Watch and Tell - Preschool Teachers Observe Themselves in Video-recordings and Reflect on How They Address the Children

Author(s):

Helena Sagar (presenting / submitting) Maria Franzén Anna Wennerlöf Anita Glansén Ann-Christin Andersson Pernilla Norling

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

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

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 04 B, Teacher Learning through Classroom Observation

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

09:00-10:30

Room:

K3.16

Chair:

Iris Uffen

Contribution

Part 1

There is lack of mutual understanding and respect between education researchers and practicing teachers. This works against bridging the currently large gap between education research and teachers’ practice. Considering the teacher’s strong influence as the single most important factor on student learning (e.g. Hatti, 2009) both issues are causes for concern. Hence, there is a call for teachers to more regularly and systematically seek guidance from research evidence when shaping the teaching practice. Additionally, our rapidly changing societies put forward new demands on the skills and competencies that our young people need to get equipped with as preparation for professional and personal lives and for active participation in democratic societies (e.g. Carlgren, 2015; EU, 2006). Hence, another call is for teaching practices to change accordingly. Both calls can be met by continuing professional development, CPD. However, CPD is often arranged on a general school level rather than considering the strong impact which the teachers’ personal background and sense of relevance of the CPD message has been shown to have on CPD effectiveness (e.g. Opfer & Pedder, 2011). Research findings show that teachers may benefit from getting opportunities to observe, to be observed and to reflect on alternative teaching practices in a collaborative, systematic and evidence-based approach, focusing the students’ needs, and allowing personal theories and convictions to be challenged in a respectful manner (e.g. Timperley, 2011). Practice theory (Nicolini, 2012) and the practice turn in theory (Schatzki, Knorr Cetina & von savigny, 2001; Carlgren, 2015) suggests that education research results which are achieved with an active participation of teachers may have more noticeable influence on the practice and student learning environments in contradiction to results from research on teachers. Since most teachers do not have a higher academic education in research processes, school development and CPD may greatly benefit from support from researchers as critical friends and mentors.

Part 2

Preschool teachers’ personal experiences and epistemological beliefs have bearings on their teaching practice and how they address and respond to the children in different situations (Brownlee & Berthelsen, 2006; Orlenius & Bigsten, 2006). Teachers’ verbal responses may be complemented, contradicted and/or emphasized by their mimics, body language and tone of voice (Orlenius & Bigsten, 2006; Aspelin & Persson, 2011). Additionally, relational pedagogy provides an understanding of how the responses may support the child’s development and learning; in a cognitive, emotional and/or social manner (Aspelin & Persson, 2011). The national curriculum for preschools in Sweden, Lpfö98, (National Agency for Education, 2010) demands teachers to address and respond equitably to the children. Self and peer observation is an effective method for teachers to get aware of their individual and actual ways of addressing and responding to the children and to which degree this is done in an equitable fashion in different situations. Video recordings of oneself provides opportunities for reflection, individually or together with colleagues in a teacher learning community (Endacott, 2016; Meade & McMeniman, 1992; Sydnor, 2016) as a process of informal research.

This paper reports on a continuing informal research study initiated and performed by preschool teachers, consecutively supported by a researcher acting critical friend in the municipality. It includes practice-based research as well as evidence-based practice.

Research questions

What do preschool teachers learn from systematic self-reflection on their ways of addressing and responding to the children in video-recordings from meal-times?
In what ways, may a researcher, acting critical friend, have impact on an informal research study performed by preschool teachers-as-researchers?
What additional outcomes on preschool teachers’ professional learning and practice can be identified from an informal research study using video-recordings?

Method

As a response to the call for a more reflected and evidence-based practice, a group of 5 preschool teachers and 1 school leader started an informal research team to work with 70 teachers at 7 preschools. The purpose was to introduce systematic reflection on the practice within a teacher learning community setting. ‘Addressing and responding equitably to the children’ was selected as focus for reflections. Based on recurring questions from substitute personnel about the “rules for meals”, the meal-time situations were chosen as the setting for systematic reflections on how the teachers address and respond to the children; meal-times are more frequently guided by personal theories and traditions than other daily routines. All teachers had to video-record themselves during meals with the children, self-reflect on their ways of addressing and responding to the children and send an informally written report to the research team. The iterative cycles became increasingly focused based on their own and formal research findings. The research team eventually reached a point where they felt a need to get help from a researcher as a critical friend. The municipality’s own researcher was introduced to the team, to support and secure a continued scientific approach and to assist in choosing the next path(s). The teachers had made self-reflections about their mimics, body language and tone of voice. Recently they initiated reflections around the type of support which they provide for the children through their responses; cognitive, emotional and/or social. Reflections will be made in connection to situations where the teacher reads aloud from children’s books which challenge norms and standards in the society, such as gender norms. Parallel to the teachers’ research process, the researcher collected information about the value, which they perceive to have been added to their informal research process by the researcher’s input. This information was collected using a digital questionnaire in two parts. The first part consisted of open-ended questions; the second part included multiple-choice questions. Furthermore, the researcher collected information on the self-experienced effects of the research process from all the participating preschool teachers, using a digital questionnaire with a mix of closed and open questions. Eight teachers volunteered to be interviewed for more detailed data. This data was collected using open-ended questions in qualitative, semi-structured research interviews (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009), which were recorded, transcribed and coded without pre-defined categories.

