Using Video to Facilitate Peer Coaching

• In Event: Reframing Teaching and Learning: A Self-Study of Teacher Educators Developing Constructivist Models of Online Practice

Abstract

HELEN

Developing Peer Coaching by Sharing Videos Online

Objectives
• To facilitate collaborative work among teachers
• To develop clinical teaching skills in literacy educators
Theoretical Perspectives
This study builds emerges from the perspectives of self-study and constructivist theory. The literature of self study demonstrates ways in which teacher educators may become better informed not only about the learning that occurs within a situation but also of possibilities for developing appropriate alternatives for future experiences (Loughran, Hamilton, LaBoskey, & Russell, 2004). Social constructivists (Bruner, 1986; Vygotsky, 1922,35,78) describe how both adults and children learn through experience New understandings emerge through verbal and non-verbal interactions with others.
In this study, both the teaching faculty and graduate students are having opportunities to work individually and in small groups to examine their practice. The students share and critique videos of their practice in online forums. The faculty shares their experiences with the Online Research Group. In so doing, teachers of all ages and experiences have opportunities to closely examine their own work and that of their peers.

Methods and Data Sources
The study is a self-study/ case study. It draws on student work samples (videos posted on line and related commentary), and meeting notes from the Online Research Group to identify patterns and categories.

Findings
Before implementing this online practice, I had a more limited understanding of students’ learning. Their class work and final papers showed a much more limited of their growth and development than I was able to see in the online work. Analysis of forum entries showed clear points along the path to effective planning and implementation. Many students who cannot yet effectively plan and implement lessons may:
• make meaningful connections to theory and research that do not always surface in their own practice
• Recognize effective literacy practices when others implement them
• Identify missteps colleagues take in their practice
• Support colleagues by naming alternatives to these practices
• Identify and explain what worked or did not work in their own lessons after viewing the lessons of others.

Significance
The data suggests that the gift of time that occurs in asynchronous courses facilitates the social construction of knowledge. Students are able to engage with each other at a time that works for them rather than when the class meets. They can revisit the forum as often as they need. The use of video clarifies both what colleagues say and what they read in the research. Teaching online may facilitate a paradigm change for all participants, students and faculty, by providing a new and authentic window into the research on teacher cognition

References:
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Loughran, M.L.Hamilton, V.K. LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), (2004) International handbook of self-study of teacher education practices. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Vygotsky, L. (1922, 1935, 1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. In: M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner & E. Souberman (Eds), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Author

• Helen Freidus, Bank Street College of Education