Video as a Professional Development Tool

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Subject: [FocusOnBasics 306] Discussion starts today: Video as a Professional Development Tool
From: Julie McKinney julie_mcKinney at worlded.org
Date: Mon Jun 5 09:13:07 EDT 2006

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to our discussion with author Jessica Tomkins about her recent FOB article:

Video as a Professional Development Tool
http://www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=1107

Please write in with any impressions, comments or questions you have about the article! See below for some discussion questions.

Enjoy!

Julie

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever seen a video of yourself teaching? If so, what was your impression? Did it affect your teaching? How?

2. What do you think you might gain from seeing yourself and your students on video?

3. How might your students benefit from you reviewing such a video?

4. Have you ever used video as a professional development tool in your program? If so, how did your group review and process the video in order to share thoughts, give feedback and get the maximum benefit? How did teachers receive this?

5. After reading this article, what unanswered questions stay with you?

Julie McKinney
Discussion List Moderator
World Education/NCSALL
jmckinney at worlded.org

From: Janet_Isserlis@brown.edu
Date: Monday - June 5, 2006 9:35 AM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 307] Re: Discussion starts today: Video as aProfessional Development

All - a few impressions about using video:

1. Have you ever seen a video of yourself teaching? If so, what was your impression? Did it affect your teaching? How?

The most helpful thing about seeing a tape of my teaching was that the colleague who made the tape was wise enough to focus almost entirely on the students; I learned how I tend to teach to the left (to my physical left) - so hadn't spent the kind of time I'd like to have on teaching around the entire room. My physical focus was limited to a part of the classroom.

As well, the sound of my voice alone was, well, more present than one would have hoped for. A lot more teacher talk than I'd have thought...

Students liked watching the tapes - especially a month or so after they'd been made, where they could see progress they'd made between the time of the taping and the time of the viewing.

2. What do you think you might gain from seeing yourself and your students on video?

perspective; a look at folks who I may not have been attentive to - what ARE they doing, how do they interact with one another? - as well as a sense of the flow of a class.

Janet Isserlis

From: julie_mcKinney@worlded.org
Date: Monday - June 5, 2006 11:41 AM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 308] Re: Discussion starts today: Video as a Professional Development Tool

Janet,

Thanks for sharing your reactions to your videotaped class! I am curious to know how it came about, and how it was used. Was it a purposeful professional development activity, or just something you decided to try? And it's interesting that you watched it with your students--was there a specific process that helped you get feedback from them? From other colleagues?

It's interesting that you say one of the best things was that it focused on the students, which fits with Jessica's experience as she described in the article.

Julie

From: Barbara Garner b.garner4@verizon.net
Date: Monday - June 5, 2006 11:47 AM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 309] Re: Discussion starts today: Video as aProfessional Development Tool

I had an eye opening experience using video years ago...about 1985! I was working with teachers in a refugee education program: I observed them in classes on a weekly basis. One teacher never ever smiled. She said she was concerned that her youth would undercut her credibility with the older Cambodians she was teaching, so she tried to appear stern. That didn't seem to be working: the atmosphere in her classroom seemed quite tense. She said she'd try smiling, but it wasn't happening (as I write this I know it sounds strange, but it's true.) I tried a number of things, from collecting data on her facial expressions at intervals during the class to trying to catch her eye from the back of the room and smile. Finally, I had her video taped. She watched the tape by herself, burst into tears (she reported), and totally changed her classroom manner, with, it was easy to see, great results.

I guess this long story is a reinforcement of Janet's post, and of Jessica's report: a picture can really tell a story...

Barb Garner

From: dbrillan@pdx.edu
Date: Monday - June 5, 2006 12:59 PM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 310] Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.

Greetings!

I am an extreme case: I was recorded at the NCSALL ESOL Labschool for 4 years, several hours every week. (or about 1360 hours of my stellar performances.) So what I have to say is magnified by the experience. Also the video was not meant to be a tool of professional development for the teachers who were filmed but rather a tool to comprehend learning and teaching, learners and teachers and the ties that bind them. In the process of doing research on SLA, and classroom behaviors, I have seen myself countless times, and of course I am my first critic. My caution to anyone who wants to improve their teaching through numerous recordings is "don't do it" or you will go through the roller coaster of "How could I do that??" and "That was really smooth". With the first one, you begin to wonder whether you destroy students' eagerness to learn English or made them stop coming altogether. The second reflection ends up raising the bar for the next class: can I do this again? What els e can I possibly learn from this? The reflection wheels never really stop. The thirst for perfection is never appeased.

