“To be an effective tool for teacher learning, video must be viewed with a clear purpose in mind” (Borko et al., 2008, p. 419).

What are research-based examples that shed light on the value of video as a possible support for teacher learning in the contexts of teacher education and teacher professional development?

Purposes & Goals

Contemporary research interests in the possibilities of video as a tool for teacher learning are concerned with the interaction of teachers’ knowledge of subject matter and their knowledge of pedagogy (Santagata, 2005). A variety of purposes and specific learning goals constitute some of the landscape of this field:

• Improving teacher knowledge (Borko et al., 2005; Carpenter et al., ; Kazemi & Hubbard, 2008; Seago & Mumme, ; Santagata et al., )
• Assessing teacher knowledge (Kersting et al., 2010)
• Developing reflection and noticing skills (Sherin & van Es, 2002, 2005; van Es & Sherin, 2008, 2010; Jacobs, Lamb, & Phillip, 2010; Star & Strickland, 2008)
• Modeling reform-minded instructional practices (Boaler & Humphreys, 2005; Santagata)
• Discussing equity-based practices (McDuffe et al., 2013)

These current purposes and goals are inquiry-based. Many share a common thread of teachers analyzing videos of classroom instruction in order to learn about teaching, as opposed to the behavioral emphasis (e.g., classroom management or learning specific teaching techniques) in the early days of video use for teacher learning (Santagata et al., 2005).

Design Issues

Miller and Zhou (2007) discuss video in education research as compelling but also challenging. They state the essence of this contrast: “What makes learning from video cases hard is that the viewers bring a variety of different kinds of filters to the task of viewing classroom video. Some of these reflect background experiences, aspirations, and the viewers’ construal of the task of watching video. Understanding both the perspectives viewers bring and the ways that viewing tasks affect what viewers learn from video cases will be essential to developing effective instructional techniques based on video cases” (p. ). Indeed, researchers and educators using video in teacher education and professional development are wise to elaborate their purposes with clear and concrete task designs. Sherin and Sherin (2007) present four design issues researchers should consider:

• Technological infrastructure
• Video content
• Task structure
• Social structure

They highlight task structure in the effort to harness the potential of video as a tool for learning. The critical question for researchers and educators to consider is: How – and for what purposes – will teachers interact with the video? A few examples of the contexts for learning with video will illuminate some of the tasks that have been designed.

Learning Contexts

Many contexts incorporate a collaborative environment, or a video viewing system, such as teacher teams or professional learning communities who have a particular learning goal and meet for the purpose of watching and analyzing videos of classroom instruction. Promising designs of video viewing systems that are research-based and could be replicated include:

• Video Clubs: Teachers collaboratively view and analyze video segments of classroom instruction, for the purpose of learning to identify and analyze student thinking. Studies of particular video clubs have documented changes at the level of the group of teachers as well as at the individual level of instruction (e.g., Sherin & van Es, 2002, 2005; van Es & Sherin, 2008, 2010).
• Lesson Study: Recent U.S. adaptations of an established form of professional development practiced in Japan point to growth in “teachers’ mathematical knowledge, their ability to focus on student thinking, their use of effective instructional strategies, and their use of expert resources” (Ermeling, 2005; Lewis, Perry, & Murata, 2006; Perry & Lewis, 2006; as cited in Sherin & Sherin, 2007, p.56). The process incorporates planning, teaching (and videotaping), gathering data, and analyzing a lesson in a cycle of instructional improvement.
• Problem Solving Cycle (PSC): This professional development context by Borko and colleagues (2008) incorporates a series of three workshops that focus on a common mathematics problem. Video is used to facilitate productive discussions, and results demonstrate changes in the group’s conversation, as well as instructional changes such as learning new pedagogical strategies and acknowledging students’ capacity for mathematical reasoning.
• Lesson Analysis: Santagata and colleagues (2007, 2010) utilized video-based reflections on mathematics teaching to investigate the impact of an approach called lesson analysis. They documented improvement in pre-service teachers’ ability to analyze instruction and propose that the Lesson Analysis Framework (2010) “provides a structure for evidence-based evaluation of observed instruction” (p. 339).

Purpose and Goals for the use of Video In Teacher Learning 

The complexity of teacher learning is emphasized by the necessity for teachers to have an in-depth pedagogical understanding while simultaneously attending to social-emotional learning within the classroom environment. During observations and debriefs a challenge emerges for teacher educators in targeting specific actionable goals and providing evidence from observations to provide relevant evidence to teachers. However, video can be used as a tool to support teacher learning by providing concrete evidence of practice as well as focusing teacher attention during a reflection on specific interactions during the observation. It not only allows teacher educators to highlight specific moments of teaching but as well allows for “repeated analysis from different perspectives without the need for immediate action” (Brouwer, Besselink, Oosterheert, 2017). Specifically for preservice teachers, video “enables teacher educators to slow down and zoom in the work of teaching, thereby helping preservice teachers see the concrete ways that teachers enact particular teaching moves and the consequences for students’ opportunities to learn” (Kang, van Es, 2019; Santagata & Guarino, 2011; Stürmer, Könings, & Seidel, 2013; van Es et al., 2017).

