Table 4 Coding for Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions about Discussion Performance

Student Participation (Dimension 1)

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to their responsiveness to students, their focus on making sure that the discussion is grounded in students’ ideas, and/or that all students are engaged in some meaningful component of the discussion.

Discussion Structure (Dimension 2)

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to the degree to which the teacher is able to shape a coherent discussion and focuses in particular on building and connecting ideas toward a learning goal.

Student Interactions (Dimension 3)

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to the ways they attempted to facilitate the discussion so that students are responsible for explaining key ideas.

Student Understanding (Dimension 4)

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to the extent to which teacher and students are involved in the evaluation of ideas that are put forth during the discussion and/or focusing on helping students to build their conceptual understanding.

Argumentation (Dimension 5)

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to the degree to which students engage in argumentation.

Preservice Teacher Characteristics

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to the PST’s personal characteristics.

Lack of Preparation

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to a lack of preparation.

Other

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to a reason that is not one of the previous codes.

Technology Issues

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to issues with technology and/or unfamiliarity with technology.

Context

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to the context of the simulation task being dissimilar from what would normally be found in a real classroom.

Students

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to the differences in how the students respond and/or behave.

Inexperience in Classrooms

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to the PST’s lack of familiarity with teaching in general.

Discussion Time

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to experiencing issues with the allotted discussion time.

Vague/Not Related

Describes not performing as well as they could have due to a reason that is too vague to categorize.

Did Not Respond

This code was applied when the preservice teacher did not provide a written response to this survey question.

Not Prompted to Respond

This code was applied for the preservice teachers who indicated that they thought they did perform as well as they could have in the simulated classroom, as this initial response meant they did not need to explain why they failed to perform as well as they could have in the simulated classroom.