The most important point of watching classroom video is to see the students and watch them learn, not only English but classroom behaviors and social competencies which are developed in the safe environment of the classroom and replicable in the outside world. They do and say amazing things, pertinent to the task/ activity or outside of the activity but nonetheless important to them.

On 3 and 4, the video of the classroom was used on a couple of occasions for study circles, directed by Reuel Kurzet, our professional developer . ( http://www.ncsall.net/?id=232 is the link which will lead you to her article on the matter). Also over the past 4 years, we have had several graduate research assistants (GRAs) who worked on coding and transcribing the classrooms video data . These GRAs were concurrently enrolled in the MA TESOL program at Portland State University. Each one of them ( about 25) has been extremely grateful to have been privy to watching hours of classroom recording before actually becoming teachers themselves. As for myself, in the process of the longitudinal study of a few students, I have watched other teachers teach. The great lesson has been to recognize good teaching, even though the techniques employed might be something that one would never do. (student engagement which is also captured through the video is a good indicator of a successful class) So yes, video is a great tool for prof. development. One must be prepared to watch a classroom in "real time" though, which is different but a lot richer (and a lot slower) than "canned" classroom videos, edited for the perfect lesson.

Dominique Brillanceau
practitioner/research associate
NCSALL ESOL labschool
www.labschool.pdx.edu

From: jessicatomkins@gmail.com
Date: Monday - June 5, 2006 10:40 PM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 311] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool

Hi everyone,
I've just read through the experiences everyone shared today and it's interesting to see how much they resonate with those of the teachers we worked with and who I interviewed for the article. First of all, even after years of reviewing classroom video with teachers and chatting with them, I had no idea how compelling the video of their own classrooms was to them. (By the way I've never had the experience of being the one taped while teaching, though now I'm curious to try it.) Hearing these new stories and thinking about this topic again today, it occurs to me how the sort of shock-value of seeing oneself teach (volume of voice, hand gestures, all that kind of stuff one wouldn't be aware of otherwise - never smiling, as in Barb's story) is one specific use video can be put to - something that happened incidentally in our study and for most of us would probably best be had as a one-time experience. Mostly, the teachers I interviewed (as well as teachers posting comments today) benefitted from watching their learners, and analysing their own teaching via their learners' behavior. Our research videos were necessarily focused on learners, so they didn't always even include the teachers directly. I wonder if this wouldn't be a good format for video as a pd activity? It seems like it worked as well as it did because the video and the surrounding discussing revolved almost entirely around students. Could teachers just video their students and use the videos to improve their own teaching? That seems like a very elegant way to do this. Also, I like the idea of showing video to learners. We did this in our study as well, but not over time. Especially in an ESOL class this seems like a great and obvious tool both for teacher reflection and for learners to get a sense of their own progress...Anyway, sorry so long. It's nice to meet you guys and hear your thoughts on this topic-

Jessica

From: djrosen@comcast.net
Date: Tuesday - June 6, 2006 8:36 AM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 312] Re: Reflections on Video as a ProfessionalDevelopment Tool

Hello Julie, Jessica, and others

As a teacher in training I was videotaped in 1969. VHS was relatively new then, but it was widely used in the University of Massachusetts Graduate School of Education. There was a protocol called _Microteaching_, which had been developed by Dwight Allen at Stanford in the mid 1960's, before he was the Dean of Education at UMass Amherst. For some information on Microteaching, see:
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microteaching ]
[ http://fdc.fullerton.edu/learning/CASTL/carnegie_microteaching_materials.htm ]

I remember getting three kinds of useful feedback ("feedback" was new jargon in education then):

1) seeing myself teach (not an entirely positive experience);

2) getting comments from other teacher trainees and a master teacher; and

3) getting comments from the students who were videotaped about what they thought I was trying to do, how effective it was, and what was happening from their perspectives.

Some of the comments from students were especially helpful. I realized that I was reaching only about half of the class and that, while my (very oral) presentation style of presentation worked well for them, it wasn't working for the others. That caused be to ask some good questions like: What other styles of teaching and learning are there? What do we know about the match of teacher styles of presentation and student styles of learning? Is it possible for a teacher to learn or strengthen other styles? And so on.

I also remember that it was important to have a structured process, where the teaching/learning objectives were clear at the outset, and were a main reference point for the comments later.

Finally I remember thinking that this "slice of teaching" approach also had its limitations and wasn't representative of the actual ebb and flow of the classroom teaching process over time.

