Applying Child Development Theories to Classroom Videos: Preservice Teachers Construct Multimedia Narratives

• In Event: Cyber-Enabled Research That Repurposes a Major Video Collection on Students' Mathematical Reasoning

Abstract

Digital video provides a powerful tool for learning and assessment (Schwartz & Hartman, 2007). By repurposing video data originally collected for longitudinal studies of children building mathematical ideas through problem solving in a supportive classroom environment, we are investigating how learners are able to apply theories of child development from a textbook to what they see in the videos. The task, in which learners use a new technology tool to construct multimedia narratives by editing and annotating videos to convey their perspectives on topics they choose, makes novice knowledge visible through representational practice (Stevens, 2007). For designers and instructors, the task lets us assess not only what leaners notice but also how they acquire a skill and express their explanatory knowledge (Schwartz & Hartman, 2007). The study presented here builds on outcomes from instructional designs implemented in earlier exploratory research that showed how providing appropriate scaffolds led to better quality outcomes (Authors., 2014).

Participants were 16 graduate students, predominantly pre-service elementary teachers, enrolled in an introductory-level child psychology course. They used the VMC videos and RUanalytic tool to construct a VMCAnalytic for a course assignment. The intervention design included giving students time to view a selection of videos featuring the same children across grades 1-4 and to discuss their observations in an online forum prior to commencing work on their VMCAnalytic. Technology scaffolds included a hands-on session in a computer lab, sharing an example of a VMCAnalytic (Authors, 2015) made from videos they had viewed, and access to video tutorials as on-demand help for using features of the RUanalytic tool. Students checked with the instructor about the appropriateness of their chosen topic and shared a draft of their VMCAnalytic with a partner to get peer feedback prior to submitting their completed work. The design thus employed two mechanisms to support learning: (1) structuring the task to make it more manageable, and (2) shaping it in ways that make learners’ activities more productive (Reiser, 2004).

VMCAnalytics were evaluated by the designer and the instructor using a scoring rubric, adapted from prior research (Authors, 2014) and presented to students in their syllabus, with 5-point scale for each of five criteria: clarity of topic, evidence to support claims, connections to course content, quality of writing, and flow of the multimedia narrative. The VMCAnalytics spanned an interesting range of topics in children’s social and cognitive development, such as Piagetian theory, Erickson’s psychosocial stages, metacognition, executive function, and synaptic pruning and strengthening. Overall, they scored very well, with a low of 16, a high of 25, and a mean of 22.69 points per VMCAnalytic. The scores were strong across all five categories, with means ranging from 4.38 for evidence to 4.63 for connections. Outcomes from this study suggest that, with the provision of appropriate scaffolds, novices can successfully acquire the skills to apply theoretical concepts about child development from their textbook to classroom video and express their explanatory knowledge, coherently and substantiated with evidence, in a powerful new way.

Author

• Marjory F. Palius, Rutgers University - New Brunswick/Piscataway