The goal of Project VTC is to introduce and explore the use of pedagogical "cases" in teacher education in mathematics and science. These cases are realistic scenarios which raise contextualized issues of theoretical and practical concern for discussion and analysis. Pedagogical cases are beginning to be used in teacher education to teach such generic aspects as problem solving and classroom management, but this approach has rarely been tried in the subject matter areas, including mathematics and science. Project VTC will produce approximately one hour of videotape representing several pedagogically interesting cases in secondary-level quantitative science. These cases will integrate issues of school children's mathematical understanding and expression with their developing sense of fundamental scientific concepts. Project VTC will also produce a short manual to accompany the videotaped cases. This manual will provide a brief introduction to the use of pedagogical cases in general, as well as suggestions for using the cases presented on the tape. The Project will disseminate these materials to mathematics and science educators and to researchers in the use of case studies in teacher education.
