Understanding video as a tool for teacher education: investigating instructional strategies to promote reflection

There is a general consensus among researchers and teacher educators that classroom video can be a valuable tool for pre-service teacher education. Media such as video are not, however, in themselves effective. They have to be embedded in an instructional program to be useful. Yet, little empirical research examines how specific instructional approaches might effectively exploit the potential of video in teacher education. In this study we explored the use of two video-based university courses, one representing a cognitive instructional strategy integrating video, the other representing a situative strategy. Using data from learning journals we analyzed the effects of the two strategies on pre-service teachers’ (N = 28) ability to reflect on classroom video. We found that the two strategies have distinct impacts on the kinds of reflection patterns that are fostered. Our findings suggest that the learning goal and purpose at hand should determine which instructional strategy should be employed when embedding classroom video into teacher education courses.     

Effekte videobasierter Trainings zur Förderung der Selbstwirksamkeitsüberzeugungen über Klassenführung im Grundschulunterricht

Self-efficacy in classroom management and knowledge on classroom management are important teacher resources regarding their health. Fostering student teachers in their self-efficacy in classroom management and situated knowledge on classroom management is a promising approach for reducing reality shock at the beginning of in-service teaching. Thus, the present quasi-experimental pre-post control group study investigates whether video-based and practice-oriented coursework in teacher education can promote self-efficacy in classroom management and the professional vision of classroom management. Analyzing own classroom videos as well as analyzing videos from other teachers lead to a significantly higher latent increase in self-efficacy and professional vision than that of a control group. This was only the case for professional vision in a course with own teaching elements but without video analysis.     

Seeing through the eyes of the teacher? Investigating primary school teachers’ professional noticing through a video-based research methodology

ABSTRACT

Digital video technology has been increasingly employed to investigate teacher professional noticing. While extensive research has been undertaken to explore the specialised knowledge base underlying teacher professional noticing, there is a need to more closely examine the methodological consequences of video-based approaches for understanding the nature of professional noticing. This paper draws upon a recent study that investigated primary school teachers’ professional noticing of mathematics and science classrooms to discuss issues, challenges, and opportunities that emerge with a video-based research approach. In this study, the latest video technology was employed to allow primary school teachers to take active roles in capturing, selecting and reflecting on significant classroom events on their own and with colleagues. Drawing upon examples from this study, this paper highlights the methodological potential and challenges of video-based approaches to investigating teacher noticing in classrooms, and discusses how this noticing relates to reflection stimulated by classroom videos. It further reveals the tension between the dual priorities of empowering the teacher participants in research and enabling valid interpretations by the researchers in an attempt to gain insight into the complexity of teachers’ professional noticing.     

Mathematics teachers’ “learning to notice” in the context of a video club

This study examines changes in teachers’ thinking as they participated in a video club designed to help them learn to notice and interpret students’ mathematical thinking. First, we investigate changes in teachers’ talk about classroom video segments before and after participation in the video club. Second, we identify three paths along which teachers learned to notice students’ mathematical thinking in this context: Direct, Cyclical, and Incremental. Finally, we explore ways the video club context influenced teacher learning. Understanding different forms of teacher learning provides insight for research on teacher cognition and may inform the design of video-based professional development.     

西方国家教师学习研究动态及其启示

西方国家教师学习研究自20世纪80年代后发生的变化主要表现在对教师学习的重视与定位，学习目标、内容、方式、研究方法更为具体、细腻，关注课堂实践的有效性以及教师专业发展。从西方国家教师学习研究的趋势看，许多国家着重探讨教师学会教学、学会反思和学会为师等基本问题，力求说明教师学习与教师专业成长的关系。     

Examining the development of a teacher learning community: The case of a video club

Learning communities have become a widespread model for teacher development. However, simply bringing teachers together does not ensure community development. This study offers a framework for the development of a teacher learning community in a video club. Qualitative coding of video data resulted in characterizing the evolution of the video club group as they collaboratively explored issues of teaching and learning that arose in each other’s classrooms. The relationship between dimensions of the framework and how development on one feature interacts with development on another is discussed. The results inform the design of video-based learning environments for examining teaching practice.     

Professional vision and the politics of teacher learning

This article explores the political dimensions of teacher learning, both in theoretical work on teacher professional vision, and in an empirical study of video-based teacher professional development. Theoretically, we revisit the origins of “professional vision” in linguistic anthropology and trace the concept’s evolution in teacher education research, demonstrating how its political dimension has been overlooked. We explore the implications of re-asserting the politics of professional vision through examination of a video-based teacher development programme conducted in an English primary school. We describe this research, investigate the contestation of teacher and researcher professional visions, and discuss implications for professional development practice.     

