Source: Action in Teacher Education, v. 31 no. 1 (Spring 2009) p. 75-86.
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)
Research and practice going back to the 1960s support the use of videotaping to facilitate preservice teachers' development of reflective teaching skills. Emerging research suggests that additional video-based activities, including editing video vignettes of teaching, can deepen preservice teachers' reflection.
This action research study describes the incorporation of a video-editing activity in an "Introduction to Reflective Teaching Practice" course. Key features of the video-editing activities included
(1) active videotaping of preservice teachers' field teaching by university supervisors,
(2) self-directed video review by preservice teachers to support writing a reflective lesson analysis,
(3) selection and editing of video vignettes by preservice teachers to illustrate their written reflections, and
(4) posting of video vignettes on the students' electronic portfolio pages.
Furthermore, the project explored students' perceptions of the video review and editing activities and whether the use of video would lead to changes in preservice teachers' process of writing reflective lesson analyses. These questions were addressed through the analysis of data gathered from three sources:
1. questionnaire completed by students at the beginning of class that ascertained the students' incoming levels of experience with reflection, being videotaped, and video production activities, such as camera operation and editing;
2. questionnaire completed by students at the conclusion of the class that gathered their estimates of the number of times that they watched the video of the first lesson (video for review only) and the video of the second lesson (video review plus editing)-the questionnaire also asked students to comment on the advantages and disadvantages of video activities and on technical difficulties that they encountered; and
3. interviews conducted by the instructional technology researcher with a random selection of students who completed the course, to elicit more in-depth comments based on the questionnaires.
16 preservice teachers in a required reflective teaching course participated in this study.
The questionnaire completed at the beginning of the semester revealed that 94% of the students had some experience with reflective writing, from keeping a personal diary to performing assignments in earlier teacher education classes. Most of the participating students (87%) had experience being videotaped, whereas many (67%) had experience with video production activities, such as operating a camcorder or using video-editing software.
Analysis of students' perceptions revealed considerable nervousness with the videotaping process, but an appreciation of having video for personal feedback and to support reflective analysis.
The authors present five characteristics of feasible and effective video-based viewing and editing activities.
1. Students engage in viewing and evaluating authentic video of other teachers as a prelude to analyzing their own teaching video.
2. Students are actively videotaped during classroom teaching by the university supervisor, cooperating teacher, peer, or other capable person.
3. Students are provided with a DVD recording of their teaching immediately after presenting a lesson.
4. Students are provided with guidance for reviewing their teaching video and selecting illustrative video segments of critical incidents.
5. Students are provided with training to import and edit digital video footage(FN3) and attach video clips to their electronic portfolio page.
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