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University Curriculum: Self-Reflection

As a vehicle for presenting useful strategies to his/her colleagues, the VideoPaper provides its author with an equally significant opportunity to reflect on his/her own practice. Just as a student’s learning is greatly enhanced when he or she is asked to present their work to their peers, the need to explain fully the theory and practice of their teaching techniques requires that the teacher have a profound knowledge of his or her own content. The act of creating a VideoPaper thus becomes a process of professional self-development.

At Tufts University, students in the middle and high school graduate level Teacher Education program are each required to complete one VideoPaper as part of ED 102: Introduction to Teaching.

The following is an exerpt from:

Beardsley, L., Cogan-Drew, D., & Olivero, F. (in press). VideoPaper: Bridging Research and Practice for Pre-Service and Experienced Teachers. In B. Barron, S. Derry, R. Goldman, & R. Pea (Eds.) Video Research in the Learning Sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

The Tufts University Department of Education offers a one-year program of study for a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree. There are approximately forty preservice teachers in the middle/high school certification program, divided into two cohorts: full-time interns, who begin the school year working three to five days a week in urban school placements; and traditional preservice teachers, who are in their schools only one day a week in the fall. All of the MAT candidate teach full-time in the spring semester. With few individual exceptions, preservice teachers arrive at the project with a basic understanding of digital video – conceptually what it takes to shoot and edit a film – and how meaning is conveyed through moving pictures. As a cohort, the interns may have more teaching experience than the traditional preservice teachers when they enter the program. Both groups complete the VideoPaper project at the end of the fall semester as part of a required academic course.

The preservice teachers deconstruct a visual narrative of their experience, leading them to new thinking about their teaching (Sarason, 1999; Bruner, 1996). They consider McDonald’s (1992) notions of “text-making” and “gripping,” which allow a teacher to hold critical moments in the classroom “steady.” The faculty hypothesize that by finding meaning in these moments, preservice teachers tease out elements that puzzle and disturb them, making these the objects of their attention. Tufts faculty introduce and model reflection in an introductory teaching course. One of the foundation texts of the course is David Hawkins’ essay, “I, Thou, It” (1974). Through his essay, preservice teachers encounter the notions of the “wild triangle,” (McDonald, 1992) a notion based in practice as well as philosophy. The pre-service teachers learn that in each classroom this triangle – the teacher, the student, and the curriculum – must be connected in order for authentic learning to take place. They also learn to focus on the construction of relationships that will enable them to become effective practitioners.

Preservice teachers may choose to film any particular lesson in which they are featured as either the solo teacher or as a co-teacher. After they have completed their filming, they are asked to view the footage in its entirety, without taking notes or performing any written analysis of what they see. When they later watch the film interpretatively, they are asked either to actively view their footage for examples of a predetermined topic, or to use the video as an investigative tool to inquire into an existing area of interest. The preservice teachers are encouraged to select clips that intrigue them for their unexpected or puzzling qualities. As with a literary “reader-response” approach to textual interpretation (see e.g. Andrasick, 1990), these seemingly random selections reveal the writer’s salient inquiries.

The preservice teachers edit their film down to two and a half minutes of continuous or segmented footage. (Other programs in teacher education, such as Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT), and in teacher professional development, such as the process of National Board Certification (NBC), require two longer, contiguous clips of approximately ten minutes each. We find it adds a useful rigor to the preservice teacher’s inquiry to lower the limit.) When they have completed their initial editing, they convene in a video study group (Tochon, 1999) where they present their edited clips to peers for a discussion facilitated by a faculty member. Here the questions and comments by peers often require the author to reconsider their original vision of the classroom events. In the case where the preservice teacher is unsure of what themes emerge in the collection of clips they have chosen to present, the facilitator can assist in stimulating) “an individual reorganization of apparently disorganized components” (Tochon, 1999, p. 62).

What matters most to Tufts faculty is the quality of contemplation of the teaching and learning portrayed in the video evidence rather than video evidence of achievements or challenges. For example, Nakia, a preservice teacher, asked his mentor teacher to film on the day his 6th grade students were presenting what they had learned about patterns of immigration to Boston from interviewing their families and neighbors. For a month, Nakia had been working particularly diligently with a 6th grader who needed a great deal of support. Nakia hoped that he could showcase this young man’s presentation as a positive example of working well within the “wild triangle.” However, as the tape rolled, a different story unfolded. Nakia called upon the student and the student boldly announced, “I don’t have my work ready to present.” The videotape captures Nakia’s momentary fear and anxiety. What do I do now? Nakia slowly repeats what the student has announced and uses this as a moment to calmly but clearly establish his expectations.

You’re not ready to present? I expected you to be ready. You and I had an agreement that today would be your turn to present. Your classmates are looking forward to hearing what you have learned. After class, you and I will meet again to go over what you have left to do and I want you to be ready to present tomorrow.

Out of the fifty minutes of presentations captured on that tape, his mentor teacher pressed him to work with those anxious few minutes and to use them as a point of departure for a discussion of his professional growth over the course of the semester. She saw the incident as evidence of how he was integrating his knowledge of developmental issues and the theoretical “triangle” to become an authority figure who could deal with the unexpected. Nakia’s response to his student allowed both teacher and student to maintain a positive relationship beyond the incident. The following day, the student completed his presentation effectively.

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