SELF‐CONFRONTATION THROUGH VIDEO‐PLAYBACK: A STUDY OF LECTURERs' REACTIONS

This paper reports a survey of higher education teachers' reactions to taking part in a project which involved them in being video‐recorded while lecturing. The nature of their reactions has importance in the context of using television to enable teachers in higher education to lecture more effectively.

Material is included on teachers' anticipations prior to being video‐recorded, and on their reactions after the session, which include their comments on personal presentation, on the anxiety of the experience and on their teaching.

The findings indicate that:

1. first reactions to viewing the playback often include comment upon aspects of personal presentation (appearance, voice)

2. relatively little comment is made about their teaching as such'(teachers may need a ‘language’ for describing and evaluating their teaching)

3. steps need to be taken by staff developers to act supportively to reduce anxieties

4. the recordings were thought by participating teachers to represent typical samples of their teaching.

Some 471 students of the teachers involved in the project completed a brief questionnaire and the largest single response supports the teachers' view that the recording was typical.