视频资料在英语教学中的应用

视频以其丰富的语言信息承载优势,成为英语教学中普遍使用的教学资料和手段。教师如何在课堂上系统、合理、有效地运用视频资料,激发学生的学习兴趣,组织教学活动,成为值得思考的问题。视频资料在英语教学中的成败,从视频资料的选择,设计观影任务和活动以促进有效的语言学习,组织学生进行观看前、观看中、观看后各阶段的教学活动,激发学生语言意识,到将视频资料与英语教学有机结合起来,教师的作用至关重要。     

What and how teacher educators prefer to learn

In which areas and domains do individual teacher educators prefer to work on their professional development? What kind of learning activities do they want to take on and with whom? Are there significant differences in these preferences between teacher educators? This article reports on a recent survey (N = 268) about the professional development of teacher educators and differences in learning preferences between less and more experienced teacher educators and between university-based and school-based teacher educators. Findings show, for example, that while most university-based teacher educators were mainly interested in improving their teaching, less experienced school-based teacher educators were more focussed on aspects such as coaching skills. In this study, ‘learning profiles’ have been developed for four categories of teacher educators. These profiles may help to create more meaningful arrangements for teacher educators’ initial education and further professional development in a context where teacher education is required to have a more school-based as well as a more research-based orientation.     

A framework for developing pre‐service teachers’ competencies in using technologies to enhance teaching and learning

This paper presents a framework for developing pre‐service teachers’ competencies in using technologies to enhance teaching and learning. It focuses on building the capacity of teacher education institutions (TEI) based on six strategic dimensions: (1) vision and philosophy; (2) program; (3) professional learning of deans, teacher educators and support staff; (4) ICT plan, infrastructure, resources and support; (5) communications and partnerships; and (6) research and evaluation. This paper describes each of these six strategic dimensions and synthesizes these in the overall framework for developing pre‐service teachers’ competencies in generating technology‐enhanced teaching and learning.     

Could Australia have its own teacher professional standards for teaching relationships and sexuality education?

In many countries, there are no professional standards determining attributes, praxis, effectiveness and evaluation for teachers of relationships and sexuality education in schools. However, in the USA, a new set of pre-service teacher preparation standards has been developed for sexuality education and health. Australia has a set of generic teacher professional standards, but none specifically designed for teachers of relationships and sexuality education. This study aims to explore the possible development of such specific education professional standards for Australian teachers, by comparing and contrasting the knowledge, skills, and competencies exemplified in the prospective USA preparation standards with those in existing generic Australian teacher standards at graduate level. The analysis points to common areas of suitability, competencies, and effectiveness that could help pre-service/initial teachers, in-service teachers, and teacher educators find appropriate and relevant benchmarks for the teaching of timely and comprehensive relationships and sexuality education. The findings show structural similarities, content consistencies, and helpful commonalities in both standards’ sets, comprising seven USA teacher preparation standards, and seven Australian teacher professional standards. Such information may be useful for teachers and educators wishing to generate professional standards for the teaching of relationships and sexuality education in Australia.     

A measurement of student teachers’ parent–teacher communication competences: the design of a video-based instrument

Abstract

This study reports on the design of a video-based instrument to assess student teachers’ parent–teacher communication competences (PTCC) in a reliable and valid way. PTCC refer to the competences needed to communicate successfully with parents during conversations such as parent–teacher conferences. Taking into account both conceptual and methodological challenges regarding the measurement of competences, several methodological steps were followed to design a video-based instrument focusing on the assessment of student teachers’ perception, interpretation and decision-making skills (PID skills) regarding parent–teacher communication: designing video vignettes presenting realistic job situations regarding parent–teacher communication; developing instructions to elicit student teachers’ PID skills; designing a coding scheme to analyse student teachers’ responses; and implementing the instrument (n = 269) to test and refine it. This ultimately resulted in an instrument consisting of (1) three video vignettes, (2) a series of open-ended questions eliciting student teachers’ PID skills, and (3) three coding schemes to develop a perception score, an interpretation score and a decision-making score for PTCC. The (4) implementation of the instrument confirmed that this innovative video-based tool might be a promising approach to assess student teachers’ PTCC. To conclude, the quality and contribution of the measurement instrument and the implications for further research are discussed.     

Preservice teacher perceptions of preparedness for teaching: Insights from survey research exploring the links between teacher professional standards and agency

In this article we explore the use of teacher professional standards in an initial teacher education programme and preservice teacher perceptions of their preparedness for teaching using a survey of 54 first- and second-year preservice teachers in a graduate-entry programme. The survey asked the preservice teachers to respond to 16 questions based on professional standards as well as their knowledge of student learning, professional identity and teaching as a career path. The preservice teachers’ responses were analysed using a mixed methods approach that relied on quantitative methods, but was supplemented by qualitative analysis of short-answer responses. Our analyses hypothesised about possible links between the preservice teachers’ responses and the extent to which they perceived they were classroom and career ready. The themes of teachers, teaching and student learning are used to present and discuss the results, while the notion of agency as achievement is used to deepen possible understanding about their meaning and implications. We conclude that the preservice teachers appeared to benefit from learning about professional standards throughout their programme but appeared to lack confidence in: engaging professionally with others such as parents/carers; setting objectives for all students with different backgrounds; and implementing lesson sequences that engage students and promote learning. Most doubted teaching as their future career. Finally, we discuss implications for: adopting standards-integrated initial teacher education programme approaches; preservice and early-career teacher professional learning needs; and future research opportunities, which include using innovative methodologies and conceptual frameworks.     

