Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Teachers College Educational ...

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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 69
A variety of data sources were collected to act as evidence within this research study. To provide context, the researchers had worked previously in a professional development setting over the past calendar year. After successfully working together on an initial research project, the participating teachers suggested that they wanted to build on previous research where the researchers had previously video recorded their lessons while visiting the classroom to recording their own instruction themselves. The CTT teachers video recorded their instruction in a documentary-style manner where they included their instruction as well as any interactions that occurred within the classroom. The footage was screened with the video being examined in terms of analyzing and reflecting on the quality of the classroom instruction. The teachers then commented on the video in a written form using guiding questions suggested by the researchers that would narrow the analysis to a more manageable frame. To ensure that the data collected was accurate, valid and reliable, the researchers visited the classroom and assisted students to become a more seamless part of the classroom culture not only within Science, but across subject matter. This helped the researchers develop thick and rich descriptions of this particular classroom culture. To help corroborate these findings, the classroom teachers revisited the substance of the classroom lessons by watching video from instruction. In this instance, by having teachers re-examine personally shot footage, it helps them to develop their own ideas about their classroom practice. The subject matter of the lessons focused on school board-created curriculum standards in 2nd Grade Science. In addition to the video recording, additional student-generated data included notebooks, drawings and personal testimonials to the camera that were inspired by teacher questioning as well as their own improvised oral utterances. The notebooks and drawings were requested by the classroom teachers to corroborate the students’ in-class observations. Scholarly significance of the study There are simply too few science teachers across the US (Ingersoll, 1999). In an increasingly globalized economy that puts a premium on information processing, we need to fully teach the knowledge-base and skills inherent to science education through our Science curriculum. By utilizing existing technology tools that allow educators to more effectively use the communicative and social aspects of digital media production, we have a better chance of improving in-service teacher professional development in both scientific subjects as well as student Science learning. By implementing and investigating teacher-video recorded action research regarding their classroom teaching within the practical surroundings of a 2nd grade Science class, we have the potential to improve teacher professional development in Science education and the learning experience of students. There are many affordances with respect to video recording technologies, such as asynchronous screening of classroom instruction, which actively incorporate visual and aural elements of in-class instruction. These hold promise for improved Science education as well as its impact on students. References Ingersoll, R.M. (1999). Turnover and shortages among science and mathematics teachers in the United States. Science Teacher Retention: Mentoring and Renewal. Issues in Science Education, SE 066 056. 70
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Table of Contents Math Strategies i
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Harnessing the Power of Emotionally
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Think Facts introduces four charact
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Guidelines for an Online Networking
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Mode S = Synchronous A=Asynchronous
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Investigating Potential Factors to
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Investigating the Effects of Choice
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Videogames in Institutional Practic
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Youth in the Digital Age: Digital M
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Augmenting The Arrival: Students’
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Page 27 and 28: MOOCs, Open Education, and Implicat
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Page 31 and 32: Figure 2: Monster Appetite in actio
Page 33 and 34: This year, the first participant gr
Page 35 and 36: Figure 2: The Aesthetigraph represe
Page 37 and 38: Digital Modeling Artifacts as Geome
Page 39 and 40: Using Weblogs to Increase Language
Page 41 and 42: Total 3 Advanced Performance Level
Page 43 and 44: “Media Literacy in Action: Using
Page 45 and 46: Learning Science Systems with Graph
Page 47 and 48: Liu, L., & Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (200
Page 49 and 50: Applying Physics to the Real World:
Page 51 and 52: Credibility of Culturally Situated
Page 53 and 54: notion that similarity with the use
Page 55 and 56: Duncan, H., Tan, J. (2012). A Visua
Page 57 and 58: Online Learning Environments in Hig
Page 59 and 60: Exploration of concepts to facilita
Page 61 and 62: Exploring the Intersection of Forma
Page 63 and 64: Barab, S. & Squire, K. (2004). Desi
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Page 67 and 68: #phdchat: a community of practice o
Page 69 and 70: A Difficult Balance: Regulating Cyb
Page 71 and 72: References Bethel School District v
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Page 81 and 82: Figure 2: Interactive functions of
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Page 85 and 86: Design Patterns for Promoting Self-
Page 87 and 88: Cooperative Inquiry in Designing Te
Page 89 and 90: Implications Our work with CI exten
Page 91 and 92: References Allen, E., & Seaman, J.
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