Classroom Video Research Articles

"What's Your Thinking behind That?" Exploring Why Biology Instructors Use Classroom Discourse.

Instructor discourse, defined as verbal interactions with students in the classroom, can play an important role in student learning. Instructors who use dialogic discourse invite students to develop their own ideas, and both students and the instructor share ideas in back-and-forth exchanges. This type of discourse is well-suited to facilitate deep learning for students but is rare in undergraduate biology classrooms. Understanding the reasoning that underlies the use of dialogic discourse can inform teaching professional development for instructors who are learning to use discourse to support student learning. Through classroom video recordings to identify dialogic discourse and stimulated recall interviews to elicit instructor reasoning, we investigated why undergraduate biology instructors used dialogic discourse in active-learning lessons. Using inductive and deductive qualitative analysis of interview transcripts, we identified and characterized seven reasons that instructors used dialogic discourse, including three aligned with a theoretical framework of student cognitive engagement and four that emerged from our data set. In addition to aiming to prompt generative cognitive engagement in 34% of instances of dialogic discourse, instructors used dialogic discourse to prompt activity, supply information, provide feedback, decipher student thinking, leverage student thinking, and cue students to make connections. Reasoning varied across different types of dialogic discourse. These findings provide valuable insights that can inform research, teaching professional development, and individual instructors' reflections.

‘Are they walking their talk?’: alignment of teachers’ professed beliefs and enacted practices for teaching through dialogic argumentation

ABSTRACT This exploratory multiple-case study investigated the belief systems (professed and enacted) of four secondary school biology teachers towards teaching through dialogic argumentation. The constant comparison method was used to iteratively assess the qualitative data, which included classroom observations, field notes, transcripts of the formal and informal interviews and teachers’ reflections, and classroom video and audio recordings. Three themes emerged to represent the teachers’ belief systems for teaching through dialogic argumentation: 1) using ‘inter-language’; 2) scaffolding the negotiated consensus; and 3) ‘taking up’ and ‘referring back’ to students’ ideas. Moreover, two other interesting results were revealed. First, the study corroborates previous results which state that teachers’ intentions or predispositions in addition to their eagerness and willingness to use reform-based strategies pushed them towards successful implementation of their strategies for teaching through dialogic argumentation. Second, the strategies they implemented somehow revealed how they view dialogic argumentation as an approach to the co-construction of knowledge in science teaching and learning. The study offers implications for future professional development in terms of improving other aspects, such as teachers’ understanding of the advantages of reform-based strategies and constant mentoring which may also influence their intentions to achieve the curriculum goals.

Primary school children’s peer interaction: Exploring EFL teachers’ perceptions and practices

Peer interaction (PI) research to date has primarily focused on documenting the benefits and issues of PI among adult learners, with little research examining teachers’ perceptions and practices of PI among young learners (YLs) in intact English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms. To address this gap, this study explored how primary school teachers in Vietnam perceived and used PI in the classroom. The study used multi-methods, including classroom video recordings, field notes, semi-structured interviews, and stimulated recall interviews with seven EFL primary school teachers to explore their perceptions of PI. Field notes and interview data were analysed following a theme-based approach in combination with descriptive analyses of observational data. Findings revealed that PI was perceived by teachers as including two types: decontextualized form-practiced PI (DFPI) and genuinely communicative PI (GCPI). These results suggested that teachers’ perceptions of PI did not match the definition of PI adopted in this study which only considered GCPI as PI and excluded the DFPI. Regarding the GCPI, the teachers acknowledged its benefits but reported numerous drawbacks in implementing it. Notably, the teachers’ PI practices reflected their stated beliefs about PI, and the results showed that GCPI accounted for only a small portion (20%) of the lesson time. The results revealed a lack of awareness of PI and thus a limited understanding of communicative language teaching (CLT) and/or Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) among primary English teachers in a Vietnamese EFL context. The study provides insights into teachers’ varied interpretations of PI as it is practiced in authentic classrooms and points to a need for further teacher training in equipping primary school teachers with updated knowledge of TBLT, especially in terms of PI and skills to implement it more frequently in intact L2 classrooms for YLs.

