Video Club Research Articles

Situating video as context for teacher learning

In this paper we contrast two locally situated models of supporting teacher learning using video reflection: a one-on-one coaching model that was implemented to support teachers in a wide-spread rural school district where in-person meetings were challenging, and a video club model that was implemented in a large, centrally organized school district. In both contexts our goal was to help elementary teachers learn about how they can support students in using representations to learn about science in their classrooms. We take a sociocultural approach to examining how the locally situated professional development models helped mediate the teachers' engagement with the video. Findings show that in both models, collaborative review of video cases helped the teachers to see new patterns and opportunities. We highlight how each was supported by the different models and offer suggestions for how future work can benefit from these opportunities.

Induction Coaches’ experiences with video-augmented coaching in a video club model

ABSTRACT This study examines the results of the first phase of a multi-year programme to integrate the use of video to support induction coaches in a suburban school district. Seven coaches participated in a video club in which they analysed videos of both their coaching conversations and mentees’ classrooms. A typological analysis of interview and video club meeting transcripts revealed perceived benefits of participation in the video club on the coaches’ sense of professional community and the quality of coaching conversations. Coaches also noted reviewing video with mentees stimulated changes in their mentees’ classroom practice. Positioning themselves as learners learning from video alongside mentees created a more egalitarian relationship between coach and mentee. The ‘pragmatic’ professional development design privileged coaches’ autonomy and agency and emphasised developing coaching concepts rather than discrete routines. Obstacles to using video included logistical issues related to video capture as well as the time needed to establish trusting relationships with mentees. Further exploration of the video club model for teacher leader development will inform theories of teacher learning and professional development design.

How much does facilitation matter? Comparing externally and participant-facilitated, MQI-based video clubs

Video clubs have become an increasingly popular professional development model. The literature has suggested that when such video analysis groups lack an external facilitator, teacher participants struggle with focusing on salient aspects of mathematical practice. However, there is little research comparing externally and participant-led facilitation of, otherwise, identical professional development. This paper seeks to add to our understanding of professional development facilitation by reporting on a study in which video clubs were randomly assigned to either externally or participant-led groups for an MQI-based video analysis program. MQI refers to Mathematical Quality of Instruction observational tool, developed by Heather Hill et al. Participants watched lesson segments and scored them using code from the MQI, then discuss their scores using evidence from the clip and the MQI in pairs and then groups. We recorded whole group discussions and coded conversations for research-based, high-quality discourse moves. We also tracked participants MQI scores and coded lesson/video reflections for MQI noticing. We found no differences in either MQI noticing or conversation quality between group types, on average. Despite what current research suggests, we found participant-facilitated groups were able to sustain high-quality conversations as externally facilitated groups, though there was variability within group type. In this paper, we explore some factors which may have contributed to this variation, including the professional development model, itself.

Examination of Classroom Practices of Teachers in the Context of Video Club

In this study, the teachers’ classroom practices for noticing student mathematical thinking were examined. The research was carried out with 5 secondary school mathematics teachers working in Erzurum. Case study, one of qualitative research patterns, was used. The data of the research were collected using video club, and descriptive and content analysis techniques were employed to analyze the data obtained from teachers' own class videos and reflective reports. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the teachers who participated in the same process adopted different approaches towards student thinking in their classroom practices. During the video clubs, which lasted for eleven weeks, the teachers allocated more time to the students’ mathematical thinking, tried to understand and interpret how the students thought, and examined the students’ explanations in detail. In addition, in the reflective reports, they mentioned the importance of noticing students' mathematical thinking and giving them the opportunity to reveal these thoughts and made assessments by associating them with their own teaching practices. As a result, it can be stated that video clubs aided the teachers’ classroom practices to notice the students’ mathematical thinking.

Using video clubs to develop teachers’ thinking and practice in oral feedback and dialogic teaching

ABSTRACT The authors report outcomes of an evaluation of a ‘video club’ intervention to improve the feedback and dialogic teaching practice of 91 teachers from 11 primary schools in England. Participating teachers worked collaboratively in a sequence of six video clubs over a six-month period. To understand teacher engagement they examine videos of video club meetings; online platform use metrics; surveys; selected videos of classroom practice; focus groups; and interviews. They evaluate change in teachers’ thinking and practice using survey results for participants compared to a comparison group of non-participating teachers at the intervention schools. The survey includes a new instrument for gathering evidence of teachers’ thinking and practice in feedback. The results suggested changes in thinking and practice for teachers who self-reported as engaging highly with the intervention. They conclude by discussing the potential of video technology within professional development and the challenges of researching changes in thinking and practice.

