The impact of collaborative video analysis by practitioners and researchers upon pedagogical thinking and practice: a follow‐up study

Abstract

The ‘T‐MEDIA’ project analysed and documented how teachers exploit the use of projection technologies – data projectors and interactive whiteboards (IWBs) – to support learning in secondary‐school subject lessons. The research involved collaboration between university researchers and four pairs of UK teachers (of English, mathematics, science and history) in an intensive process of systematically analysing video recordings of classroom activity and other data in depth. Our goals were to assist teachers in articulating the pedagogical rationale underlying their practice, and uniquely, to engage them in theory building about strategic technology use. This paper reports on a follow‐up study carried out one year after the collaborative analyses in order to assess the subsequent impacts of the process of critical reflection. The eight teachers were questioned using a semi‐structured interview technique that allowed us to elicit structured and personalised accounts of impact on pedagogical thinking and practice and the supporting or constraining factors. The findings suggest that for at least some, the sociocultural theory introduced and reformulated during the analyses provided a powerful analytical lens upon emerging practices, including those not incorporating technology. All of the participants reported lasting effects upon their own thinking and, except where external constraints operated, on teaching practices. The approaches developed during T‐MEDIA had additionally been disseminated to and adapted by other subject colleagues. The study illustrates how collaborative analysis of lesson videos can be used to engage teachers in deep reflection, critique and debate. This approach supports the development of an analytical scrutiny of classroom teaching and offers a significant professional development opportunity. In particular, under conditions of sensitive support, teachers will readily accommodate theoretical constructs into specific areas of professional thinking and practice.

Keywords:

• reflective teaching
• theory practice relationship
• pedagogy
• professional development

Acknowledgements

We are most grateful to the teachers who participated in this interview study during the T‐MEDIA Project. Our thanks also to David Pedder for his incisive comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Theresa Daly and Bryony Heather provided invaluable help with audio transcription and HyperResearch coding. The analysis and writing phases of this work were funded mainly by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ref. RES063270081) as part of a Research Fellowship programme of work carried out over two years by Sara Hennessy. A research development grant from the Faculty of Education provided additional funding.

Notes

1. The T‐MEDIA project was funded over 30 months from 2005–07 by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (RES‐000‐23‐0825).

2. Interactive whiteboard systems comprise a computer linked to a data projector and a large touch‐sensitive board displaying the projected image; they allow direct input via finger or stylus so that objects can be easily moved around the board or transformed by teacher or students. They offer the unique advantage of one being able to annotate directly onto a projected image, text or software display and to save the annotations for re‐use or printing.

3. A critical episode was defined as actions, teacher interventions or student‐initiated interactions that were key in using technology effectively and/or promoting learning of the topic. Analytic commentary described what key part the technology and the teacher played, and the effectiveness of the supporting teaching approach.

4. Further information about the CDs and our publications is available at: http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/istl/.

5. While we have some anecdotal evidence of pupil learning and motivation from teacher reports, and positive impact here clearly fuels sustainment and spreading of new practices over time (they would be abandoned if perceived to be not ‘working’), systematic measurement of pupil outcomes and correlation with project participation would have been impossible in a study describing teacher development over one year and across different pupil groups.

6. The follow‐up study was not officially conceived as part of the research; it arose in response to teachers’ spontaneous comments during meetings about positive experiences and impacts.

7. There were undoubtedly diverse and meaningful learning outcomes for the university research team and for students too, but space restrictions led us to focus on experiences and outcomes for teachers here.

8. This included a whole school lesson observation schedule based on our coding scheme (Appendix 1) and a short article about the research in a Teaching and Learning Group newsletter. Note that it was beyond the scope of the study to conduct interviews with colleagues who had not participated in T‐MEDIA.

9. Three further categories covered participants’ experiences of the research collaboration, of the research process generally, and of being asked to apply and refine constructs from sociocultural theory. Initial findings emerging were reported by Hennessy and Deaney (2009) and an updated picture will be presented in a forthcoming book based on the work (Bridging between research and practice: Collaborative studies of classroom teaching with technology).

10. Teachers’ perceptions of the research partnership and their experiences of collaboratively theorising about practice and getting to grips with the sociocultural constructs will be explored in greater depth in the forthcoming book.

11. The three participating primary and secondary teachers include the T‐MEDIA history teacher Lloyd along with two of his ‘pupils as learning partners’ who joined us in lesson observations. The work is being carried out by Sara Hennessy in conjunction with Neil Mercer and Paul Warwick (also funded by ESRC). Initial findings were presented by Hennessy, Mercer, and Warwick (2008).

12. This work was commissioned by the National Council for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM). The toolkit and the mathematics resource itself (along with the across‐subjects resource) are hosted on their portal at www.NCETM.org.uk.