Fostering Ambitious Pedagogy in Novice Teachers 1 Fostering Ambitious Pedagogy in Novice Teachers: The New Role of Tool-Supported Analyses of Student Work Mark Windschitl, Jessica Thompson, and Melissa Braaten University of Washington Expert-like instructional practice is commonly assumed to be achievable only after years of classroom experience. This study tested the hypothesis that novices in their first year of teaching could take up forms of ambitious pedagogy under the following conditions: that a defined set of reform-based pedagogical practices introduced in teacher preparation would be the focus of sustained self-inquiry throughout the first year of teaching, that participants use the analysis of their own pupils’ work as the basis of critique and change in practice, and that special tools be employed that help participants use a common frame of reference for hypothesizing about relationships between instructional decisions and student performance. Findings from a cohort of secondary science teachers show that more than a third of the group developed elements of expert-like teaching, with the greatest gains made in pressing their students for evidence-based scientific explanations— a practice that was the focus of their regular examination of student work. This subset of participants held the most problematized images of the relationships between teaching and learning. This orientation influenced how they selected and analyzed their students’ work, how they framed dilemmas to peers, and the degree to which they were able to participate in pedagogically productive discussions of practice. For a majority of participants, the system of tools (rubrics and protocol) was critical in allowing deep analyses of students’ work and supporting a shared language that catalyzed conversations linking “what counts” as scientific explanation with the re- calibration of expectations for students, which in turn helped them envision more specialized forms of scaffolding for learners. Despite variances in participation, most individuals regularly taught in more reform-based ways than their curricula required them to during student teaching and their first year of professional work.