Teacher education programs are the places for prospective teachers to learn how to teach and get ready for the profession. During this period, it is necessary for them to observe, interpret, and analyze teaching. While prospective teachers receive theoretical knowledge on teaching during their teacher education, they do not have enough opportunities for practice (Borko, Liston, & Whitcomb, 2006). Prospective teachers apply what they learn during microteaching experiences and internship opportunities, but these experiences may not be sufficient alone. At this point, the use of case-based pedagogy comes to the fore.

Case-based pedagogy is an effective method to prepare teachers for teaching (Mayo, 2004). It provides teachers with opportunity to connect their theoretical and practical knowledge (Butler, Lee, & Tippins, 2006), to analyze and reflect on student thinking (Masingila & Doerr, 2002), and to reason about teaching (Harrington, 1999). It is a tool for reflection and understanding teaching (Merseth, 1996).

The aim of this study was to examine prospective teachers’ reflections on video cases depicting their own teaching experiences. More specifically, it was aimed to create a professional development environment to let prospective teachers reflect on their own videos and their peers’ videos to improve their professional vision. The research question was “What prospective teachers experienced while they reflected on their own teaching through the use of video cases in teacher education?”

To answer this research question, Schon’s (1987) reflection theory was employed as a theoretical framework. The term “reflective thinking” (Schon, 1987) is one of the ways that employed in teacher preparation programs to educate teachers. Reflection is an important component of teacher education (Schon, 1987; Schulman, 1987) where it was aimed to help teachers reason about their teaching and reflect on how to teach to enhance student learning (Lee, 2005). Bryan and Recesso (2006) state that “Prospective teachers who are able to reflect—that is, frame issues of teaching and learning, confront their beliefs about these issues, respond to tensions in their thinking, and experiment with alternative solutions to issues of teaching and learning—develop a deeper understanding of their practice” (p.31).

Several studies in the literature made use of video cases to promote reflection (Star & Strickland, 2008; van Es & Sherin, 2002). Calandra, Brantley-Dias, Lee, and Fox (2009) state that “we believe that video—specifically digital video editing—is particularly well suited for providing authentic, meaningful, reflective experiences for novice teachers” (p.74). Santagata and Angelici (2010) also point that observing teaching through video helps prospective teachers become more reflective and analyze teaching practice more effectively. Analyzing videos of teaching is also helpful in the sense that it provides prospective teachers opportunities with learning effective classroom practices that they mostly do not have a chance to observe during fieldwork experiences (Santagata & Angelici, 2010). In this study, through the use of video cases, it was aimed to investigate prospective teachers’ reflective thinking. 

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