Expected Outcomes

Results from two different research approaches are presented; the preschool teachers’ findings from their informal research led by the teacher-as-researchers team (1), and findings from the researcher’s formal research; the impact from the researcher’s guidance on the direction and quality of the preschool teachers’ informal research work, thus their professional learning process (2) and the general impact of the informal research process on the teachers’ practice (3). Preliminary analyses indicate that 1) All teachers observed mimics, body language and/or tone of voice which either surprised them, did not represent the way they felt at the time of the recording or was something which they desired to change to respond differently to the children’s needs. The fact that physical factors, such as seating arrangement around the table, may facilitate more equitable responses was also concluded. 2) The research team expressed that the researcher had contributed by narrowing down their research questions, structuring their self-reflections around research evidence, suggesting tools for analysis of reflections and ways of continuing the study. The researcher additionally inspired narrowing down the reflection focus to a norm critical perspective, which opened for possibilities to work with concrete professional development tools for more equity in the practice. 3) All teachers experienced the whole informal research initiative as positive, felt less tension around video-recordings and self-reflection. They wish to continue and develop the process, despite experiencing time-constraints. The forced reflections inspired to a more reflective approach in general throughout the teachers’ practice; several teachers video-record other situations in the purpose of learning more about and challenging their own practice. Finally, there was a common impression among the interviewed teachers that the informal research study and the video-recordings had initiated a more relaxed approach towards discussing and gently questioning one another’s ways to address and respond to the children.

References

Brownlee, J., & Berthelsen, D. (2006). Personal Epistemology and relational pedagogy in early childhood teacher education programs. Early Years: An International Journal of Research, (26)1: 17-29. Carlgren, I. (2015). Kunskapskulturer och undervisningspraktiker. Göteborg: Daidalos. Day, C., & Sachs, J. (2010). Professionalism, performativity and empowerment: discourses in the politics, policies and purposes of continuing professional development. In C. Day, & J. Sachs (eds): International Handbook on the Continuing Professional Development of Teachers. Glasgow: Bell & Bain Ltd. Originally published in 2004. Endacott, J.L. (2016). Using Video-Stimulated Recall to Enhance Preservice-Teacher Reflection. The New Educator, (12)1: 28-47. EU. (2006). European Commission. Key Competences for Lifelong Learning – A European Framework. Official Journal of the European Union: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/l_394/l_39420061230en00100018.pdf Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning – a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Oxon: Routledge. Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Den kvalitativa forskningsintervjun. Malmö: Holmbergs. Meade, P., & McMeniman. (1992). Stimulated recall — An effective methodology for examining successful teaching in science. The Australian Educational Researcher, (19)3: 1-18. National Agency for Education. (2010). Curriculum for the pre-school class Lpfö98. Revised 2010. Stockholm: Edita. Opfer, V. D., & Pedder, D. (2011). Conceptualizing Teacher Professional Learning. Review of Educational Research, (81)3, 376-407. DOI: 10.3102/0034654311413609 Orlenius, K., & Bigsten, A. (2006). Den värdefulla praktiken. Stockholm: Repro 8 AB. Aspelin, J., & Persson, S. (2011). Om relationell pedagogik. Falkenberg: Team Media Sweden. Schatzki, T.R., Knorr Cetina, K., & von Savigny, E. (eds). (2001). The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. London: Routledge. Sydnor, J. (2016). Using Video to Enhance Reflective Practice: Student Teachers’ Dialogic Examination of Their Own Teaching. The New Educator, (12)1: 67-84. Timperley, Helen. 2011. Realizing the Power of Professional Learning. Open University Press. ISBN 9780335244041

Author Information

Helena Sagar (presenting / submitting)

Kungsbacka Municipality

Kullaviksskolan

KULLAVIK

Maria Franzén