Technology integration needs empowered instructional coaches: accompanying in-service teachers in school digitalization

PurposeIn digital education curricular initiatives, some teachers are taking on key roles when appointed as instructional coaches (ICs) and become crucial in the sustainability of the initiative by coaching teachers. This study aimed to find out the difficulties ICs are facing when mentoring teachers in the development of the digital skills and to identify the coaching activities the coaches offer.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a mixed-methods research design focusing on a qualitative approach, the research team conducted 6 focus groups with 38 ICs from 12 primary schools in Switzerland. Quantitative descriptive data were collected through a survey submitted before and after the focus group.FindingsThe results indicate that (1) the professional development (PD) activities offered to teachers vary greatly depending on the instructional coach characteristics and the school to which the teachers belong, (2) the in-service training of ICs should include coaching and leadership skills and (3) distributed leadership to ICs could facilitate the adoption of technologies by teachers and support change in the school.Practical implicationsSome ICs offer activities with a low involvement of the teacher. ICs' training programs should provide strategies to better take advantage of PD activities. The authors suggest training ICs in PD activities, aligned with Gibbons and Cobb's (2017) such as analyzing classroom video or lesson study involving a group of teachers working together with an expert to improve a lesson. District and school leaders should provide ICs with explicit guidance and more resources to achieve systemic change. ICs should also be empowered by being involved in the development of the school's continuing education training plans.Originality/valueThis study presents a new perspective about understanding and applying in-service teacher PD in the context of a digital education curricular initiative.

The Expert EFL Teachers" Language Operation in and beyond Third-turn Feedback

This paper investigated how experienced English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers adapt language when giving feedback, especially in large class sizes where learners have low language proficiency. Particular attention was paid to how teachers use language to extend learning opportunities and interactions to the whole class after completing the one-to-one Initiation-response-feedback (IRF) sequence. With the use of classroom videos and Conversation Analysis (CA) research methods, the feedback of three experienced EFL teachers was analyzed intensely. The results revealed that experienced EFL teachers were flexible in adjusting the tone and content of the feedback and, crucially, that in large classes of beginners in language learning. Teachers mostly offered another one-to-many question or interactive invitation immediately after the one-to-one IRF, which extended the learning opportunities and participation to the whole class, i.e., somehow enhancing the learning opportunities and participation of the whole class. Throughout this article, it is hoped that the language used by teachers in large classes mentioned therein will provide some reference and practical techniques for instructors in comparable situations, particularly in providing effective feedback.

Digital video-based peer feedback training: The effect of expert feedback on pre-service teachers’ peer feedback beliefs and peer feedback quality

We investigate the effects of peer feedback training (enhanced by expert feedback) on pre-service teachers’ feedback quality and beliefs. Intervention group 1 (IG1) analysed classroom videos before the feedback training, while intervention group 2 (IG2) additionally received expert feedback on their video analyses. IG1 and IG2 were compared to a control group (CG). Results show pre-service teachers in IG1 and IG2 improved their peer feedback quality and beliefs in comparison to the CG. Expert feedback (IG2) lead to greater increases of peer feedback quality than without (IG1). This study highlights the role of expert feedback when training peer feedback.

Research on Recognition and Analysis of Teacher–Student Behavior Based on a Blended Synchronous Classroom

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many students are unable to attend face-to-face courses, Therefore, in this case, distance education should be promoted to replace face-to-face education. However, because of the imbalance of education in different regions, such as the imbalance of education resources between rural and urban areas, the quality of distance education may not be guaranteed. Therefore, in China and some regions, there have been efforts made to carry out blended synchronous classroom attempts. In hybrid synchronous classroom situations, teachers’ workloads have increased, and it is difficult to fully understand students’ learning efficiency and class participation. We use deep learning to identify the behaviors of teachers and students in a blended synchronous classroom-based situation, aiming to automate the analysis of classroom videos, which can help teachers in classroom reflection and summary in a blended synchronous classroom or face-to-face classroom. In the behavior recognition of students and teachers, we combine the head, hand, and body posture information of teachers and students and add the feature pyramid (FPN) and convolutional block attention module (CBAM) for comparative experiments. Finally, S–T (student–teacher) analysis and engagement analysis were carried out on the identification results.

