Videos as Tools of Expertise-Based Training (XBT) for the Professional Development of Teachers

Teachers are the main foundations of the education system, and their professional development during their working life is vital in ensuring the success of any attempts to change that system. It is for this reason that in-service training is high on the agenda of most countries, although previous studies have shown that teachers are unable to transfer the knowledge they gain through in-service training to in-class activities, as more long-lasting help is required. One way in which teachers can be provided help in this regard is through the use of technology in line with a strong instructional design theory. This chapter aims to address this issue by showing how videos can be used in the professional development of teachers as part of an expertise-based training (XBT) program. The chapter is compiled in seven main parts: 1) Introduction 2) Background 3) Main Focus of the Chapter 5) Solutions and Recommendations 6) Future Research Directions, and finally, 7) Conclusions.

Video and Its Incorporation into Social Networking Sites for Teacher Training

This chapter is proposed with the primary aim of analysing the massive incorporation of the video in social networking sites, as a narrative resource support in those platforms. At the same time, and more specifically, it aims to show how they are able to be used in teacher training, since social networking sites appear as enhancing the use of video possibilities in open teacher training. However, in the educational field are shown as an aspect that still needs to explore and deepen this line of research. First, this chapter presents the phenomenon of the incorporation of video into social networking sites. Second, we present a systematization of the research work on the pedagogical value of videos and social networking sites in teacher training. This new scenario favours knowledge democratization and involves a reformulation of teacher training models and professional identity.

Video-Analysis and Self-Assessment in Teaching Work

Video-research, which represents a multi-methodological practice and an interdisciplinary study area, responds to various knowledge problems created by the complexity of the didactic phenomena to be investigated, and proposes instruments and technologies that have a very high potential about phenomena description, reproduction and comprehension, not only for researchers but also for teachers themselves who are the protagonists of those phenomena. Starting by these preliminary remarks, this chapter will be focused on the introduction of the preliminary results of a video-research itinerary achieved by the DidaSco group (School Didactics) throughout a project itinerary that involved six infant, primary and secondary (first degree only) schools in Bari and its province, working on History didactics intermediary processes. In the meantime, in this chapter a particular attention will be paid to the introduction of a video analysis form which was realized by the authors.

The Use of Videos in the Training of Math Teachers

The purpose of this chapter is to present a systematic observational research on the math teachers' assessment practices in the classroom. This research is a specific phase of an international project (FAMT&L - Comenius Multilateral Project) and it is aimed to promote the use of formative assessment in teaching mathematics to students aged from 11 to 16. The observational study is carried out by a plan of systematic observations of teachers' behaviour in the classroom with the help of video recording. Thanks to a specific tool of video analysis (a structured grid), developed using indications from international literature and experiences of teacher training in the five Partner countries involved (Italy, France, Holland, Switzerland and Cyprus), we managed to gather many different indicators on good and bad practices for the formative assessment of mathematics teachers. Furthermore, the analysed video will be used in in-service teacher training courses in order to promote a correct use of formative assessment and to improve achievements in learning mathematics.

The Use of Video Recording in the Study and Conceptualization of the Didactic Transposition Process

This research is born of a dual interest: on one hand in the concept of didactic transposition, i.e., “the work done to manufacture a teaching object out of an object of knowledge,” (Chevallard, 1985, p. 39), and on the other hand, for studying practical research and training methods for teachers, based on observation and on the study of teaching practices. This paper describes a case study in which several filmed lessons of a primary school teacher have been analysed by the author using a model to study didactic transposition that was developed following an advanced theoretical study. By then combining the video films with interviews between the researcher and teacher, the results of lesson analysis were provided to the teacher in order to raise his awareness of some of the characteristic aspects of the way in he performed the didactic transposition for the subject of history. The training aim is followed by a research aim, i.e., “assessment” by the researcher of the training or educational route achieved by the teacher. This assessment is the linchpin of this paper.

The Use of Videos in the Triangulation Process among Professors, School Teachers, and Students

Awareness of the centrality of education and training in a knowledge society, the need for Lifelong Learning, and, connected to these, the search for recursive processes between theory and practice, require educators to look for training models suitable for emerging professionals and their development. Specifically, training models appear to be necessary; models that can activate a holistic approach, starting from initial training. Those models should be present in the different training steps (training for pre-service, newly hired and in-service teachers) and could build bridges among the different training steps so that the approach to knowledge and the development of professionality can become a habitus and a deeply-rooted personal drive. Learning paths in which videos are used can ensure those goals. The chapter describes a university training path for pre-service primary teachers in which class video recordings are used as binding objects whose discussion involves students, university professors and school teachers. Such process proposes Lifelong Learning also as interaction among different training levels.

Films, Multiliteracies, and Experiences About Fruition, Analysis, and Production in Education

This paper discusses the relationship between cinema and education based on opportunities for the fruition, analysis and production of video in educational contexts. To do so, it locates different approaches to cinema in schools and analyzes the importance of principles and proposals for working with audiovisual materials in the education of teachers and students. Based on the media-education perspective and on multiliteracies, the paper addresses aspects of an experience with audiovisual production in the initial education of teachers, with students in at a teacher's college, based on the Lumière Minute proposal and the Situated Learning Episodes methodology. Finally, the paper indicates some challenges and possibilities for working with video in education.

Learning to Unpack Standards-Based Mathematics Teaching through Video-Based Group Conversations

Research that focuses on understanding pre-service teachers' learning processes as they engage in video-based activities is still limited. This study investigates pre-service teachers' group conversations around videos of mathematics teaching. Conversations of two groups attending a ten-week video-based course introducing standards-based instruction were videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed. Pre-service teachers' discussions included elements of an analysis framework used to guide their viewing: mathematics content, analysis of teaching and of student thinking and learning, and suggestions for instructional improvement. Analyses became more elaborated over the duration of the course. In addition, pre-service teachers discussed standards-based mathematics teaching by increasingly valorizing its characteristics. Findings highlighted important dimensions for working with video in teacher collaborative settings: the purpose, viewing lens, group dynamics, and facilitator role.

Observing to Understand, Understanding to Develop

Observing teaching-learning situations in order to better understand them, such was the OPEN project (Altet, Bru and Blanchard-Laville, 2012). This project has been transformed into the research federative structure of OPÉEN&ReForm (the passage from observation by research to observation for training being at stake). In this chapter, the resort to the video aiming at analyzing the activity is carried out according to an approach of professional didactics (Pastré, 2011; Vinatier, 2013) with the purpose to help the professionals in their development (Vinatier, 2013). The authors introduce the case study of a co-analysis approach of the video traces of a teacher activity, according to her point of view, in a collaborative research (Vinatier et al., 2012) in French Polynesia, what seems to constitute for her a potential situation of professional development (Mayen, 1999), in her authorizing herself to try out new ways to lead her teaching.

Designing a Collaborative Video Learning Lab to Transform Teachers' Work Practices

Video is increasingly used in professional development programs for teachers. Several studies have shown that the ability to notice and analyze pertinent classroom elements is the mark of an expert teacher, but little research has focused on how to use video to bring about real transformations in teachers' classroom activity. A research program was therefore developed to address this issue, drawing on Dewey's notion of collaborative inquiry and key concepts from work analysis. The research revealed three processes of professional development that video-artifacts can bring to the fore and enrich: mimetic engagement, the comparison and cross-fertilization between activities, and the deconstruction-reconstruction of activity. On the basis of these processes, the researchers designed a program called the Collaborative Video Learning Laboratory, which has yielded promising preliminary results for professional development. The advantages and challenges of this program are discussed and the new perspectives for professional development programs for teachers are presented.