Session Information
10 SES 02 B, Supporting Teacher Reflection through New Technologies
Paper Session
Contribution
The ability of trainee and practicing teachers to reflect on their teaching is widely accepted as being important for their professional development (e.g. Tripp and Rich, 2012). As far back as the early twentieth century Dewey defined reflective teaching as “active, persistent, and careful consideration of belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it ends” (Dewey, 1933, p. 9). In this way, reflection is a self-critical, investigative process wherein teachers consider the effect of their pedagogical decisions on their situated practice with the aim of improving those practices (Tripp & Rich, 2012), something which is of vital importance as trainee teachers are developing their practice.
One way of helping teachers to reflect their teaching has been through the use of video (Fuller & Manning, 1973). Video has been used as a professional development tool for existing and trainee teachers for some time and in a range of contexts (Christ et al., 2017); in particular, video self-reflections where trainees are recorded during a teaching episode and subsequently watch this back and reflect on their practice, has been shown to be an effective self-development tool (e.g. Arya and Christ, 2013; Christ et al., 2017). Further, video reflections with peers can provide opportunities for trainee teachers to get feedback, develop a greater understanding of their strengths and areas for development, and generate ideas to improve their pedagogy (Arya et al., 2015; Christ, Arya and Chiu, 2012; Shanahan & Tochelli, 2014). However, studies to date have focused on the use of traditional video techniques for recording and playback which has the limitation of showing only one perspective of the classroom and, therefore, pedagogy in action.
360-degree video is becoming increasingly prevalent in a range of contexts, such as virtual and augmented reality (e.g. Argyriou et al., 2017). 360-degree video is an immersive type of video content which allows the viewer to look around in all directions, giving them choice and control over what they see. In addition, spatial audio will also be recorded by the camera. This provides directional information to the viewer to enable her/him to identify the source of student speech from anywhere within the classroom. Given this functionality, it would seem that 360-degree video has significant potential to develop the use of video in supporting trainee teachers’ practice. Ibrahim-Didi (2015) argues that new applications of technology, such as 360-degree video, might support trainee teachers to develop critical skills needed to reflectively examine their own practice; however, such use of 360-degree video appears, to date, unreported in the research literature.
This project aims to address this apparent gap, using 360-degree video technology to record trainee teachers leading a short learning activity in school. This project was framed as a constructivist, interpretive case study underpinned by socio-cultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978). Research was undertaken with the following key research questions:
- To what extent does use of 360-degree video support trainee teachers’ reflection on lesson excerpts?
- In what ways might trainee teacher practice be supported by 360 degree video?
Method
The research was undertaken with four student volunteers from a cohort of 23 second Year BA Primary Education Studies students at an English university. We recognise that this self-selecting sample of students; results are not, therefore, generalisable to the rest of the cohort. The research was aligned with a module exploring creative pedagogies and the humanities subjects in which students were asked to produce a detailed plan for a ten-minute microteaching activity; all students taught this to peer groups to enable reflection. This research built on this pedagogic activity with the four research participants in the following way: - Stage 1: Teaching recorded with 360-degree video Students taught their 10-minute microteaching activity to a class of 30 Year 5 (nine and ten year old) children within a semi-rural Primary Academy School. Teaching was recorded 360-degree video technology. - Stage 2: Post-teaching reflection (without video) Five days after their teaching, students were asked to reflect on how their microteaching activity had gone without the benefit of video; students were encouraged to reflect individually but a range of prompts were used to support this reflection (Harrison, Lawson & Wortley, 2005). - Stage 3: Post-teaching reflecting using 360-degree video The third stage of reflecting incorporated 360-degree video as students watched their microteaching activity whilst wearing a virtual reality headset and used ‘think aloud’ process to reflect on their teaching (Cotton and Gresty, 2006). In previous studies, teachers have reported that optimal learning occurs when they watched and discussed their teaching with their supervisor (Grainger, 2004); in this way, once the video had stopped students were able to discuss their teaching with me to support the reflection process. - Stage 4: Individual research interviews Two days later we undertook a semi-structure interview with students to explore their experience with using the 360-degree video and its impact on their reflections on practice. Data Analysis The video-recorded student reflections and audio-recorded interviews were transcribed; transcriptions and open-ended questionnaire responses were submitted to thematic analysis using NVIVO and a process of naturalistic coding to back up our impressions from the interviews (inductive content analysis; e.g. Dey, 1993). To support the internal validity of the research and increase the reliability of our conclusions, data analysis was undertaken independently by two researchers. In undertaking the research we followed the BERA Ethical Guidelines (BERA, 2011) and obtained ethical approval from Anglia Ruskin University prior to the commencement of the project.
