Looking Closely in Classrooms: Using Video Focused Reflective Dialogue in Professional Development to Enhance Classroom Relationships for Teachers and Children

Author(s):

Ruth Kershner (presenting / submitting) Carol Holliday Matthew Beeke

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 11 C, Dialogue about practice in professional development

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-10

17:15-18:45

Room:

428.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Ruth Kershner

Contribution

This paper discusses the development of video-focused reflective dialogue (VFRD) with teachers in England, presenting two studies that employ video and eye-tracking technology. Our purposes are to gain a better understanding of the learning processes involved and to identify implications for scaling up this professional development work with teachers. Two key aspects are considered: (a) the dialogues that occur while video-watching with teachers; (b) the potential of using eye-tracking technology to investigate what is noticed in classrooms.
Our ultimate interest lies in investigating how VFRD may help teachers to enhance classroom relationships and support children's engagement and learning in school. Particular problems can arise for children when starting school or during transitions that involve the interruption of teacher-pupil relationships and establishment of new affectional bonds (Gray et al., 2011). Professional experience and research confirms the fundamental importance of teacher-pupil relationships for children’s engagement in learning, academic progress, wellbeing and inclusion (Hattie & Yates, 2014). VFRD potentially supports approaches that place attention to social relationships and emotional experiences at the heart of education, such as the various European versions of Social Pedagogy that are increasingly receiving attention in England (Cameron & Moss, 2011; Kyriacou, 2009). Ongoing professional development and dialogues are crucial to support teachers in tuning into the subtle processes and emotional experiences of classroom interaction, and acting accordingly.
The use of video is now internationally common in teachers' professional development with several well-established programmes aiming to enhance teachers' reflection and learning (e.g Hollingsworth & Clarke, 2014; Grau et al, 2014; Karsenty et al, 2014) and many research examples (e.g. Powell, 2005; Tripp & Rich, 2012). Video itself has received attention as distinctive product and process in research methodology (Hadfield & Haw, 2012). In the professional development context, the replaying of video allows details to be noticed, reviewed and discussed in a way that is not possible in real time. New technologies, such as tablets, are now contributing in distinctive ways. Our own work investigates whether less familiar and accessible technologies, such as eye-tracking, may also offer valuable affordances. Eye-tracking has been extensively used to research reading and other areas such as science problem-solving (e.g. Tai, et al. 2006), but has been less in evidence in relation to classroom observation.
The VFRD approach involves detailed discussion of very short episodes of classroom interaction, selected appreciatively as positive examples of attunement. This has close affinities with Video Enhanced Reflective Practice (VERP) which is designed to support professional development and team building in a variety of contexts (Kennedy, Landor & Todd, 2011; 2015), drawing on Video Interaction Guidance (VIG http://www.videointeractionguidance.net/). Our generic term VFRD highlights the dialogic elements of this work with video and other forms of observation.
The two studies reported in this paper are:
a) cycle of discussions based on VIG principles with one primary (elementary) teacher, a VIG-trained educational psychologist, and two Faculty research colleagues.
b) an eye-tracking trial with 9 international graduate students with a variety of classroom teaching experience
Participants in both studies found the experience highly interesting, motivating and illuminating. Study (a) revealed discernible insights into the emotional meaning of micro-level social interactions. Study (b) highlighted differences in the direction of gaze that only became evident on watching the replayed eye-track animations.
Our conclusions are that VFRD work has value for teachers' professional development. Further research is needed on its impact on pupils and its wider implementation should be scoped, given the resource implications for trained guidance. Eye-tracking also holds promise for gaining insight into the learning processes when accompanied by reflective dialogue. Its relatively limited availability could be seen as an impetus for developing university outreach and partnerships with schools.

Method

Study (a) involved a cycle of discussions based on VIG principles with one primary (elementary) teacher, a VIG-trained educational psychologist, and two Faculty research colleagues. The teacher and educational psychologist were already known to each other. They had previously discussed how to develop children's motivation and confidence using strategies that the teacher had since implemented in class and shared more widely with professional colleagues. The research cycle had the discussion of video clips at its core, framed by initial interviews about existing beliefs and practices and a final reviewing of the recorded VIG sessions that took place with the teacher. This sequence of conversations was analysed by applying certain principles of sociocultural discourse analysis (Mercer, 2004) to trace the expression and development of thinking. Dialogic episodes were identified in which the speakers were in some way responding to and building on each other’s ideas about the observed interactions and attunement. In this context, an episode is defined as a meaningful section of conversation between the participants not a series of individual, unconnected utterances. A range of such episodes of dialogue was examined in order to see how knowledge and understanding was being constructed between the speakers overtly and tacitly. Particular attention was paid to verbal and non-verbal references to the video, especially when it received joint attention. Study (b) comprised an eye-tracking trial with 9 international graduate students with a variety of classroom teaching experience. This took place in an observation lab located in the Faculty where the participants were enrolled on a Primary Education Masters course. Two short photographic sequences of different classroom settings were observed, primed by different questions ('What is happening here?' 'How are these people getting on with each other?'). Differences in the sequence, pace and intensity of gaze fixation were analysed with the Tobii eye tracking software. A subsequent reflective interview with participants about their experience was analysed thematically.