Teachers attending to student reasoning: Do beliefs matter?

We present the results of a quasi-experimental study of pre-service elementary teachers' learning to recognize students' mathematical reasoning from classroom videos. Researchers examined the nature of participants’ beliefs regarding mathematics education. We found that pre-service elementary teachers whose beliefs were consistent with NCTM Process Standards (NCTM, 2000), or that transitioned in the direction of consistency with the Standards, regarding the teaching and learning of mathematics, were more successful in recognizing students' reasoning than those whose beliefs were generally inconsistent. Predictive Analytics and Generalized Linear Regression modeling were used to quantify the magnitude of experimental pre-service teachers’ reasoning growth and combined pre/post study assessment reasoning success in contrast to that of the comparison groups. The resulting model explained nearly 90% of the variability in success on the reasoning assessment, showing that beliefs do indeed matter for recognition of reasoning.

Ready Coder One: Collaborative Game Design-Based Learning on Gifted Fourth Graders’ 21st Century Skills

The purpose of this research was to describe the impact of digital game building on fourth grade gifted and talented students’ problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration skills. Increasingly, there has been a call to involve students in real-world experiences through projects that explore authentic issues using technology. Game design-based learning with its unique set of affordances may offer a path to integrating technology, computer science education, creativity, and problem-solving. Increasingly, the ability to create rather than just consume technology has gained attention linking creativity and collaboration to using coding language. In this study, data collection included student reflection journals, classroom observations, classroom video recordings, a focus group interview, and students’ games. Participants came from two GT classes ( n = 45). Qualitative analysis identified five themes: overcoming challenges of group work, developing a culture of collaboration, creating narrative, and connecting science, problem-solving in Scratch’s coding environment, and reflecting on learning. Findings indicated involving gifted students in game design-based learning in science had a positive impact on student perceptions of problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration.

Reframing translanguaging practices to shift mathematics teachers’ language ideologies

While dominant narratives about multilingual students position them as deficient, translanguaging theory has played a critical role in making space for the languaging practices of multilingual students in education. However, we know little about how to best support mathematics teachers’ learning about translanguaging. Working with a group of accomplished mathematics teachers taking part in professional development on culturally sustaining pedagogies, in this paper we use frame analysis to examine the ways language ideologies shape teacher sensemaking about translanguaging. We then investigate affordances of classroom video for reframing teachers’ conceptualizations of language. We find that although teachers initially framed students’ language as a barrier to their success, with the introduction of video clips from mathematics classrooms, teachers began to frame students’ language as a tool for productive disciplinary engagement. These findings suggest that video may serve as a valuable resource for reframing teachers’ conceptualizations of students’ languaging practices in mathematics classrooms.

Observing a teacher’s interactional competence in an ESOL classroom: a translanguaging perspective

Abstract Research on translanguaging practices in multilingual contexts has explored how translanguaging highlights the multilingual and multicultural nature of social interactions and its transformative nature in transgressing established norms and boundaries. This article aims to provide an alternative view of interactional competence by connecting it to the notion of translanguaging and its emphasis on the active deployment of multiple linguistic, semiotic, and sociocultural resources in a dynamic and integrated way. We argue for extending the notion of interactional competence as we suggest that translanguaging is the practice of drawing on a speaker’s interactional competence for constructing new configurations of language practices for communicative purposes. Such a conceptualization reinforces the meaning-making process as a locally emergent phenomenon and a jointly accomplished social action. It also conceptualizes the undertaking of co-constructing social interactions as a process of translanguaging whereby interactants need to seek out available multilingual and multimodal resources and make strategic choices among these resources in order to achieve their social actions on a moment-by-moment basis. This article utilizes Sequential-Categorial Analysis, which combines Multimodal Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorisation Analysis, in its analysis of classroom video recordings of vocabulary instruction in a beginner-level adult English-for-Speakers-of-Other-Languages classroom in order to demonstrate our argument.

An Experimental Platform for Real-Time Students Engagement Measurements from Video in STEM Classrooms.