“Observation tools and frameworks help narrow the observational field to help preservice teachers focus on particular features of interest. For example, the Learning to Notice framework (van Es & Sherin, 2002) provides a tool for shaping what teachers attend to in their analysis, as well as how they analyze classroom interactions, with much of this work focusing on directing teachers’ attention to student thinking and developing an interpretive, inquiry stance to these observations” (Kang, van Es, 2019). 

 

References 

Boaler, J. & Humphreys, C. (2005). Connecting mathematical ideas: Middle school video cases to support teaching and learning. Heinemann Press.

Borko, H., Frykholm, J., Pittman, M., Eiteljorg, E., Nelson, M., Jacobs, J., Koellner-Clark, K., & Schneider, C. (2005). Preparing teachers to foster algebraic thinking. Zentralblatt für Didaktik der Mathematik, 37(1), 43-52.

Borko, H., Jacobs, J., Eiteljorg, E., & Pittman, M.E. (2008). Video as a tool for fostering productive discussions in mathematics professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 417-436.

Erickson, F. (2006). Definition and analysis of data from videotape: Some research procedures and their rationales. In J. Green, G. Camilli, & P. Elmore (Eds.), Handbook of complementary methods in education research (pp. 177-191). Mahwah: NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ermeling, B., (2005). Transforming professional development for an American high school: A lesson study inspired, technology powered system for teacher learning. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California Los Angeles.

Jacobs, V.R., Lamb, L.L.C., & Phillip, R.A. (2010). Professional noticing of children’s mathematical thinking. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, 41(2), 169-202.

Kazemi, E., & Hubbard, A. (2008). New directions for the design and study of professional development: Attending to the coevolution of teachers’ participation across contexts. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(5), 428-441.

Kersting, N.B., Givvin, K.B., Sotelo, F.L., & Stigler, J.W. (2010). Teachers’ analyses of classroom video predict student learning of mathematics: Further explorations of a novel measure of teacher knowledge. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(1/2), 172-181.

Lewis, C., Perry, R., & Murata, A. (2006). How should research contribute to instructional improvement? The case of lesson study. Education Researcher, 35(3), 3-14.

McDuffe, A.R., Foote, M.Q., Bolson, C., Turner, E.E., Aguirre, J.M., Bartell, T.G., Drake, C., & Land, T. (2014). Using video analysis to support prospective K-8 teachers’ noticing of students’ multiple mathematical knowledge bases. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 17, 245-270.

Miller, K., & Zhou, X. (2007). Learning from classroom video: What makes it compelling and what makes it hard. In R. Goldman, R. Pea, B. Barron, & S. Derry (Eds.), Video research in the learning sciences (pp. 321-   ). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Perry, R., & Lewis, C. (2006). A perfect storm: Using lesson study to build and share professional knowledge. Paper submitted to the MacArthur Meta-Study.

Santagata, R., & Angelici, G. (2010). Studying the impact of the lesson analysis framework on preservice teachers’ abilities to reflect on videos of classroom teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(4), 339-349.

Santagata, R., Gallimore, R., & Stigler, J.W. (2005). The use of video for teacher education and professional development: Past experiences and future directions. In C. Vrasidas & G.V. Glass (Eds.), Current perspectives on applied information technologies (Volume 2): Preparing teachers to teach with technology. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Santagata, R., Zannoni, C., & Stigler, J.W. (2007). The role of lesson analysis in pre-service teacher education: An empirical investigation of teacher learning from a virtual video-based field experience. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 10, 123-140.

Sherin, M.G., & Sherin, B.L. (2007). Research on how people learn with and from video. In Sharon J. Derry (Ed.), Guidelines for video research in education: Recommendations from an expert panel (pp. 47-58). University of Chicago: Data Research and Development Center.

Sherin, M.G., & van Es, E.A. (2002). Learning to notice: Scaffolding new teachers’ interpretations of classroom interactions. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 10(4), 571-596.

Sherin, M.G., & van Es, E.A. (2005). Using video to support teachers’ ability to notice classroom interactions. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 13(3), 475-491.

Star, J.R., & Strickland, S.K. (2008). Learning to observe: Using video to improve preservice mathematics teachers’ ability to notice. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 11, 107-125.

van Es, E.A., & Sherin, M.G. (2008). Mathematics teachers “learning to notice” in the context of a video club. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(2), 244-276.

van Es, E.A., & Sherin, M.G. (2010). The influence of video clubs on teachers’ thinking and practice. Journal of Math Teacher Education, 13, 155-176.