Observing observers: Using video to prompt and record reflections on teachers’ pedagogies in four regions of Canada

Abstract

Regional differences in performance in mathematics across Canada prompted us to conduct a comparative study of middle-school mathematics pedagogy in four regions. We built on the work of Tobin, using a theoretical framework derived from the work of Maturana. In this paper, we describe the use of video as part of the methodology used. We used videos of teaching activities as prompts for discussions among teachers and the video recordings of such discussions became the data sources for our comparative research. Our use of video revealed a number of advantages and disadvantages which influenced the research.

Reflection for action: designing tools to support teacher reflection on everyday evidence

“…Despite this wealth of proposals and technologies to support teacher reflection, such technology use is still far from widespread. Problems and barriers often mentioned in the literature include general usability and computer literacy issues, but also others more specific to the proposed technology: issues of privacy and anxiety (e.g., children afraid to talk on camera, Reid et al, 2016), the need to obtain informed consent (Aubusson et al, 2009) or time constraints (Dreyer, 2015;Hamilton, 2012). Also, such technological proposals share problems common to all reflective approaches, like the need of showing the added value and relevancy of performing the reflection (Friedrich, Ostermeier, Diercks, Krebs, & Stadler, 2012), or the fact that, over time, such reflections feel repetitive (Hramiak et al, 2009).…”

Questioning Strategies in English Literature Lectures in an Indonesian University

“…It provides more contextual data, including the participants' facial expressions and body movements (Blikstad-balas, 2017;Ranta & Harmawati, 2017). Video recording also gives a permanence, which allows the researchers to replay the event (Reid et al, 2015;Merriam & Tisdell, 2016;Rido, 2019; so the researchers can have more time to contemplate, consider, and ponder the data before drawing conclusions in order to avoid premature interpretation of the data.…”

Teaching Statistics: Creating an Intersection for Intra and Interdisciplinarity

“…The data used for this study are part of a larger nationwide study (Reid et al, 2015) conducted from 2012 to 2015 with francophone and anglophone grades 7 or 8 mathematics teachers in four different regions of Canada: Alberta, Ontario, QB, and NB. The main objective was to describe regional differences in mathematics teaching and underlying pedagogies in Canada, and to relate these differences to student achievement in mathematics.…”