David J. Rosen
newsomeassociates.com
djrosen@comcast.net

From: Barbara Garner b.garner4@verizon.net
Date: Tuesday - June 6, 2006 2:54 PM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 313] Re: Reflections on Video as aProfessional Development Tool

When we (the FOB editorial board and me) were working with Jessica to edit this article, I was surprised at how FEW of the editorial board members had used video in any professional development activities.

How about you, list members? Let us know if you HAVE or HAVE NOT been videoed, or HAVE or HAVE NOT used video as a professional development tool.

Barb Garner

From: e.b.shupe@lycos.com
Date: Wednesday - June 7, 2006 8:38 AM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 314] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.

Hi Everyone,
Unfortunately I've never had the experience of being taped while teaching, but I have watched videos of other teachers in the process and the experience has been enlightening. It directed my attention to my own ideological beliefs about teaching and learning. What were my expectations of learners and how did those expectations connect with larger issues that impact teachers such as time constraints, and program goals(to mention only a few). I think videotaping classes does give teachers an opportunity to have a more critical look at the impact of their teaching on learners, and similarly would give learners an opportunity to speak on behalf of their own learning experience which is further reflection for teachers. As part of the requirements for a english language teaching certificate program at the new school I will be required to videotape three of the classes I will be teaching this coming fall. I'll keep you posted.

Esther Shupe

From: Janet_Isserlis@brown.edu
Date: Wednesday - June 7, 2006 1:45 PM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 317] Re: Discussion starts today: Video asaProfessional Development Tool

All

Apologies for the delayed response - have been out of town.

We decided to tape as part of a three-year demonstration project (of sorts) designed to assist ESOL teachers in integrating literacy into 'regular' ESOL classes - as opposed to a pull-out model, which generally consisted of having volunteers work on literacy with ESOL students one-on-one during class time (and out of the classroom).

We were trying to find ways to incorporate strategies addressing literacy for learners with roughly equivalent abilities with aural/oral language. Part of that work including demonstration classes at the site, and part of our documentation, initially, was through both written accounts and video recording. Once we began reviewing the tapes, we also saw their great potential as professional development tools - both for those who are being taped, as well as for others. I've used the tapes (years later) with university students who are working in literacy programs) as a means of asking them to watch the tape, share observations, reflections and respond to some guided questions about the teaching and learning they see.

Janet

From: Barbara Garner b.garner4@verizon.net
Date: Wednesday - June 7, 2006 5:42 PM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 320] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.

The only other Focus on Basics article that features videotaping that I can think of is by Reuel Kurzet, in Volume 5, Issue D (http://www.ncsall.net/?id=232). She writes about the NCSALL Lab School at Portland State's use of audio and video taping, and how looking together at a piece of tape gives folks a shared experience they can talk about.

Reuel emphasizes describing rather than judging what appears in a video of a classroom as an important first step. What have other folks' experiences been: if you have seen yourself or your students in a video, what process do you use when viewing it?

Barb Garner
Editor, Focus on Basics

From: Virginia Tardaewether tarv@chemeketa.edu
Date: Wed Jun 7 16:44:29 EDT 2006
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 320] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.

I've used video on my own evaluation and had students use it for theirs. It is a useful tool and helps one be objective about what really happens in a group. We used to set the video up and leave it on regularly, then review what we noticed as a group (students and instructors). We found it a useful tool for program improvement.

From: akohring@utk.edu
Date: Thursday - June 8, 2006 9:23 AM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 322] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.

Virginia,

I'm glad you mentioned how students used video as a resource for themselves. I remember observing a classroom that was doing a series of lessons around speaking and listening with a goal of preparing for work interviews. The students really found video useful as an assessment for how well they performed.

Aaron

Subject: [FocusOnBasics 323] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.
From: David Rosen djrosen at comcast.net
Date: Thu Jun 8 10:59:30 EDT 2006

Aaron and others,

I would like to see our field have a large digital video collection of excellent examples of teaching. These "learning objects," or relatively short classroom digital video clips, could demonstrate for example: a teaching approach, technique, or method; a way of organizing a classroom; a way to integrate technology; or a way to use certain materials. Each clip could be linked to a widely agreed- upon teaching quality standard. It should be online, accessible free to teachers anytime, anywhere, and also to those who could use them in their online or face-to-face professional development courses or workshops.

Some examples of this exist in the area of integrating technology in the classroom. In our field this began several years ago with the very well done, and still relevant "Captured Wisdom" project by Lynda Ginsburg, Jennifer Elmore and others http://www.ncrtec.org/pd/cw/adultlit.htm . Current good work is being done in California by Marian Thacher and others at OTAN http://www.otan.us/Itap/index.cfm?fuseaction=videogallery . These are short classroom examples of teachers and students integrating technology well. I have learned a lot about how to integrate technology well from both Captured Wisdom and OTAN instructional Technology Assistance Project videos.

