This study investigated how implementing inquiry-based learning (IBL) can be an effective tool for an instructor to conduct rich formative assessment. Many researchers have documented that IBL promotes active learning from students’ learning perspective. However, little research examines how IBL affects instructors’ teaching practice from teaching perspective. Based on the data collected from a Calculus II class, the author discussed how the structure of IBL class produced rigorous on-going formative assessment during classroom teaching from the three aspects: helping the instructor “see” student thinking; helping the instructor “see” the level of student understanding; helping the instructor catch teachable moments. The rigorous on-going formative assessment, in turn, helped change student classroom behaviors in terms of asking more questions, showing deep thinking, and gaining confidence.

We aimed to explore how Early Childhood (EC) preservice teachers (PSTs) choose and apply content-specific mathematics and science standards by analyzing two sets of lesson plans and two transcripts from whole class discussions from an EC mathematics and science methods course. From our analyses, we identified major themes and explanatory categories that indicated issues related to PSTs’ standards selection process. Students’ reasoning about their choices illustrated the resiliency of their beliefs about teaching and learning EC mathematics and science, and how their own observation experiences prevailed over our explicit instruction and assignment expectations. Drawing from literature related to Lortie’s (1975) Apprenticeship of Observation, we use our findings to consider ways to better appreciate and mitigate the strength of PSTs’ incoming beliefs on their readiness to plan for and implement lessons.