Expected Outcomes

Participants in both studies found the experience highly interesting, motivating and illuminating. It was evident that the combination of visual feedback and reflective discussion offers a powerful tool for enhancing awareness and knowledge-building about classroom relationships and emotions. Initial analysis of the data from study (a) has revealed that discernible insights into the emotional meaning of micro-level social interactions can be gained through this process when the viewing of short video clips is carefully guided. Further analysis, still ongoing, is directed at how specific language-use and ways of thinking feeds through the series of conversations involved. Study (b) highlighted differences in gaze that only became evident on watching the replayed eye-track animations of where participants looked in response to each priming question (e.g. at faces or at elements of the wider classroom environment). This points to the potential value of working at this level of analysis when exploring the relationship between a teacher's immediate concerns and what is noticed in the classroom. Our conclusions are that VFRD work has value for teachers' professional development, in line with most research published in this field. Our main questions now relate to the impact of this sort of VFRD on teachers' practice and on children's engagement, learning, wellbeing and inclusion. These go along with questions about how to scale up this work in different school contexts. Its wider implementation should be scoped, given the resource implications for trained guidance. In addition to familiar video resources, we see that eye-tracking also holds promise for gaining insight into the learning processes when accompanied by reflective dialogue. Its relatively limited availability could be seen as an impetus for developing university outreach and partnerships with schools by sharing this sort of facility and combining theoretical and practical research concerns with interdisciplinary projects.

References

Cameron, C. and Moss, P. (eds.) (2011) Social Pedagogy and Working with Children and Young People: Where care and education meet. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Gray, J., Galton, M., McLaughlin, C.& Symonds, J. (2011). The Supportive School: Well Being and the Young Adolescent. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing Hadfield, M. and Haw, K. (2012) Video: Modalities and Methodologies. International Journal of Research and Method in Education. 35 (3) 311-324 Hattie, J. and Yates, G. (2014). Visible Learning and the Science of How we Learn. Abingdon: Routledge Hollingsworth, H. & Clarke, D, (2014); Grau, V. et al. (2014); and Karsenty, R. et al. (2014) Video as a tool for stimulating teacher reflection and learning. Symposium presented at ECER Conference, Porto, 1-5 September 2014. Kennedy, H., Landor, M., & Todd, L. (eds.) (2011). Video interaction guidance: A relationship-based intervention to promote attunement, empathy, and wellbeing. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Kennedy, H., Landor, M. & Todd, L. (eds.) (2015) Video Enhanced Reflective Practice: Professional Development through Attuned Interactions London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Kyriacou, C. (2009) The five dimensions of social pedagogy within schools. Pastoral Care in Education, 27 (2) 101-108. Mercer, N. (2004) Sociocultural discourse analysis: analysing classroom talk as a social mode of thinking. Journal of Applied Linguistics 1(2) 137-168 McLaughlin, C. & Clarke, B. (2010) Relational Matters: A review of the impact of school experience on the mental health in early adolescence Educational & Child Psychology Vol. 27 No. 1 Powell, E. (2005) Conceptualising and facilitating active learning: teachers' video-stimulated reflective dialogues. Reflective Practice 6(3). 407-418 Prior V. and Glaser D. (2006) Understanding Attachment and Attachment Disorders London: Jessica Kingsley Tai, R.H. et al. (2006) An exploration of the use of eye-gaze tracking to study problem-solving on standardized science assessments. International Journal of Research and Method in Education 29 (2) 185-208 Tripp, T. and Rich, P. (2012) Using video to analyze one's own teaching. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43 (4) 678-704

Author Information

Ruth Kershner (presenting / submitting)

University of Cambridge

Faculty of Education

Cambridge

Carol Holliday

University of Cambridge Faculty of Education

Matthew Beeke

Cambridgeshire County Council

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