Using multimedia case studies to advance pre-service teacher knowing

This paper uses Baxter Magolda's (1992) framework on ways of knowing to examine the effects of using multimedia case studies with beginning pre-service teachers (PSTs). Baxter Magolda referred to these ways of thinking as absolute, transitional, independent, and contextual. The written responses to two sets of tasks were analysed for 36 PSTs enrolled in their first education course at a large private university. The first task had the PSTs watch parts of a multimedia case and then discuss what they saw with peers and a facilitator. The second task had the subjects interact and make sense of a different multimedia case individually. Using Baxter Magolda's framework, each PST's responses to the events were coded. Results indicate that working together PSTs operated within contextual ways of knowing more often than they did when working alone. Implications for teacher educators are discussed.