Expected Outcomes
Preliminary data analysis suggests that use of 360-degree video to support students’ reflections developed their reflectivity beyond that of which they were capable of without the use of video in a number of significant ways: 1. Allowing students to reflectively examine their own teaching from a situated perspective developed their ability to notice aspects of their teaching practice. At the most basic level, in this very early stage of their teacher development, it enabled students to observe their own actions and the children’s behaviour within their classroom, and, perhaps more importantly, the relationship between the two. 2. Re-immersion in the context of the lesson episode provided the opportunity for students to re-read the classroom environment; this appeared to be particularly significant in developing their sense of body awareness within the space of the classroom, and supports Ibrahim-Didi’s assertion that embodied reflection through 360-degree video use might complement the more intentional and cognitive aspects of teacher reflection (2012). 3. Finally, use of 360-degree video appeared to have an effect on students’ self-efficacy towards teaching practice. Pajares (1996) suggests that people with low self-efficacy may believe that things are tougher than they really are which subsequently fosters stress and a reluctance to engage with an activity again; this may, therefore, have implications for student teachers who have low self-efficacy towards their own teaching. Re-immersion in their own microteaching activity within the context of this study appeared to have a positive effect on students’ self-efficacy which may support their ongoing development as a teacher. As such, preliminary project results suggest use of 360-degree video reflection activities embedded across initial teacher education courses have the potential to develop trainee reflectivity and, ultimately, teaching practice.
References
Argyriou, L., Economou, D. and Bouki, v. (2017). 360-degree interactive video application for Cultural Heritage Education. Paper presented at the 3rd Annual International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network, Coimbra, Portugal, 26 – 29 June 2017. Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.3217%2F978-3-85125-530-0. Arya, P., & Christ, T. (2013). An exploration of how professors’ facilitation is related to literacy teachers’ meaning construction process during video-case discussions. Journal of Reading Education, 39, 15-22. Arya, P., Christ, T., & Chiu, M. M. (2015). Links between characteristics of collaborative peervideo analysis events and literacy teachers’ outcomes. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 23(2), 159-183. BERA (British Educational Research Association) (2011). Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research. London: BERA . Christ, T., Arya, P., & Chiu, M. M. (2012). Collaborative peer video analysis: Insights about literacy assessment & instruction. Journal of Literacy Research, 44, 171-199. Christ, T., Arya, P., & Chiu, M.M. (2017). Video use in teacher education: An international survey of practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 63, 22-35. Cotton, D. and Gresty, K. (2006). Reflecting on the think-aloud method for evaluating e-learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 37(1), 45-54. Fuller, F. F. & Manning, B. A. (1973). Self-confrontation reviewed: a conceptualization for video playback in teacher education. Review of Educational Research, 43, 4, 469–528. Grainger, S. (2004). Practitioners as professionals: revealing the artistry of expert educators. Paper presented at the 7th Australian VET Research Association Conference, Canberra. Harrison, J., Lawson, T. & Wortley, A. (2005). Facilitating the professional learning of new teachers through critical reflection on practice during mentoring meetings. European Journal of Teacher Education, 28(3), 267-292. Ibrahim-Didi, K. (2015). Immersion within 360 video settings: Capitalising on embodied perspectives to develop reflection-in-action within pre-service teacher education. In T. Thomas, E. Levin, P. Dawson, K. Fraser & R. Hadgraft (Eds.), Research and Development in Higher Education: Learning for Life and Work in a Complex World, 38 (pp235-245). Melbourne, Australia. 6 - 9 July 2015. Pajares, F. (1996). Self-efficacy beliefs in academic settings. Review of Educational Research, 66, 543–578. Shanahan, L. E., & Tochelli, A. L. (2014). Examining the use of video study groups for developing literacy pedagogical content knowledge for critical elements of strategy instruction with elementary teachers. Literacy Research and Instruction, 53(1), 1-24. Tripp, T. & Rich, P. (2012). Using video to analyze one’s own teaching. British Journal of Educational Technology (43)4, 678–704. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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