Prospective teachers development of adaptive expertise

•Developing adaptive expertise evident in shift of focus from self to students.•Adaptive expertise evident in developing understandings of complexity of teaching.•Building formal theories of practice by engaging in everyday theories.•Practice-based pedagogies supported development of adaptive expertise.

This article responds to calls for graduating teacher standards that reflect a vision of teachers as adaptive experts. Drawing on prospective teachers' reflections of their learning within a mathematics classroom inquiry course, we examine the development of expertise as characterized by shifts in teacher focus from self to student and from simple to increasingly complex understandings about teaching and learning. We argue that the instructional dynamics linked to practice-based pedagogies within our teacher education program, inclusive of opportunities to experiment, risk-take, and engage directly with learner outcomes, supported the development of prospective teachers' professional stance aligned to adaptive expertise.