Ten Strategies for Using Video. in Educator Preparation Programs

Transcription

1 Ten Strategies for Using Video in Educator Preparation Programs

2 Introduction As video has become more affordable and portable, schools of education across North America are exploring ways to use the technology to prepare tomorrow s teachers to lead their K 12 students to success. However, simply mounting a camera in a classroom isn t enough to make video an effective tool. With, Teachscape provides higher education faculty and supervisors with several methods for using video to empower educator candidates to build their teaching skills before they enter the field. You ll learn what has worked for other educator preparation programs, as well as some things to avoid when implementing video in your institution. Using Video to Improve Pre-Service Teacher Readiness Research has confirmed that when educators receive high-quality feedback, they can steadily improve and build upon their instructional expertise. As part of an educator preparation program, video can be a powerful tool to ensure teacher candidates receive targeted, meaningful feedback. With the right video tools, teacher candidates learn early on before they enter their careers how to engage in critical reflection, collaboration, and continuous improvement. By capturing on video the practices of pre-service teachers, faculty and supervisors can: Review the classroom work of student teachers more frequently without having to travel to classrooms Pause a lesson to discuss a student teacher s thinking and explore what-if scenarios together Reinforce feedback on a student teacher s instruction by providing it as the supervisor and student watch video of exactly what the feedback is addressing 2

3 Watching videos of yourself teaching is like drinking a gallon of pomegranate juice excruciating but startlingly healthy. Dan Brown 1 Video trends today Technology Video technology has advanced to become easier to use, faster to upload, and more affordable, making video more practical to use for field experiences and classroom use. Video and audio equipment have become smaller and less intrusive, blending more naturally into the classroom setting and minimizing the tendency of teachers and students to play to the camera. Video quality has also greatly improved. With clearer pictures, better audio, and even technology such as panoramic cameras readily available and reasonably priced, everything that happens in the room can be seen at once, rather than just a static view of the student teacher. For first timers Video has tremendous potential to improve performance and boost teaching effectiveness, but many student teachers might feel a bit uncomfortable at first. Here are some tips to get started: Use video only for self-reflection at first. To help student teachers get acclimated to using video, in the beginning let them try it out on their own, using it only for self-reflection. Knowing that no one else will see their first videos can give them the confidence to start recording lessons on a regular basis. Reassure teacher candidates that the initial awkward feelings are normal and will pass. For most people, watching themselves on video for the first time can be difficult. Emphasize that the awkwardness fades, and that teacher candidates will quickly see the value of video in observing their teaching after taking a few moments to adjust. One way to help this process is for professors to capture video of themselves teaching and share it with their students to make the point. In the beginning, focus on short video segments and just one area of teaching. When watching themselves teaching on video the first few times, student teachers might be overwhelmed by the change in perspective, and be unsure where to start in their analysis. Until they develop a greater comfort level with video, guide them on how to focus on just one area of their teaching at a time, and refrain from getting caught up in a myriad of possibilities. 1. Dan Brown, Confessions of a New NBCT, Education Week Teacher, December 6,

4 Ten strategies for video use in educator preparation programs For student teachers self-reflection and self-evaluation Observing one s own teaching on video can be invaluable for teachers in training. Since teachers make hundreds of decisions in any given day, it can feel impossible for student teachers, in particular, to step back and observe everything that happens in the class while they are teaching. many of the teachers who participated in the MET project video study told us that seeing themselves teach was one of their most valuable professional development experiences. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 2 Student teachers have no way of knowing if their instructional strategies follow those of expert teachers unless they get feedback. Guided self-reflection with video can help them begin to visualize concrete ways they can improve their strategies. For example, comparing a video of how a novice teacher might pace a lesson to a video example of how a veteran teacher paces a lesson could provide valuable guidance for a teacher in training. Video also allows student teachers a rare opportunity to observe the dynamics at work in the classroom while they teach where students are located, whether visual aids seem effective, and whether the student teacher s presentation style seems to be getting through. They can also assess the engagement levels of each of their K 12 students during the lesson, and identify any students who seem distracted or uninterested. At Gwynedd Mercy University (GMU) in Pennsylvania, at least one of every lesson each student teacher conducts is captured on video. Supervisors use the videos for one-on-one or group evaluations, and students use them for self-reflection. According to one GMU student: As educators-in-training, we were able to step outside ourselves and see how our students reacted to our teaching. It s an essential tool for any new teacher. The videos allowed us to critique ourselves properly and at many different levels so we could tweak and enhance our teaching. 2. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Feedback for Better Teaching: Nine Principles for Using Measures of Effective Teaching, MET project,

