Professional development of teachers: using multimodality and reflective peer review approaches to analyse digitally recorded teaching practices

Abstract

Recording technologies have been used in teaching practices. The emphasis on the quality of teachers and teaching in a recent White Paper in England and the need to optimise teaching resources due to the current global recession have prompted a re-assessment of recording technologies in pedagogic practices. In this article, the application of digital technology to analyse teaching practices may be classified into four approaches using: pedagogic theories of learning, a reflective approach, ‘technical’ aspects of the digital technology, and a multimodality framework. This article offers a socio-cultural framework of multimodality and reflective peer review to analyse teaching practices of and by qualified teachers. The findings of this article include: a structured approach to analysing the multi-modes of pedagogic practices, and a collaborative and supportive peer review of post-teaching sessions. These findings have implications for teachers’ continuous professional development, teacher education, teaching institutions and policy-makers.

Keywords:

• teaching
• digitally recorded teaching session
• multimodality
• reflective peer review
• professional development

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive comments. An earlier version of this article was presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Manchester, Manchester in September 2012.