Developing a Critical Discourse About Teaching and Learning: The Case of a Secondary Science Video Club

ABSTRACT Video is used widely to support teachers’ learning and enactment of responsive instruction. Informed by principles of video club design, we designed a video club to support secondary science teachers developing a vision of responsive teaching, attention to student thinking, and a critical discourse to analyze their own and others’ efforts to enact responsive practices. In this study, we investigate if and how teachers developed a critical discourse in this context. Analysis reveals that the group developed a more collaborative, interpretive, and evidence-based discourse about teaching and learning. These findings contribute to research on video clubs as a professional development model to support teacher learning, as well as make visible how teachers shifted to develop a more critical lens for discussing teaching and learning. This study has implications for designing professional learning that will result in sustained, generative development in the context of instructional reform.

Video Complexity: Describing Videos Used for Teacher Learning

Video is a common tool to support teacher learning, as it provides opportunity for reflection on teaching practices. Video clubs are one professional learning experience that integrates video, providing teachers an opportunity to collaboratively discuss videos from their teaching. However, few research studies have focused on the characteristics of videos used for teacher learning. We engaged teachers in a video club over the course of an academic year and analyzed the relationships between the videos teachers discussed and the complexity of the videos. Findings indicate teachers were less likely to select videos with higher complexity for discussion; however, they commonly discussed videos that included multiple participation structures for students. Teachers also discussed videos that included teacher questioning and scaffolding, student misconceptions, and those in which student thinking initially seemed inflexible. We provide the Video Complexity Framework for teacher educators and researchers to use to describe the complexity of the videos in teacher education.

Design of mechanical arm based on piston fire rescue and emergency lock system in public places

In recent years, emergency have occurred in public place, especially fire, such as the Xinyi City Yiyuan Song and Dance Hall in Liaoning, and the Karamay Friendship Hall in Xinjiang, Henan Jiaozuo City Paradise Audio and Video Club. The common lesson is that the security channel is blocked by the security door and the security net, and the security exit is closed, causing people to escape without a door when the fire occurs, causing heavy casualties. Again and again, firefighting and rescue, all must first remove the security door, iron fence window to rescue the trapped people, missed the best time to extinguish the fire. In order to solve the problem of unimpeded safety exits, it is necessary to solve the problem of consistency between normal use management and fire safety. It is difficult to be effective only by administrative means, and technical measures must be taken to solve the problem of safety dredging. Small-scale hotels, Internet cafes, etc. without fire or security systems must be able to push open the emergency exit door, but an alarm will be generated locally when the door is opened during normal working hours. The emergency exit door of an emergency gathering place such as a large-scale hotel, an Internet cafe, a dance hall, a hotel, a department store, etc., which is connected by a fire-fighting linkage system or an anti-theft alarm linkage system, must be pushed open, but will open when the door is opened during normal working hours. Local alarms are generated, so it is especially important to design a security door that can automatically unlock when an emergency occurs in a public place.

Teacher Candidate Tool-Supported Video Analysis of Students’ Science Thinking

ABSTRACTPractice-based approaches to teacher education should emphasize strategies that help teacher candidates centralize student thinking in instructional practice while providing a rationale for why student thinking is integral to student learning. This study describes how secondary science teacher candidates engage in tool-supported analysis of student thinking in their own teaching practice through their participation in video clubs. It is empirically grounded in the context of 2 teacher education programs that adopted the Ambitious Science Teaching framework. The framework was leveraged to support teacher candidates to notice student thinking that is made explicit during instruction, and plan how to respond to student thinking in instructional practice. Analyses of teacher candidates’ critical reflections on their own enactments through video show that teacher candidates have the capacity to notice different categories of student thinking in their own practice with the support of the tool at relatively high levels of sophistication. Furthermore, we found that general pedagogical ideas, knowledge of science activities, and familiarity with strategies that support ambitious teaching influenced how teacher candidates planned to modify instruction based on evidence of student thinking from video clips. Teacher candidates were also able to provide reasoning for these future instructional decisions at medium to high levels of sophistication.

