 2014; Solano-Flores & Solterno-González, 2011). However, teacher educators and researchers lack an understanding of how student teachers learn (or fail to learn) this critical pedagogical process. This qualitative study examines how pre-service teachers (PSTs) learn about and enact in-the-moment formative assessment (FA) processes that promote student understanding in elementary classrooms with high populations of MLs. Framed by sociocultural theories of learning (Vygotsky, 1978), the PST is the focal learner of the study, learning to teach in the context of ongoing participation in the activities of a teacher education program with a variety of teacher educators. The central data are Video Stimulated Recall (VSR) interviews in which five multiple subject PSTs discuss how FA strategies are enacted - or not - in a video submitted for both a course assignment and as a component of their Teacher Performance Assessment portfolio. Supplemental data includes the total PST cohort’s (n=17) lesson plans, videos, and reflection documents relating to the assignment. Four PSTs from the cohort completed two repeated surveys on their definitions of and perceived use of dialogic strategies (e.g., questioning) as FA during the fall and winter placements. I analyzed interview and artifact data via inductive coding methods to develop descriptions of changes in PSTs’ understanding of FA and identify variations of learning patterns across the cases. The supplemental data was used to triangulate the understandings described by PSTs participating in the VSRs. The findings indicate that PSTs can deepen their understanding of FA as an integrated process, provided strategic structures and TE guidance within the VSR interaction. The analysis adds to the literature by revealing patterns and distinguishing features of the trajectories of PSTs’ thinking and enactment of FA questioning practices and processes (Gibbons, 2015; Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Ralph, 1999; Ruiz-Primo et al., 2014) with MLs (Alvarez et al., 2014; Bunch et al., 2015), ultimately providing elementary teacher educators with valuable information on the kinds of structures and scaffolds that might be useful in supporting PST’s continued development and understanding of in-the-moment FA practices.