Using a video app as a tool for reflective practice

Abstract

ABSTRACTBackground: Videos have been shown to be beneficial in helping teachers reflect on their teaching practice and in contributing to their professional development, as they allow teachers and their mentors and colleagues to analyse teaching from different perspectives.Purpose: This study investigated the perceptions and experiences of some student teachers and their supervisors who used a video application during one practicum period. Student teachers recorded each other’s lessons with the video app, and supervisors oversaw student teachers online, via a portal. The study aimed to explore how far the app constituted a useful tool for student teachers’ professional development and for the supervision of student teachers’ practice.Sample, design and method: The data were collected by gathering the experiences of 12 student teachers and 9 supervisors. Data included focus groups, interviews and video diaries. Analysis was undertaken using principles of content analysis and phenomenographic analysis such as thematising, coding and categorising.Results: Findings suggested that student teachers in general felt that the video app supported their self-reflection. The influence on their professional development may have been limited by factors including lack of guidance for individual and collaborative reflection. Using the video app as a supervisory tool was regarded as challenging in some ways, particularly because video clips taken out of context were unable to capture the classroom’s atmosphere, environment and culture.Conclusions: The study highlights that video excerpts in themselves do not provide a sufficient basis for lesson observation. However, the study’s results draw attention to the app’s potential for guiding individual and collaborative video-based reflection. Consideration should be given to the changes that video-elicited reflection encourages with respect to supervision and its effects on the roles of supervisor and student teacher.