The ability to measure students' engagement in an educational setting may facilitate timely intervention in both the learning and the teaching process in a variety of classroom settings. In this paper, a real-time automatic student engagement measure is proposed through investigating two of the main components of engagement: the behavioral engagement and the emotional engagement. A biometric sensor network (BSN) consisting of web cameras, a wall-mounted camera and a high-performance computing machine was designed to capture students' head poses, eye gaze, body movements, and facial emotions. These low-level features are used to train an AI-based model to estimate the behavioral and emotional engagement in the class environment. A set of experiments was conducted to compare the proposed technology with the state-of-the-art frameworks. The proposed framework shows better accuracy in estimating both behavioral and emotional engagement. In addition, it offers superior flexibility to work in any educational environment. Further, this approach allows a quantitative comparison of teaching methods.

How can signaling in authentic classroom videos support reasoning on how to induce learning strategies?

Classroom videos are a viable means to implement evidence-informed reasoning in teacher education in order to establish an evidence-informed teaching practice. Although learning with videos relieves pre-service teachers from acting in parallel and might reduce complexity, the material still poses higher cognitive load than written text vignettes or other traditionally used static material. In particular, the information they deliver is transient and can, therefore, easily be missed. Signaling can guide learners’ attention to central aspects of a video, thereby reducing cognitive load and enhancing learning outcomes. In the current project, pre-service teachers acquired scientific knowledge about learning strategies and their promotion in a computer-based learning environment. We explored the effect of different arrangements of signaling in classroom video-examples on conceptual knowledge and the reasoning-component of professional vision. Therefore, we conducted a set of two studies with 100 student teachers including two signal arrangements in order to investigate how signaling can help learning to reason about classroom videos. In addition, we varied if participants received information on the use of signals in advance (informed) or not (uninformed). We measured conceptual knowledge by asking participants what they knew about self-regulation strategies. Additionally, we assessed reasoning by asking participants to notice sequences in a video where teachers induced learning strategies, and to reason in what respect the observed behavior was useful to induce the strategy. Uninformed signaling did not affect the acquisition of conceptual knowledge and reasoning. Informed signaling led to significantly better conceptual knowledge than uninformed signaling. It is argued that the signal-induced extraneous load exceeded the load reduction due to the signal’s selection advantage in the uninformed conditions. In a third, exploratory study, nine participants were interviewed on the perception of different signals and indicated that spotlight and zoom-in signals foster processing of classroom videos.

Knowing what matters: Short introductory texts support pre-service teachers‘ professional vision of tutoring interactions

Applying professional-vision skills to classroom situations depends on knowledge about what matters in these situations. In an experiment with 85 biology pre-service teachers, we investigated a 90-min intervention combining both acquisition and application of knowledge about tutoring. The intervention started with an introductory text, followed by classroom video examples. Students who read a text on concrete tutoring strategies made more references to pedagogical concepts in their analyses than students who read about generic video observational guidelines. We conclude that combining a short, focused theoretical introduction and video analysis is a promising method to broadly anchor professional-vision training within teacher education.

Primary students' learning about citizenship through data science.

Much of the mathematics that children experience in school neglect the skills increasingly needed for citizenship, particularly the power of complex data to investigate and make sense of the world. We draw on the relatively new field of data science as a multi-disciplinary approach to investigate problems through analysis of massive, non-standard, incongruous and/or messy data. Our exploratory qualitative study had as its research question: What can children learn about citizenship when they engage with data science? The case study in this paper illustrated ways that children's learning about citizenship were enriched through an age-appropriate data science investigation. The study analysed classroom video from a Year 4 classroom (aged 9-10) over six lessons that integrated curricula in digital technologies, health, and mathematics. In these lessons, the children generated and analysed non-standard data and debated social, well-being and privacy issues as they considered their activities in cyberspace. The video data were analysed using a framework based on critical citizenship education literature that examined dimensions of power, collective engagement, individual responsibility and action. Three key findings emerged. First, the case study highlighted skills in citizenship education developed through data science, positioning children as agents and advocates. Second, the study showed how a complex data investigation in citizenship education was achievable with primary children through meaningful curriculum integration. This is important given that problems that citizens address are typically interdisciplinary. Finally, the findings revealed a gap between data science skills and those developed in the mathematics curriculum, and recommend ways that the maths curriculum could be updated.

