Videocases for Science Teaching Analysis (ViSTA)

  • Five online videocase modules for teachers: Electricity, Plants, Force & Motion, Water Cycle, and Inquiry
  • Videocases include videos of teaching, teacher interviews, and student interviews along with written materials such as student work and tests, and lesson plans
  • Modules scaffold teachers’ learning from analysis of practice, using two lenses: the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content Storyline Lens
  • Modules are used online and face-to-face in courses on methods of teaching science
  • Register for 14-Day Trial (Instructor)  |  Course Registration (Instructor)
  • Student Registration

BSCS ViSTA Modules are online videocase-based modules designed to support teacher learning about science content, pedagogical content knowledge, and the skills necessary to learn how to learn from analysis of grades K–8 science teaching. Each of the five modules focuses on a particular set of science ideas (Electricity, Plants, Force & Motion, Water Cycle, and Inquiry) and features two or more teachers teaching the same content to grades K–8 students. Each teacher’s videocase includes videos of science teaching, videos of teacher and student interviews, samples of student work, student pretests-posttests, lesson plans, and supplementary materials used in the lessons.

The modules scaffold teachers’ analysis of the videocases through a series of carefully sequenced tasks that challenge preservice teachers to deepen their content understanding, and to analyze the teaching through two lenses they do not typically use in looking at teaching: the Student Thinking Lens and the Science Content Storyline Lens.

The modules typically account for 15 hours of class time and 15 hours of online homework time within the methods course. A research study of the modules compared teachers’ learning in methods courses where a ViSTA module was used with courses at the same universities where no ViSTA module was used (30 universities were involved in the study). The results showed that, compared with control teachers, preservice teachers using a ViSTA module showed greater pre/post course improvement in their science content knowledge and in their ability to analyze science teaching in terms of student thinking and the science content storyline.

Methods instructors who are interested in using a module in a course can preview a module for 14 days or register a course to use the module. The cost for use of one module for one semester is $15 per student and registrations will expire 30 days after the semester ends.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL-0957996. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.