5 For coaching educator candidates Video opens up possibilities for coaching, beyond the typical observe-and-reflect between a teacher candidate and a coach. Coaches use video to set up a continuous improvement process, giving teacher candidates the chance to try out new strategies, get feedback, and try again. As student teachers implement new strategies in the classroom, video can help them see the direct impact their changes have in improving their instructional effectiveness and student performance. The most important part of instructional coaching is goal setting, according to noted instructional coach Jim Knight of the Instructional Coaching Group. Effective goals are based on a clear picture of what is happening in the classroom, and video is the easiest way to capture that picture. Knight suggests that, after recording a video, the student teacher and the coach each watch the video on their own. The student teacher may also complete survey questions based on her teaching activity and/or the activities of her students. After watching the video, the student teacher and coach can work together to help identify and establish measurable student goals. 3 For some, a full-time student teaching experience can be quite nerve-wracking. To introduce student teachers to their assigned schools For some, a full-time student teaching experience can be quite nerve-wracking. It is something that is looked forward to from the very first day in the School of Education, yet it is very easy to feel unprepared or unready for such new responsibilities. 4 Student teachers are often nervous before starting their first assignment, and often find they are unfamiliar with the norms and expectations unique to the school. Video can be used to demonstrate these expectations and how they are displayed in the classroom at the student s assigned school. For example, if a principal or a curriculum director expects certain practices or behaviors to be evident in every classroom, video can be captured of experienced teachers successfully using these practices in their classrooms. If a particular practice can be executed in different ways, multiple video clips can be created to give student teachers examples of each acceptable method and various ideas for how they can incorporate these behaviors into their individual teaching styles. The videos could also be made available for future viewing if remediation or a simple refresher is needed, as well as for future teacher candidates assigned to the school. 3. Jim Knight, The Most Important Part of Instructional Coaching? Setting a Goal, Radical Learners, February 22, Alexis Borgia, Advice for Student Teachers: Words of Advice for My Sisters on Student Teaching, Boston University School of Education website (n.d.). 5

6 For building video libraries of best practices Video allows educator preparation programs to develop libraries of best practices based on an established definition of teaching effectiveness, with videos of respected teachers they are familiar with, and featuring students and classrooms that are familiar. Collecting and sharing video of best practices from cooperating teachers in the classroom can give student teachers on-demand access to examples of best practices when they need them most. Ideally, the library should be tagged and searchable by strategy, class content, grade level, and other criteria. Using the concept of a VLC, student teachers can get ideas from each other, and begin to learn how to become part of a collaborative community before they enter service. For creating video learning communities School districts across the United States are discovering the power of sharing video among teachers for professional development. One such example is in Hillsborough County, Florida, where 12 schools took part in a pilot program to create a video learning community (VLC) during the school year. These teachers used video as the basis for ongoing professional conversations about increasing their proficiency, and for reflecting on their own instructional practices. Teachers engaged in VLCs where they received feedback, coaching, and mentoring; shared videos of best teaching practices and lessons with their colleagues; discussed implementation strategies in face-to-face meetings; and recorded in-person professional development sessions and professional learning community (PLC) meetings, sharing the videos with faculty who were unable to attend. According to teachers who took part, using video in this way is very powerful. Using the concept of a VLC, student teachers can get ideas from each other and begin to learn how to become part of a collaborative community before they enter service. A VLC gives student teachers the ability to track their professional growth throughout their clinical practice. When forming a VLC in your educator preparation program, provide the participants with some guidance. Establishing norms will help the community develop a greater comfort level. The group should agree on the types of feedback to be provided. For example: do not limit comments, permit only positive feedback, or simply have members watch the video and incorporate observations and reactions to what they see into their individual teaching styles. 6

7 To prepare for new curriculum and teaching standards Curriculum and teaching standards are changing, and today s teachers need to change their instructional strategies to meet these new expectations. By using video in the classroom, professors can identify and capture instances where in-service teachers are successfully demonstrating these new strategies and share them with teacher candidates more quickly and easily. As districts build video libraries to help teachers develop and improve their instructional practices to get different and greater results from their students, educator preparation programs can build their own video libraries to prepare teacher candidates for new standards in the field. For bridging time and distance constraints Video can enable professors in schools of education to observe the classroom work of student teachers and provide feedback more frequently, without the need to travel to every school where their students are training. As an added benefit, observations and findings can be shared with other department faculty to provide a more comprehensive review. In addition, video can have a much farther reach. With lessons to be learned beyond our nation s borders, establishing a video learning community with an institution in another country can help expand best practices and provide insight into the skills needed to succeed in a global economy. For peer mentoring Video is an excellent tool for peer mentoring, allowing student teachers to learn how to be part of a collaborative community before they enter the field. Working in pairs or small teams, student teachers can use video to record their classes and review them with a focus on an agreed-upon area (e.g., student engagement), then share their ideas with each other. Another example of student teachers working together might involve teams engaging in a lesson study in which they jointly design a lesson, capture a student teacher teaching the lesson on video, then review and analyze the lesson to work on strengthening it for future delivery. 7