There are also examples of digital videos on line from the Portland, Oregon National Labsite for Adult ESOL [http://www.labschool.pdx.edu/ video_demo.html ] , a FOB article on this at [ http://www.ncsall.net/? id=987 ] and an archived discussion which began on this list in February, 2006
[ http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/focusonbasics/2006/000157.html ].

Are there other online digital video examples of good adult education teaching?

I think we need a major, multiyear national project to build an online digital searchable database of "standards-based" examples of good teaching. Would this be useful to you as a teacher, tutor, administrator, or professional developer? If so, what would you like to see in this database?

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net

Subject: [FocusOnBasics 324] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.
From: Jessica Tomkins jessicatomkins at gmail.com
Date: Thu Jun 8 11:07:23 EDT 2006

Hi-
I'm thinking- in response to Esther & Dominique's comments on the disconnectedness of adult educators- tt this is an issue within schools as well as across the field that can be addressed by using video. One of the teachers I interviewed pointed out that two willing teachers could easily video each other and then sit around and discuss their classes - that this is essentially free and effective for improving one's teaching (in his experience). I think in k-12 schools it is often a mentor & novice teacher who pair up to do this, but is seems like it would work the best with peers. I heard a lot from the teachers I interviewed about the importance to them of not being judged or evaluated - of course they meant by researchers, but I suspect the lack of evaluation left them as open as they were to seeing their classrooms from a new perspective. I guess I'm thinking about two things - first of all video as a way of connecting p/t teachers (perhaps) who wouldn't have a chance to cross paths or really work together. what do you think? also, how important is the type of discussion and the level of judgement? is it better to focus on students, is it better to really analyze one's own teaching directly, or does self-conciousness then get in the way and ruin the process? i know there are probably many different answers to this question, but while we're rolling with this as a pd tool, i'm wondering if there is a generally good way to use it - guidelines, perhaps, based on everyone's experiences...
jessica

Subject: [FocusOnBasics 325] Re: Video as aProfessional Development Tool
From: Missy Slaathaug mslaathaug at midco.net
Date: Thu Jun 8 14:18:43 EDT 2006

Greetings,

We are working here in South Dakota to strengthen our teacher training and ongoing professional development system. One tool that we have looked at is video-taping. Some of us feel this would be an extremely useful tool, especially given the distances between our centers and the travel, time and funding barriers that arise to many other PD options, like peer observation.

We do feel, however, that there would be a great deal of resistance to using video taping by many of our teachers.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to overcome this negative perception of using video-taping as a PD tool?

Thank you.

Missy Slaathaug
ESL State Specialist
South Dakota
mslaathaug at midco.net

Subject: [FocusOnBasics 326] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.
From: Jacobson, Erik EJacobson at air.org
Date: Thu Jun 8 14:37:32 EDT 2006

I think an archive could be useful and it would be great if it were interactive. Looking at how the videos are uploaded to "You Tube" might be helpful. Once a video is up at that site anybody that watches the video can do three things.

1. Give it a grade (not so useful in this case, maybe, because the videos would probably be vetted to begin with)

2. Post a comment (and the comments are available for other people to read and react to)

3. Tag the video with codes (e.g., Nirvana, grunge, Seattle). This code helps people when they are searching through the 40,000 videos uploaded to You Tube daily.

The coding and comments could work together in a really instructive way. For example, I could watch a video clip and tag it with a code - say, teacher participation in pair work (a NCSALL study). I think this would be helpful because any given clip of teaching could be used for many type of examples (look at what the teacher is doing in terms of body language, look at how the students are working together, what are the materials used, etc.) I think having this flexibility would add to the way people would use the resource. Yes, of course, you should be able to search by standards and video clips to be attached to standards (i.e., here is an example of what has been defined as a best practice), but we should also take advantage of the communal productive aspect of the internet and allow for more democratic development of what is called best practice.

It would be even better if we could connect the comment section to the code. So I could look at a clip that has gotten multiple codes - pair work, intermediate ESL, present perfect progressive - and then click on a comment section connected to one of those codes. This would help organize the asynchronous conversation around the multiple topics the clip would speak to.

Erik

From: tarv@chemeketa.edu
Date: Thursday - June 8, 2006 3:38 PM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 327] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.

