Design Challenges of On-the-Job, Video-Based Teacher Learning, at Wide Scale

• In Event: 75.019 - Advancing the Knowledge Base to Improve Teaching: Generating a Design Framework for Video-Based Activity Systems

Abstract

Objectives: An enduring challenge in teacher on-the-job learning is how to overcome the divide between the classroom, where teaching takes place, and the staff room, where teachers discuss their practice. One promising means of representing practice for reflection and discussion is through the use of video-recorded lessons (Sherin, 2004). Indeed, considerable research has demonstrated the effectiveness of video as a tool in pre-service and in-service teacher education (Gaudin & Chalies, 2015). However, most studies have involved small-scale interventions, facilitated by the researchers themselves. This paper explores the possibilities and challenges of supporting teachers to use video as the basis for professional discussions independently, and at wide scale.
Theoretical perspectives: Our work is underpinned by research and theory on workplace learning, which shows how professional knowledge and skills are learned on the job, through participation in work practices and informal interactions with colleagues (e.g. Brown & Duguid, 1991; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Webster-Wright, 2009). On-the-job collaboration and deliberation with colleagues around problems of practice is particularly crucial to the development of adaptive expertise in teaching (e.g., Hatano & Inagaki, 1986; Horn, et al., 2017; Authors, 2014). However, one challenge facing such discussions is access to representational resources that make accessible a common object of inquiry. Video-recordings offer a particularly rich and detailed resource for addressing this challenge.
Modes of inquiry: This study focuses on the development, trial, refinement and enactment of a conversational protocol for video-based discussions. We audio-recorded teacher team meetings and professional development sessions, and used linguistic ethnographic methods to analyze select events.
Data sources: Data are drawn from a design based implementation research study of teacher professional discourse and leadership in two large Israeli school districts (currently, 300 teacher teams in 100 schools).
Results and conclusions: In the pilot year, the design team and most partners saw video as the primary means of representing practice and emphasized it strongly. However, some principles informing the protocol’s design (e.g., description precedes analysis which precedes evaluation) were found to conflict with practitioner norms and needs (e.g. immediately saying something positive about the video to the featured teacher), and teachers were resistant to its use. Working with school and district partners, we refined the protocol to accommodate local needs. However, with the programme's expansion, further challenges to wide-scale enactment arose, including technical and time demands of filming and editing video; preference of using video-recordings of teachers from within the team but difficulties managing the ensuing face threats; and the complexity of facilitating video-based discussions and of preparing leading teachers for this task. In the paper, we document the ways in which we have attempted to address these challenges.
Significance: This paper highlights design challenges in moving the use of video from formal, researcher-led professional development activities to large-scale, independent teacher-facilitated discussions. Though we have not resolved all problems encountered, discussion of them and our attempts to address them should facilitate future efforts to design for video-based learning at scale.

Authors

• Adam Lefstein, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Aliza Segal, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Dana Vedder-Weiss, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Christa S.C. Asterhan, Hebrew University