Abstract Teachers routinely make decisions regarding the best pedagogical methods for altering students’ understandings about academic content. Such prac- tices are at the root of teaching as persuasion, and have been shown to be related to academic achievement. Yet very little research has investigated the extent to which individuals learning to be teachers (i.e., preservice teachers) feel they are capable of performing the practices underlying teaching as persuasion. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which preservice teachers see themselves as capable of performing persuasive pedagogical practices compared to more general teaching practices as operationalized on well-researched measures of teacher efficacy. Results indicated that undergraduates enrolled in preservice teacher education courses perceived themselves as less capable of performing persuasive pedagogical practices than more generally accepted practices. In addition, preservice teachers perceived they were more capable of altering students’ knowledge about content than at modifying their beliefs about content. Implications for research and practice are forwarded. Keywords Teaching as persuasion Æ Teacher efficacy Æ Pedagogical practices Introduction One of the main goals of education is to enhance students’ understanding in particular topic areas. Using a variety of pedagogical practices, teachers attempt to facilitate knowledge growth for their students. Many of the pedagogical practices used to promote student learning are included on prominent measures of teacher efficacy (e.g., Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). Examples include the perception of a teacher’s ability to: (a) pose thoughtful questions, (b) effectively manage the classroom, (c) modify curriculum for students, and (d) invoke useful M. N. Edwards (&) Æ K. Higley Æ J. A. Zeruth Æ P. K. Murphy The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA e-mail: mne102@psu.edu 123 Instr Sci (2007) 35:443–465 DOI 10.1007/s11251-006-9014-1 Pedagogical practices: examining preservice teachers’ perceptions of their abilities Maeghan N. Edwards Æ Kelli Higley Æ Jill A. Zeruth P. Karen Murphy Received: 30 September 2005 / Accepted: 10 November 2006 / Published online: 29 December 2006 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2006