Implementing Teacher Noticing Video Reflection to Encourage Deeper Thinking

• In Event: Designing for and Studying Teacher Learning: Analyzing Recent Professional Development Initiatives for Social Studies Inquiry Teaching

Abstract

Objective and Perspective
Unfortunately, far too few social studies students experience the deep learning and higher order thinking (HOT) that democratic citizenship demands (Saye & SSIRC, 2013; Saye et al., 2018). In a recent three-year study on Lesson Study PD, we found teachers applied the design principles learned in the PD to independently created lessons but implemented the lessons in ways that led to wide variation on student thinking and learning (Authors, 2015; 2018). This demonstrated the important role of teacher decision-making while implementing a complex lesson on the level of student thinking.

Kisa and Stein (2015) found teacher noticing video reflection made teachers become more attentive to student thinking and led to those teachers raising the intellectual rigor of science lessons through close monitoring of students’ thinking and strategic questioning. In this paper we report the results of following two secondary teachers who participated in a two-week seminar focused on teaching constitutional and ethical reasoning through Supreme Court cases. The teachers videotaped their lesson implementation and participated in a teacher-noticing video reflection protocol to investigate two questions:
1. What challenges do teachers and students face in using constitutional and ethical reasoning?
2. What do teachers notice regarding the role of the teacher in influencing student thinking in video reflection?

Research Methods
This study was an emergent design case study (Creswell & Poth, 2018). Twenty-four secondary teachers participated in a two-week seminar designed to teach constitutional and legal reasoning. Sessions included content from historians and constitutional law scholars, model lessons demonstrating pedagogical strategies, and Lesson Study curriculum development sessions. Because of the pandemic, only two teachers volunteered to film their lesson implementation and participate in a teacher-noticing reflection protocol. The teachers watched their lesson implementation making note of what they noticed. Researchers watched the lesson, coding for ethical and constitutional reasoning successes and challenges amongst the students and teachers. Researchers then conducted a teacher noticing interview over Zoom, which consisted of the teachers reporting what they noticed from their initial viewing. We then played the video a second time and asked the teachers to stop the film anytime they wanted to share something they noticed about the level of student thinking or their role in influencing student thinking levels in the lesson. Coding was done independently and then collaboratively to find emergent themes.

Results and Significance
We found the teachers underestimated the intellectual demand of the task and did not allocate enough time to the activities demanding deep analysis and discussion. The teachers showed a lack of understanding of the difference between constitutional reasoning and civic reasoning. For example, one teacher confused implementing a law with interpreting a law based on the Constitution. Teachers articulated the importance and features of classroom climate in generating deep thinking but did not independently communicate specific areas where student thinking could have been deeper or more sophisticated. The teacher noticing reflection protocol generated introductory conversations with teachers about students’ constitutional and ethical reasoning, but additional sessions would be needed to inspire independent analysis.

Authors

• Jada Kohlmeier, Auburn University
  Presenting Author

• Terrance Joshua Lewis, Auburn University
  Presenting Author

• Jesus Tirado
  Presenting Author