8 For breaking habits Many student teachers tend to teach the way they were taught until they learn a better way and it becomes second nature. Video can reinforce the new learning. Watching their teaching on video can help student teachers gain a fresh perspective and new awareness of their practice, and how (or whether) they are engaging their students. Video can show student teachers where they are doing a good job encouraging their students, instances where they could be more positive, and particular students who may not appear engaged and require extra attention. For professors self-reflection and self-evaluation Self-reflection and self-evaluation are a critical part of the annual review processes for faculty at the university level. Video can make this process more effective and efficient. Just as for student teachers, the ability for professors to see their own performance in the classroom can be invaluable. Additionally, professors can share videos with the department chair as evidence of the past year s performance. Video can also make peer observations easier, given professors busy schedules, opening up a whole new realm to the evaluation process. Professors can also use these videos to model self-reflection best practices. After capturing a lesson on video, they can share the video with their students while reflecting on it, allowing the students to go through the process with them. Exposing the students to self-reflection makes it more accessible and helps put students at ease about the practice. 8

9 Best practices The New Teacher Project (TNTP) believes that when video is used for thoughtful analysis in which teachers take an active role, it can make an enormous difference in education. TNTP uses video in its teacher support programs, and has learned some strategies that work well. These suggestions are courtesy of Karla Oakley, senior strategist at TNTP. 5 Limiting the scope of each session. TNTP lends further credence to the concept of limiting the focus of each video analysis session, rather than trying to do it all. It might seem easy to try to focus on many different scenarios and call out several areas that a teacher might work on, but concentrating on one or two key skills per video-based observation will be more effective and less overwhelming. Gathering multiple perspectives from reviewers in different locations. Video allows teachers to get a variety of viewpoints from beyond their building s walls. A faculty member who may not have a background in the teacher s subject, for example, can share the lesson video with a subject matter expert among the faculty. A faculty member who may not have a background in the teacher s subject, for example, can share the lesson video with a subject matter expert among the faculty. Commenting at specific moments in the lesson. When student teachers see a supervisor s or a peer s praise or suggestions tagged to the actual corresponding activity in the video, it is easier to visualize what worked and what might have worked better. Viewing these moments by video is far superior to relying on memory, and software with a time-stamped commenting feature is important. Making video a regular part of the classroom. When student teachers routinely capture video of the classroom, they and their students become used to the video camera. When this happens, they are much more likely to be themselves and not act for the camera. With a natural picture of teaching and learning, teaching analysis is more effective. 5. Karla Oakley, Let s Go to the Tape, TNTP, April 23,

10 Creating a culture of using video By implementing the use of video to promote greater teacher effectiveness, teachers can learn and improve in ways never before possible. The use of classroom video can improve teacher effectiveness in a number of ways. To ensure the highest level of success from the use of video, educator preparation programs should consider the following: Help faculty and teacher candidates develop a comfort level with video. Some may embrace the idea of having their classes recorded and shared, while others might object. Faculty members should continuously reinforce the idea that video is a positive force in their classroom and is intended to help student teachers develop the skills they will need in their careers. Focus on obtaining buy-in from faculty and teacher candidates, emphasizing that time spent reviewing and providing feedback on practice earlier in a candidate s career means less time the teacher will have to spend making corrections later. When resistance is encountered, work to identify its source. Research consistently shows that the most important factor in student learning is the presence of a quality teacher. Improving teacher quality has a direct impact on student success. By implementing the use of video to develop teaching skills, teacher candidates can learn and build their practice in ways never before possible. 10

11 About Teachscape Since it s founding in 1999, Teachscape has been dedicated to systematically improving teaching expertise. Teachscape has partnered with the leading experts in PreK 12 education to design and develop software, professional learning content, and expert services that result in measurable growth in teaching practice, school leadership, and student achievement. Comprehensive Support To help colleges and universities make the most of Teachscape s instructional diagnostic tools and learning resources, we offer comprehensive online and on-site professional services. Teachscape service providers are experienced Pre K 12 and higher ed educators. All have been effective classroom teachers. Most have been principals or assistant principals, and many have been district-level curriculum leaders, professional developers, and senior district administrators. Teachscape services can spark a transformative change in instructional leadership and teaching practice, improve school and teacher effectiveness, and maximize student achievement. To learn more, visit us at 11

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