Scheduled for Research Consortium Pedagogy II Poster Session, Thursday, April 27, 2006, 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall Poster Area I


Video Media Reflecting: Examining Teacher Candidate Reflection Abilities Using Digital Video Editing

Rachel Gurvitch and Jacalyn Lund, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Reflection is considered to be an essential component of professional practice and growth of future teachers (Dewey, 1933; Schön, 1983; Zeichner & Liston, 1987, 1996). Beginning teacher standards from both the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and the Interstate Consortium for Teaching and Accreditation Council (INTASC) emphasize the importance of the reflection process by including reflection as a standard. This study offers a unique way to emphasize the reflection component within physical education teacher education (PETE) programs by examining teacher candidates' (TC) reflection abilities using digital video editing. Ten physical education TCs enrolled in a pedagogy course volunteered to participate in this study. Each TC planned and taught at least three lessons during a practicum experience at a high school setting. Following a lesson, TCs completed a video editing reflection assignment which required them to identify several teaching incidents that represented their lesson and edit them into a teaching clip lasting a maximum of three minutes. Teacher candidates also wrote a written reflection explaining why these episodes were selected. Thirty written reflections and teaching clips were collected and analyzed using qualitative research techniques to identify emerging themes and communalities. Triangulation between data sources, interobserver agreement prior to the analysis and member checks throughout were done to establish the accuracy of the data. Similar to Trumbull's findings (1999), results from this study suggested that, despite its meaningful role within PETE programs, TCs focused their reflection on technical aspects of teaching prior to addressing issues relevant to their pupils' learning and challenges inherent to the work context. TCs focused the majority (26 out of 30) of their clips on themselves and their behaviors as teachers rather on their students' behaviors and learning outcomes. Specifically, TCs selected verbal instruction (32.3%) and management (33.9%) skills to include as their reflections more than any other behaviors that they exhibited (i.e., general observation 13.7%, specific observation 10.8%, modeling 9.3%). The authors recognized the added value of the digital video editing to the TC's reflection process and concluded as did Van Es and Sherin (2002), that TCs should be directed to edit clips based on a particular goal rather than allowing them total choice of what to select. This approach may allow them to focus on various elements of teaching and to better stuffy specific teaching skills.
Keyword(s): professional preparation, technology

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