We're thinking of using video for our natural resource crew evaluations this summer. Pre test: their answers and manner on video. Post test: same questions-answers and manner on video.
Va

From: djrosen@comcast.net
Date: Thursday - June 8, 2006 3:56 PM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 328] Re: Video as aProfessional Development Tool

Missy, you wrote:

We do feel, however, that there would be a great deal of resistance to using video taping by many of our teachers.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to overcome this negative perception of using video-taping as a PD tool?

Thank you.

Missy Slaathaug
ESL State Specialist
South Dakota
mslaathaug@midco.net

Here are six suggestions:

1. Use videotaping in the context of a peer coaching model where two teachers from the same center (or if there is one, a nearby center) are paired, and use a structured process to help each other to improve their teaching.
2. Provide the equipment -- and training on how to use it -- including the technical aspects, free.
3. Provide teachers with paid professional development time to do a peer-coaching project.
4. Make it clear that this is not part of their performance evaluation.
5. Provide articles (and videotapes?) on the process which they can look at before they decide whether or not to try it.
6. Let teachers know that you will provide a stipend and travel expenses for a (selected) pair of teachers who want to present their peer coaching project at a state, regional or national conference.

David J. Rosen
newsomeassociates.com
djrosen@comcast.net

From: julie_mcKinney@worlded.org
Date: Friday - June 9, 2006 12:35 PM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 329] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.

David mentioned a video collection for the field, and referenced, among others, the Lab School in Portland, where they actually do have huge collection of videos that can be accessed for research use, and probably for PD efforts as well. Dominique, and/or anyone else from the Lab School, can you tell us more about how this works with the video collection? How can programs from around the country access this collection? It seems like a very unique, and possibly underused resource!

Read more about the lab school and their use of video in Volume 8A of FOB:

The Lab School
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=987

This issue also has several articles about how teachers used the videos for research in ESOL learning.

Julie

From: e.b.shupe@lycos.com
Date: Friday - June 9, 2006 2:15 PM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 331] Re: Discussion: video as a prof. devlpmt tool.

Jessica and all,
Yes I agree, I think that videotaping could help teachers to connect, especially those of us who are on the periphery.

Just a few thoughts on the uses of videotaping as PD for adult educators: If you look at videotaping as a means of critical reflection, it could help raise the consciousness of teachers, helping them better identify and challenge the assumptions that drive their teaching practices. For example, one goal might be toward a “critical teaching” approach (I think coined by Shor). One important goal of this approach is to begin to look at how teachers can help students to think more critically about their learning. Videotaping the classroom dynamics could be of both the student and the teacher and the reflection part could take various different forms. One focus might be on the methodological practices that strengthen or weaken learner’s ability to think and act creatively in the classroom. Many types of reflective questions in this area are already out there and available to use.

I can say from experience that many learners come to the classroom with preconceived notions about “learning” developed from their K-12 experience. The same is true of teachers. Because many teachers working with adult learners are unaware of the different aspects of adult learner motivation, many lack the skills to approach teaching in a way from would facilitate greater insight for their adult learners.

Visual aids are always a powerful tool in helping to to uncover hidden dynamics at work, As a result, helping teachers to create a more meaningful learning environment for their learners. I know this would be a huge undertaking (money and time commitment on the part of the institution, teacher and student) further it would require that teachers be onboard in terms of being open to changing the way they approach teaching and learning, but I think it would be worth the effort and I know that I would be highly motivated to participate in this type of PD.

Esther

From: julie_mcKinney@worlded.org Date: Saturday - June 10, 2006 9:49 AM
Date: Saturday - June 10, 2006 9:49 AM
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 332] Thanks to Jessica and everyone!

Jessica, and everyone who contributed to this discussion,

Thank you! It was enriching to hear the idea of using video as a professional development tool examined as closely and thoughtfully as you have all done.

You have documented a variety of benefits for teachers, both experienced and new, and learners that can come from watching videos. You also shared many suggestions, including:

- focus on the students and their behavior, both in filming and reviewing
- have students also review the videos and comment
- don't be videotaped too many times
- use videos for students to evaluate themselves
- describe rather than judge when viewing videos
- use as a way to connect part-time teachers
- use in study circles
- use for peer coaching
- develop and use a video database for our field

There is too much to summarize here, but I encourage you to look back at the discussion to recall the points that resonate with you, and hopefully some of you can further discuss this method of professional development within your programs. You can find the discussion on the Literacy Tent ALE Wiki at the following link:

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Video_as_a_Professional_Development_Tool

By the way, you can find many other useful resources and discussions on this Wiki! The home page is at:

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Main_Page

Again Everyone, thanks for a great discussion! (And rest up--another one starts on Monday!)

All the Best,

Julie

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Video as a Professional Development Tool

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