A Framework for the Facilitation of Teachers’ Analysis of Video

• In Event: Issues in the Facilitation of Video-Based Professional Development

Abstract

Video is being used more widely in professional development to help teachers learn to systematically analyze teaching practice. Video captures the authenticity and complexity of teaching and can promote the examination of classroom interactions in a deliberate and focused way (Goldsmith & Seago, 2010). However, simply viewing video does not ensure teacher learning. An important question concerns how to facilitate substantive analysis of teaching practice with video so that it becomes a productive learning tool for teachers. Research on facilitation in professional development focuses on the nature of facilitator knowledge and beliefs for promoting inquiry into practice and the personal and pedagogical frameworks to advance teacher learning (Jenlink & Kinnucan-Welsch, 2001; Le Fevre & Richardson, 2000.) This study adopts a different lens and examines the in-the-moment moves facilitators make to accomplish the goals of PD. We examine how facilitators of two video-based professional development programs shape, focus, and support teachers’ inquiries into practice. In prior research, we found that teachers who participated in these programs learned to focus on the mathematically important details of student thinking (Goldsmith & Seago, 2008; Sherin & van Es, 2009). This study focuses on how the facilitators helped these groups of teachers learn to inquire into the teaching and learning represented in video.

Data for this study come from two video-based PD programs. One we refer to as highly specified, which uses published materials with pre-set agendas and activities (Seago, Mumme, & Branca, 2004), and the other, what we call emergent, has overarching goals but does not have pre-defined curriculum (Sherin, 2000). Data includes meeting discussion transcripts (n = 8, 10) for each program. Qualitative methods were used to characterize the nature of facilitation in each context and to generate a framework for facilitating productive discussions across these contexts.

Our analysis identifies three categories of moves across both programs. The first category, Analyzing Video, refers to moves for identifying and interpreting important ideas from the video. These include highlighting interesting mathematical ideas captured in video, modeling evidence-based analysis by focusing on the particulars in the interactions and offering alternative interpretations, and probing teachers to explain their thinking, assumptions, and beliefs about teaching and learning. The second category, Working Together, refers to moves that support developing collegial interactions and the exchange of ideas. These include providing space for making thinking public, promoting the exchange of ideas, and pressing on thinking by comparing and contrasting different ideas or perspectives. Finally, the third category, Making Connections, refers to moves to connect ideas proposed by teachers in current or prior conversations, between participating teachers’ mathematical ideas and those of the students viewed in the video, or between teaching viewed in video and their own practice. Analysis points to a relationship between moves within and across categories with some coordination of moves promoting more substantive conversations. These findings have implications for the design of professional development by highlighting practices of facilitation with video to make this a productive tool for teacher learning.

Authors

• Elizabeth A. van Es, University of California - Irvine

• Jessica Tunney, University of California - Irvine

• Nanette M. Seago, WestEd

• Lynn T. Goldsmith, Education Development Center, Inc.