Pre-service teacher education is consist of a four year long undergraduate education program in Turkey and last year of the four year long program is dedicated to student teaching practices (YOK, 2006). Similar structure is used globally including US as well (Star and Strickland, 2008). Student teaching plays an integral role in preparing new teachers for workforce. During student teaching, pre-service teachers experience school environment, student- teacher interactions and student-student interactions as well as teacher-teacher interactions and get a chance to practice what they have learned in methodology courses during the first three years of their education.

The study proposed here focuses on the pre-service teachers studying to become science and technology teachers. During the first three years of the science teacher education program, students are instructed on the education theories and teaching methods but lack the real classroom experiences until very last year. Therefore’ student teaching practices are vital for their development. The course, subject to this study is an elective microteaching course. This course aims to prepare pre-service teachers for student teaching experience. Literature suggests use of different approaches as a part of instruction to support pre-service teachers’ development such as microteaching or video cases (Sherin & Han, 2004). The microteaching course integrates video use as a part of instruction. The reason for using videos as an instructional tool is due to the versatile nature that they can focus on particular aspects of teaching or allow teachers to evaluate their own teaching (Beck, King, & Marshall, 2002; Brunvand & Fishman, 2007; Madsen & Cassidy, 2005, Sherin & van Es, 2005).

 The microteaching course consists of two parts. During the first part enrolled students review videos or video fragments recorded in actual classroom settings and discussions are carried out on the teaching practices that was viewed. The purpose of this part is to help pre-service teachers develop and awareness of classroom dynamics and pre-service teachers` observation skills as well as their ability to notice what is happening in the classroom environment. This ability is necessary for the second part of the course as well as for the student teaching experience. As for the second part of the course students are required to develop a lesson plan and then teach it to their peers. Upon completion of the teaching task, all students evaluate the teaching method, and then classroom discussions are held. Student, who teaches the lesson, is also asked to review the video recording of her own teaching and write another evaluative report on it.

Beck, R. J., King, A. & Marshall, S. K. (2002). Effects of videocase construction on preservice teachers’ observations of teaching. The Journal of Experimental Education, 70(4), 345-361. Brunvand, S. & Fishman, B. (2007). Investigating the impact of the availability of scaffolds on preservice teacher noticing and learning from video. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 35(2), 151-174. Madsen, K. & Cassidy, J. W. (2005). The effect of focus of attention and teaching experience on perceptions of teaching effectiveness and student learning. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53(3), 222-233. Sherin, M. G. & Han, S. Y. (2004). Teacher learning in the context of a video club. Teacher and Teacher Education, 20, 163-183. Sherin, M. G. & van Es, E. A. (2005). Using video to support teachers’ ability to notice classroom interactions. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 13(3), 475-491. Star, J. R. & Strickland, S. K.. (2008). Learning to observe:using video to improve preservice mathematics teachers’ ability to notice. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 11, 107-125. YOK (2006). Aday öğretmen klavuzu [Prospective teachers guide]. Retrieved June 2009, from http://www.yok.gov.tr/content/view/498/lang,tr/.