“Everything That’s Hard Got Harder”: Preservice Teachers’ Attempts at Rigorous and Responsive Instruction During Pedagogical Rehearsals in the COVID Pandemic

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam

Examining online disruption to practice-based teacher preparation at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the study analyzes how preservice science teachers viewed macroteaching and how their participation evolved during extended pedagogical rehearsals. Drawing on a situative perspective and multiple data forms, the analysis focuses on PSTs’ efforts to enact rigorous, evidence-based instruction and responsiveness to student thinking while building equitable classrooms. Video-recorded lessons show rigor and responsiveness declining over time after the shift online.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Background and Framing

Macroteaching and rigorous, responsive instruction

Study questions and COVID disruption

Forms of Explanatory Rigorous Talk

AERA Open January-December 2023, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 1–17 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584221139774 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2023. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero) “Everything That’s Hard Got Harder”: Preservice Teachers’Attempts at Rigorous and Responsive Instruction During Pedagogical Rehearsals in the COVID Pandemic David Stroupe Michigan State University Julie Christensen Michigan State University At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our teacher preparation program shifted to an online setting, disrupting a key feature of practice-based teacher preparation: preservice science teachers’(PSTs) approximation of rigorous and responsive instruction during extended pedagogical rehearsals, called macroteaching. Given this unplanned shock to their preparation, we examined how PSTs viewed macroteaching and their evolving participation in the teaching rehearsal. Using a situative perspective, we collected multiple forms of data. We found that although PSTs wanted to enact rigorous and responsive instruction, their participation was deeply affected by the sudden shift to an online setting. Our analysis of video-recorded lessons confirmed PSTs’observations that their instruction became less rigorous and responsive over time. We conclude with questions about teacher preparation during the pandemic. Keywords: pedagogical rehearsals, rigor and responsive teaching, teacher education, teaching practices The title of this paper comes from a preservice science teacher (PST) describing her experience as an instructor during an extended pedagogical rehearsal for our practice-based secondary science methods course. This PST summarized the challenge of learning to teach at the onset of the COVID- 19 pandemic, a shock event that caused our teacher preparation program to necessarily and abruptly end in-person courses to shift to an online setting in March 2020. Appearing halfway through our methods course, COVID immediately disrupted a key feature of our practice-based course: PSTs’ approximation of rigorous and responsive instruction during extended pedagogical rehearsals (Grossman et al., 2009) . In these rehearsals, called “macroteaching”(Stroupe & Gotwals, 2018), PSTs approximate providing students with opportunities to examine puzzling phenomena and construct evidence-based explanations (rigor) while noticing and attending to student thinking as they build an equitable classroom community (responsiveness) (Thompson et al., 2016) . At the start of the 2020 spring semester, PSTs were divided into four content groups: biology, earth science, physics, and chemistry. The biology and earth science groups each completed one round of in-person macroteaching to peers in the methods course. The physics group completed one in-person hour of instruction in March 2020 before COVID-19 forced courses online. As a class, PSTs decided to continue macroteaching with the remining physics unit and the entire chemistry unit through the Zoom™ video teleconferencing platform. Given this unplanned interruption to practice-based teacher education, we became curious about how PSTs viewed macroteaching and their attempts at rigorous and responsive instruction. We asked: • How did PSTs frame the purpose of macroteaching when COVID disrupted the practice-based methods course? • How were PSTs’ participation in macroteaching, and their attempts at rigorous and responsive instruction, shaped by the sudden disruption of the practice-based methods course? Background and Framing As Kang (2022) argues, the field of teacher education struggles to design opportunities for in-service teachers to learn about rigorous and responsive instruction. We extend this concern to teacher preparation and argue that PSTs need Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under

FAQs

What aspect of teacher preparation did the COVID pandemic disrupt in this study?

The program’s practice-based feature—preservice science teachers’ approximation of rigorous and responsive instruction during extended pedagogical rehearsals (macroteaching)—was disrupted by the forced move online.

How did the researchers study preservice teachers’ views and participation?

Using a situative perspective, they collected multiple forms of data, including video-recorded lessons of the teaching rehearsals.

What did the analysis of video-recorded lessons show over time?

Although PSTs wanted to enact rigorous and responsive instruction, their participation was strongly affected by the sudden online shift, and their instruction became less rigorous and responsive over time.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam