Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Teachers College Educational ...

Gone in an Instant: Using Visual Media to Improve Teacher
Professional Practice Participation
Dino Sossi,
Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120 th Street, New York, NY, 10027,
Email: dds2130@columbia.edu
Abstract: The unrelenting demands of the typical public school environment conspire
against the educator who aspires to be reflective in her practice. It is simply difficult to
have the time as well as the ability to revisit either the content or the pedagogy that are
the constituent elements of instructional practice. Fortunately, technology can play a
positive role in assisting the conscientious, but overburdened, educator. Low-cost,
consumer digital video equipment allows an increasingly diverse group of people to
record themselves regardless of situations. Within an educational environment,
unobtrusive, economical video cameras allow teachers to document their own practice.
Educators can record aspects of school-life without the distraction inherent to large-scale
video production. This exploratory work-in-progress focuses on a pair of 2nd Grade
Collaborative Team Teaching (CTT) educators who recorded instruction within their
classroom to promote in-service self-reflection.
Introduction
The onset of low-cost, easy-to-use digital video production equipment has allowed an increasingly diverse
group of people to record themselves in an even wider array of situations. Cheaply-priced, compact-sized
video cameras allow teachers to become their own video documentarians. As a result, educators can
record various aspects of school-life without the distraction of video production crews or large, weighty
and highly intrusive recording equipment. This research project focuses on teacher-recorded instruction
within a 2nd Grade Collaborative Team Teaching (CTT) Science classroom to promote teacher selfreflection.
This research is set within the context of a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM) education program situated in a poor urban elementary school.
Methods
There were a variety of research methods implemented within this study. The main method utilized
included the Collaborative Team Teachers (CTT) who instruct their class using video cameras to
document the progress of their lessons. They teach a 2nd Grade class including Science. After they
finished shooting the footage, the classroom teachers were provided with a series of guiding questions to
help frame their analysis of the video that was captured. The areas of research interest included thoughts
about the lessons they gave as a whole, the strengths of their instruction, the modes of assessment used
within class, the changing levels of student engagement during class, as well as possible avenues they
could explore in terms of pedagogy. Also, teachers were directly asked if the process of video recording
had any effect on teacher self-reflection as well as professional development and, if so, what was it. Due
to the first-person nature of the shooting, the video largely covered student-student interaction and
teacher-student interaction when children were prompted as well as improvised student utterances.
In terms of the demographics of this particular class, the study was situated within a 2nd Grade Science
program mandated by an urban public school board where it operated. The word “urban” is used as a
means to describe the demographics, physical location and socioeconomic status of the school’s
clientele. This elementary school receives Title 1 funding with 89% designated as being eligible. The
school is a Pre-Kindergarten through 5th Grade elementary school was located in a large metropolitan
city. In order of decreasing percentage of representation, students were 79% Hispanic, 18% Black, 2%
White and 0.2% Asian students. Student participants were enrolled in the 2nd grade. The subject matter
involved Science.
Evidence
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