To engage in lifelong
systematic learning, prospective teachers (PTs) must be prepared to analyze
teaching on the basis of its effects on student learning. The authors present
results of an intervention study aimed at developing PTs’ ability to analyze a
classroom video sample. The intervention used an online discussion board
activity structured along three research-based dimensions, which allowed PTs to
build their analysis skills outside of class time. Evidence for this
intervention’s effectiveness includes findings that PTs engaged deeply with their
peers’ ideas, many changing their mind about the lesson’s success, and that
PTs’ final reflections showed increased attention to the mathematics of the
learning goal. However, after the intervention, many PTs continued to take
nonmathematical evidence as indicators of student learning. Implications
illuminate key design features of interventions as well as the affordances and
challenges of using online interactions for improving PTs’ lesson analysis
skills.