A Framework for Reflective and Feedback Practices That Promote Expertise in Video-Based Online Commenting Systems

• In Event: Exploring Feedback Practices in Novice Teaching Through Online Platforms: A Panel Discussion

Abstract

Video has become an endemic technology in Teacher Education from pre-service through professional development over the course of the last 30 years (Sherin, 2004; Van Es & Sherin, 2009; Sherin & Van Es, 2005). However, the emergence of new technologies in the form of video-based online commenting systems has opened up a range of possibilities for providing feedback to beginning teachers. These new platforms allow teacher educators and teachers to share videos of practice with one another, place annotated feedback directly on the timelines of the videos, and provide meaningful opportunities for teachers to unpack the complexities of their practices through reflection (Rosaen, Lundeberg, Cooper, Fritzen, & Terpstra, 2011; Rich & Hannafin, 2009; Zeichner & Liston, 1996). While these new technologies are exciting, there is still a paucity of information available on the best practices associated with using video-based online commenting systems in early career teacher education. New research is needed to fill these gaps in the knowledge and provide researchers and practitioners with basic parameters for using these new feedback and reflective technologies to improve teachers’ pre-service learning. To contribute to the building of that knowledge, this study asks two questions:
1) In what ways do experts and novices differ in their commenting behaviors when using video-based online commenting systems to reflect on their own practice or share feedback with others?
2) What does this tell us about the technology’s capacity for promoting reflection, feedback, and deliberate practice?

Using Learning Sciences research on the development of expertise (e.g. Argyris, 1997; Schon, 1985; Wenger, 1998; Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999; Ericsson, 2006) as a framework for understanding individuals’ capacity for reflecting and giving feedback on practice, this study explored how coaches in an alternative route teacher education program integrated a video-based commenting system into their routine learning process. This community contained novice Teach for America teachers (n=14) and their expert university-based coaches (n=6). This community served as an ideal site because of the strength of the novice-expert polarity in terms of the participants ability to reason about their own practice from video observation.

Over the course of 9 months, the 20 participants made more than 850 comments on 80 videos. Using a qualitative data analysis system, the researcher proceeded through a Grounded Theory development process using individual comments as a unit of analysis. This analysis of the community’s commenting patterns concludes that expert teachers made use of a three-part consistent verbal pattern in their comments on practice:
1) Identify concrete aspects of teacher actions (Literal Noticings),
2) Make inferences about the effect of these actions on student thinking (Inferential Noticings), and
3) Provide specific suggestions for improvement or pressing questions (Critical Noticings).
After validating the coding using several statistical tests, a binary logistic regression found that using this Literal-Inferential-Critical pattern was predictive of the commenter’s level of expertise (p=.04, r2=.73, 95% case selection accuracy). Other findings include 1) design principles of video feedback systems that scaffold novice noticing properties, 2) patterns for teaching and professional development tools, and 3) further implications for feedback outside of education.

Author

• Daniel Novak, University of Washington - Seattle