Facilitating the use of video with teachers of mathematics: learning from staying with the detail

BackgroundThis article is focused on the role of the facilitator in the professional development of mathematics teachers. It is a feature of several frameworks for using video that teachers are invited to comment on the detail of what they saw and heard, and base comments on evidence from the video. It is also a common finding that it is hard to establish ‘speaking evidentially’ as a way of working and at the same time, such an expectation is seen to be critical to making discussion productive. This article draws on a paradigmatic case of one video club, during which seven teachers met over a 3-month period, and shared video recordings of their own classrooms. The group of teachers learn how to focus on the detail of video, avoiding judgement, from the first session. The way this is achieved and what it occasions is analysed, within an enactivist methodology.ResultsThe analysis of the first meeting of the video club shows how the facilitator has a focus on the kinds of comments made by teachers as well as their content. If a teacher makes a contribution that is not of the ‘kind’ required within the way of working, the facilitator is observed to highlight that the participant is not focused on the detail of events, and re-direct the group back to the intended task. This sequence of moves is not captured in current frameworks of how to facilitate video discussion. There is a suggestion that it is the very distinction between observation and interpretation or judgement that is significant for teachers and allows them to re-think their own teaching practices.ConclusionsThis article aims to share awarenesses of the facilitator, concerning how it is possible to focus a group on the detail of events when using video. What the facilitator is doing, in highlighting when a norm has been breached, is making a judgement about the kind of comment made by participants, not judging the comment’s content. The meta-focus of the facilitator seems to allow enabling contraints to be placed on discussion while letting conversation follow the interests of participants.

Reconsidering the use of video clubs for student-teachers' learning during field placement: Lessons drawn from a longitudinal multiple case study

Although video clubs have been used to support (student) teachers' learning through reflection upon practice, less attention has been paid to their potential use for supporting changes in participants' practice over a period of time. Prior work has also largely treated (student) teachers as an undifferentiated whole that benefits in similar ways from video clubs. In this study, we problematize this assumption by drawing on three cases of student teachers to exemplify three different learning paths while participating in a video club during field placement. Reflecting on these findings, we discuss implications for differentiating the video-club approach to address different student teachers.

Teacher learning in a combined professional development intervention

The study examines geometry teachers' video club discussions in a two-year professional development intervention that combined lesson study, video clubs, and animation discussions to promote teacher noticing of students' prior knowledge. Most discussions pertained to student conceptions (78%), followed by pedagogy (19%). Discussion of students' prior knowledge surfaced only when talking about student conceptions or pedagogy. There was statistically significant evidence that teacher-initiated discussions of students' prior knowledge were more substantial than facilitator-initiated discussions. The findings suggest that the professional development model and the facilitators’ moves promoted and sustained teacher noticing of student thinking throughout the intervention.

Supporting secondary rural teachers’ development of noticing and pedagogical design capacity through video clubs

Professional support in the form of a year-long video club based on teacher noticing of student thinking was provided to three rural teachers who comprised the entire mathematics department of one secondary school (grades six through twelve). The focus of the study was to understand how participation in a video club structure for rural secondary teachers supports the development of noticing and to understand how the content of what rural teachers notice influences their pedagogical design capacity. Assuming a situative perspective, findings suggest video club participation influenced the teachers’ curricular vision, their pedagogical design capacity, and their view of collaboration, as well as increasing their ability to notice and utilize student thinking for instructional decisions.

Analyzing on-line video club discussions focused on formative assessment

The goal of this qualitative study was to examine teacher noticing of specific interactions related to the formative assessment process during teachers' participation in an on-line video club. Nineteen teachers used an electronic video coaching platform, Edthena to view peers' videos and provide electronic feedback specific to the formative assessment process. Seven hundred and twenty-seven comments by participants were analyzed for both topics of comments related to interactive formative assessment and the type of response. The findings revealed that comments within the on-line video club focused predominantly on one aspect of formative assessment, questioning. Additionally, teachers were most comfortable validating fellow teachers' practices as opposed to providing recommendations for future practice. Implications for future use of on-line video clubs are included.

