Little is known about how the content of a video case influences what preservice teachers learn about science teaching. This study was designed to determine the impact of two different video cases on preservice elementary teachers’ conceptions of multiple aspects of effective science teaching, with one video selected to focus attention on the role of the teacher. Three groups completed either: (i) a unit plan; (ii) a video case analysis with problematic selection of content and use of teacher behaviors; or (iii) a video case analysis with only problematic teacher behaviors. Two hundred seven end‐of‐semester oral defenses were analyzed to determine the extent to which group differences exist on six questions. Both groups who completed the video case analysis better consider how children learn when making decisions, involving activities and content than those who completed the unit plan. However, they do not use this same knowledge base to inform their role in interacting with children to move their thinking toward more accurate ideas. Prospective teachers in all three groups overlook the role of the teacher in the classroom and focus almost entirely on keeping children physically active. Therefore, even when a video case was deliberately selected to focus attention on the role of the teacher, this critically important aspect of teaching continues to be absent, or vague at best, for the 207 prospective teachers in this study. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 53: 1500–1523, 2016