The school placement or practicum has a position of major importance in the professional development of teachers (Hagger et al. 2008) and during such placements, teacher mentors play an important role. Mentors have formal involvement in the supervision, training and assessment of beginning teachers, advising on how to teach particular subjects, developing understanding of teaching and learning and giving advice on behaviour management and assessment (Cohen et al. 2004).

Some of the skills mentors require in order to fulfill these roles include being a model of good teaching practice, showing empathy, developing observation skills in ways that crystallise specific issues for discussion and the ability to review, reflect, assess and appraise their trainee’s performance (Cohen et al., 2004). However, mentors can find it difficult to articulate the often tacit knowledge that underpins their practice, as their understanding is often heavily situated in the context of that practice  (Edwards and Protheroe 2003).

This paper will report on our continuing work looking at the potential for using video technology to enhance the ways in which mentors work with trainee teachers. Our own previous research (Mitchell et al. 2010 and Marsh et al. 2010) has identified a number of areas where video technology has supported the professional formation of trainee teachers. In this paper, we intend to look closely at the potential impact of the joint reviewing of video recorded sessions by trainees and mentors.

Other authors have explored the contribution that video can make to the professional development of teachers. Sherin & Van Es (2009) discuss the potential of collaborative viewing of recorded lessons to model exemplary practice, to support pedagogical subject knowledge development and to encourage noticing by novice teachers. Santagata (2009) discusses the enhancement of teacher reflection that she observed in the context of a video based professional development programme. Borko et al. (2008) argue that  video recording of lessons can support collaborative learning focused on reflection, analysis and consideration of alternative pedagogical practices.

Finally, a previous study by Whitehead and Fitzgerald (2007) involved the video recording of trainee teachers for the purpose of aiding joint discussion with school based mentors. This work highlighted the capacity of video in allowing mentors to select sections from excerpts so that particular features of teaching and learning might be addressed and the authors found that trainees were able to see ‘more deeply' following these sessions.

We wish to build upon these studies by looking at the perceptions of both  trainees and mentors before, during and after the viewing of video recorded  lessons. Working with trainee teachers and mentors over an extended period, we will focus particularly on the processes at work during the observation of lessons by mentors and their subsequent feedback to trainees. Our research questions will concern the capacity, if any, of video to extend the depth and quality of observation by both parties and the nature of the subsequent reflection on practice that ensues when video evidence is used to support professional dialogue between mentor and trainee.   

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