Video Clubs: EFL Teachers’ Selective Attention Before and After

The paper aims to introduce results of a study of the effects of participation in video clubs on EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers’ selective attention. It is a part of a larger project concerned with EFL teachers’ professional vision. The paper introduces the theoretical background of study on teachers’ professional vision and selective attention and the rationale of video clubs used specifically for EFL teachers. 11 EFL teachers participated in this year-long study and attended video club meetings that aimed to foster their professional vision for conscious development of pupils’ communicative competence. They were interviewed at the beginning and at the end of the programme; video sequences of their own teaching and of other teacher’s teaching were used as prompts. The transcribed data were analysed using a theory-driven system of categories describing the areas of teachers’ selective attention (i.e. aims, context, content, pupil/s, teacher, process). The results suggest that after participating in video clubs the teachers paid more attention to aims and content, and less to the teacher. The results for the category of pupil(s) differed for the own/other video sequence. As the development of communicative competence represents the ultimate goal of EFL teaching, it is encouraging that after the intervention the teachers’ comments were more aim and content oriented.

The Design of Video-Based Professional Development: An Exploratory Experiment Intended to Identify Effective Features

Although video cases and video clubs have become popular forms of teacher professional development, there have been few systematic investigations of designs for such programs. Programs may vary according to (a) whether teachers watch videos of their own/their peers’ instruction, or whether teachers watch stock video of unknown teachers; and (b) whether discussions are led by trained facilitators or by participants themselves. Using a factorial design, we defined four treatment conditions based on these possibilities, then assigned three groups of teachers to each condition. Teachers watched, scored, and discussed mathematics instruction according to each treatment condition’s protocol. Evidence from groups’ conversations and teachers’ video analyses and lesson reflections suggest that the teacher-led, own-video condition is slightly superior to the other conditions.

Using a video club design to promote teacher attention to students' ideas in science

Science education stakeholders worldwide are engaged in efforts to support teachers' noticing and making sense of students' thinking in science. Here we introduce the design of a science teaching video club and present a study of its implementation. The current design extends prior research on video clubs as a form of professional development for supporting mathematics teachers. Results indicate that the current design supported science teachers in noticing and discussing students' thinking in sustained and meaningful ways.

Supporting Excellent Teaching of Common Core Content and Practices with Video Clubs

Three colleagues share key experiences from their work with practicing teachers to show effective CCSSM implementation.

Supporting Teacher Noticing of Students' Mathematical Strengths

Video cases and video clubs have become popular tools for supporting teacher learning. One concern is that many of the video projects discussed in the research literature may unintentionally continue to perpetuate deficit perspectives about students by focusing more on their gaps in understanding than on the strengths they bring to their learning. This article describes a video club that is part of a multidimensional professional development network that aims to re-culture mathematics classrooms so that all students have challenging and empowering learning experiences. I discuss shifts in teachers' ways of seeing and talking about students' mathematical activity that the video club has made possible, as well as features of the video club that have supported these shifts.

Developing Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge of Science Teaching Through Video Clubs

Though an adequate understanding of content is a natural prerequisite of teaching (Carlsen in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 30:471–481, 1993), teachers also need to be able to interpret content in ways that facilitate student learning. How to best support novice teachers in developing and refining their content knowledge for teaching is a crucial and ongoing question for preservice teacher educators. Recently, video clubs are being explored as potential contexts for teacher learning (Barnhart & van Es in Teaching and Teacher Education 45:83–93, 2015; Sherin & Han in Teaching and Teacher Education 20:163–183, 2004). We hypothesized that pairing video clubs with student teaching experiences would provide a forum for preservice teachers to discuss issues relevant to their professional trajectory through exposure to models of peer teaching and opportunities to reflect on practice. In this study, we explored how secondary science preservice teachers used video club to restructure their overall science knowledge into science knowledge for teaching. Our findings suggest that video clubs allowed preservice teachers to access and leverage student thinking and instructional resources to deepen their understanding of science content and trajectories for science learning.