Einstellungen,Motivation und Selbstwirksamkeit von Lehrkräften

Teachers’ attitudes, motivation and self-efficacy are aspects of their professional competence affecting students’ motivation and learning via instructional behavior. In the present study, school type-specific differences in these teacher competencies and their relation to instruction when teaching with texts and integrated pictures are analyzed, further focusing on effects of school subject and teaching experience. Teachers (N?=?265) of primary school, lower and upper track secondary school filled in questionnaires. Primary school teachers were less intrinsically motivated to teach text-picture integration than secondary school teachers. They showed more negative attitudes towards texts with pictures than upper track teachers and avoided discussing the picture to a higher degree. All teacher characteristics predicted instructional behavior, further school type-specific effects of the subject occurred. The results provide starting points for teacher training and the potential for further research concerning the support of students in class.     

技术助力教师教育视频资源的典型应用问题与发展趋势

视频作为一种教育数字媒体,一直以来都是教育技术学研究的重要领域。视频运用于教师教育的发展经历了微格教学、交互分析、建模专家教学、基于视频案例的研究、超媒体项目5个阶段。每个阶段的发展都基于教学理论的发展与进步,而且在不同阶段视频资源的教育应用是并行兼用的。基于＂跨越式优秀课例资源网＂的调研发现,当前视频资源的教育应用存在视频内容粗加工、视频支持技术单薄和视频资源应用范畴有限三大典型问题,不利于教师教育的持续发展和学科领域的深入发展。在互联网技术和数字设备广泛普及的信息时代,技术的助力为视频资源的教育创新应用提供了更广泛的空间,也为解决当前存在的问题提供了可能途径。回顾和审视当前国内外有关教育视频资源开发与应用的技术及项目,可以发现,教育视频资源应从内容开发、活动设计、交互技术、语义技术、应用机制5个方面进行纵深发展,从而实现教师的深度有效学习和个性化协作学习,并促进教育视频研究的螺旋式发展。     

Increasing Secondary Teachers’ Capacity to Integrate the Arts

Abstract

Examples from a team of collaborating secondary teachers—one visual arts teacher and one science teacher—highlight key aspects of this professional development project in arts integration. The article traces a regional network designed to build teacher capacity with implications for the design, effectiveness, and sustainability of professional development for secondary teachers. It describes the framework for professional development through the first two years of the project. In year one, teachers increased their understanding of arts integration; collegial collaboration; the design and use of assessments that align with standards, benchmarks, and learning goals; and how to reflect on student work. In year two, professional development activity focused on co-teaching and helping teachers to increase the rigor of student learning goals as a way to improve student learning in arts and non-arts content areas. Project outcomes and challenges to sustaining such job-embedded and networked professional learning opportunities are discussed and directions for further research are offered.     

How meaning-oriented learning is enhanced in Dutch academic primary teacher education

The present study identifies ways of how meaning-oriented learning is enhanced in academic primary teacher education, a new route to the teaching profession in the Netherlands. Meaning-oriented learners are generally described in the literature as being capable to regulate their own learning, to understand a topic thoroughly, to form their own opinion about it and to draw their own conclusions. Semi-structured interviews were held with both student teachers (n = 32) and educators (n = 18) who participated in this new route. Interviewees perceived common ways of enhancing meaning-oriented learning, such as encouraging students to structure, relate and critically process knowledge. Other ways are related to the development of students’ professional identity as an academic primary teacher in general, for example, through students’ reflection on the development of such an identity and their sharing of knowledge, not only with peers and educators, but also externally in publications, on a conference or on the Web. The present study indicates that the newly developed route to the teaching profession successfully contains elements that provoke meaning-oriented learning. The results of this study are useful for the (further) development of teacher education contexts in which the enhancement of meaning-oriented learning by student teachers is an important aim.     

University teacher roles and competencies in online learning environments: a theoretical analysis of teaching and learning practices

The aim of this article is to clarify the university teacher roles and competencies in online learning environments, with a view to assisting in the design of professional development activities. This referential framework results from an extensive review of the literature and from analysing professional development designed in different European universities. It is worth mentioning that the definitions that will be produced do not refer to standards of teacher performance; on the contrary, we would like to emphasise the notion of socially situated competencies which are derived from the roles and tasks attributed to university teachers in online learning environments, without losing track of the dialectics and integrity of their exercise.     

澳大利亚教学专业标准及其质量保证

针对教师教育改革问题，澳大利亚不断完善专业标准，持续推进教师专业发展。文章重点说明澳大利亚标准导向的专业教学体制，并在教学标准、绩效评价与教师学习之间建立了有机联系，诸如，教学标准的定义、专业原则、内容标准、发展的水平标准及澳大利亚寻求教学专业质量的保证措施。