The Role of Video for Self-Evaluation in Early Field Experiences
Source: Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 36 (2013) p. 189-197
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)
This study aimed to investigate the impact of video models on teacher candidates’ readiness for and capacity to self-evaluate their teaching performance in an early fieldwork (EFE) lesson.
Methods
The participants were 31 teacher candidates at a large, urban college of education enrolled in a master’s degree program leading to P-12 state teaching certification in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).
They participated in two sections of a first semester methods course.
The authors provided video models along with evaluation rubrics that represented desired performance standard to one group of pre-service teacher candidates, while another group was provided the descriptions of these lessons and corresponding evaluation rubrics.
The video-model course section had 16 participants and the text only section had 15 participants.
Participants then video recorded their teaching and self-evaluated this performance.
Materials that were collected and analyzed for this study consisted of:
1. Teacher candidates’ written reflections in response to either viewing videos of three EFE lessons and reading accompanying evaluation rubrics (video-model class) or reading descriptions of the lessons and rubric evaluations of these three EFE lessons (text-only class).
2.Teacher candidates’ written reflections in response to viewing their own teaching on video.
3. Teacher candidates’ self-ratings using the EFE observation rubric. This rubric was developed to meet two needs: The need to provide performance feedback for the observed lesson and a scaffold to a much longer rubric.
4. Supervisors’ scores of candidates’ performance on the EFE observation rubric based on the video-recorded lesson (experimental and comparison classes).
The findings indicate that the introduction of video models reduced inflation of scores in self-evaluation and enhanced candidates’ understanding of the expectations for the performance assessment of teaching.
When it was time to assess their own teaching, they felt more prepared to do so and rated themselves more closely to their supervisors than did the group did who had access to written descriptions rather than video models.
In addition, candidates who had access to the video models and rubrics did not overestimate their performance.
Furthermore, both groups of teacher candidates reported that access to supervisors’ completed observation rubrics aided them in planning their lessons.
However, the group that viewed video models seemed able to later apply this knowledge when they engaged in self-evaluation.
The two-dimensional written descriptions of the lessons and supervisors’ ratings were enhanced with the additional
dimension of video, which has been noted in research on the effectiveness of video cases.
Especially notable is the cognitive dissonance experienced by teacher candidates who were able to construct their own beliefs about how the model lessons might be scored prior to weighing those against the supervisors’ ratings.
The teacher candidates who only read the written descriptions of the lessons did not appear to anticipate that their assessment might differ from the assessment of experts; hence no dissonance, or subsequent self-questioning, appeared to be experienced.
Finally, teacher candidates self-evaluated their teaching performance prior to receiving feedback from their supervisor, using both the rubric and open-ended reflective writing.
The data from this phase indicated that the teacher candidates who had access to the video cases were able to align their self-evaluations more with their supervisor’s, and perhaps to be more cautious about jumping to conclusions about the quality of student learning.
This study suggests that video teaching models accompanied with rubric evaluations introduced early in the teacher education program is one way to develop teacher candidates’ emergent understanding of how classroom practice will be evaluated.
Equally important is the opportunity for teacher candidates to discuss and reflect on these models, especially in relation to their videotaped practice.
This work could also build readiness for self-evaluation in the teacher education program, which is important in all contexts for teacher preparation.
This study suggests that the opportunity to view videos of competent, proximal others in similar teaching contexts, alongside reviews of these teaching events generated by more experienced others, may create positive social motivation and clarify performance expectations.
The use of peer evaluation could also enhance and scaffold the path from supervisor to self-evaluation.