Graph convolutional network for automatic detection of teachers' nonverbal behavior

Accurately discerning teachers' nonverbal behaviors is essential to facilitate their reflective practice and professional growth. Yet, conventional manual approaches to observe and assess these behaviors are exceedingly time-consuming and resource-intensive. Furthermore, limited research has examined the precise and automated detection of teachers' nonverbal behaviors in classroom videos. This problem is exacerbated by the absence of a universally accepted framework for categorizing such behaviors, as well as a dearth of standardized datasets and corresponding algorithms. To address these challenges, this study investigates methods for the automatic detection of teachers' nonverbal behaviors. First, we theoretically define five common categories encompassing teachers' nonverbal behaviors, furnishing a structured framework for their analysis. Subsequently, in our methodology, we focus on primary and secondary school teachers, utilizing classroom video recordings as our primary data source. This study meticulously gathers and annotates datasets comprising teachers' nonverbal behaviors and devises an innovative method grounded in graph convolutional networks for their automated detection. To evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we compare it with other state-of-the-art methods, highlighting its advantages. In practice, our method holds significant potential for real-world applications within authentic teaching contexts, offering the capability to automatically detect teachers' behaviors. These automated insights can serve as a valuable tool to guide and refine teaching practices, fostering more productive teaching outcomes.

Students as Co-Creators: Bringing Culturally Responsive Teaching into a Doctoral Course for International Students in China

The influx of international students pursuing academic degrees in China in recent years has posed several challenges for educators who must cope with cultural and linguistic plurality. This qualitative dominant mixed-methods study explores how the engagement through partnership builds on and caters to cultural diversity. For one semester, seven international doctoral students of a course Frontiers of the Learning Sciences took on the role of course co-creators and discussion leaders. Classroom videos, student surveys, interviews, weekly reflection journals, and social media chatlogs were collected and analyzed. Results showed that engaging students as course co-creators was responsive to cultural diversity. Three interrelated factors emerged that defined the effectiveness of students’ engagement within multicultural settings: language proficiency, academic ability, and personal attitude to the differences. Moreover, the study revealed four interconnected factors (time, challenge, competency, support) that should be considered in designing effective culturally responsive learning environments for international doctoral students.

“Make a tutorial!” Short and long-term effects of a mathematical classroom video project on emotions and motivation

“Make a tutorial!” Short and long-term effects of a mathematical classroom video project on emotions and motivation

On the Language of Student Teachers’ Professional Vision: How Do Pre-Service EFL Teachers Comment on Classroom Videos of Pupil Engagement?

Teacher’s professional vision is a well-researched concept that highlights the importance of noticing salient issues in classroom situations and reasoning about them. This paper aimed to investigate pre-service teachers’ professional vision of pupil engagement: what student teachers notice in classroom videos regarding pupil engagement and how they verbalize it. The data was collected using interviews with classroom videos as prompts. 20 English as a foreign language pre-service teachers participated in the study. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis and word clouds. The results suggest that pupil engagement is observed on three levels: behavioural, cognitive, and emotional, and it is seen in connection with classroom factors influencing it; the most mentioned one being teacher actions. To verbalize their noticing of pupil engagement, student teachers used wors and phrases that describe engagement directly (such as “participate”, “enjoy”, “respond”) or indirectly, for example through descriptions of actions (“raising hands”) or suggestions of cognitive involvement with the content (“know” or “remember”). Understanding how student teachers talk about pupil engagement can help us tease out important points in discussions during teacher education programmes and, in doing so, aid the pre-service teachers in framing their noticing and developing their professional vision.

Role of Video Lectures in Engineering Education

Videos have come-up as self-learning tool in all forms of engineering education, including the formal, informal, and nonformal education. The article presents the different perspectives of using videos in teaching engineering courses. Most popular video lecture series have been discussed with their specific applications and popularity concerns. Along with this, the role of videos in flipped classroom and virtual personal learning environment has been seen from the engineering perspective. Both the theory and the practical perspectives have been considered in the article. The article will serve as a pathway of understanding and applying videos in the engineering education.