I recently read a book entitled Focus on Teaching, by Jim Knight. This book emphasizes the impact that video can have on instruction. Teaching requires complex tasks and skills that can often be missed when simply conducting an observation, therefore, video allows the teacher, coach, or evaluator to identify specific elements of these complex tasks. This is similar to how athletes have been using video to improve performance in complex tasks or skills. For example, in football, when a quarterback is watching film of a certain play, there are many things to observe; therefore, the quarterback will focus on one or two elements of that play. The focus might hone in on his drop back steps, or identifying a possible blitz and ensuring the correct audible is called. Athletes have been using video to improve performance for decades, but why has this practice not been embraced by the educational community?
In his book, Focus on Teaching, Jim Knight poses the question, "What is the difference between watching yourself playing a sport and watching yourself teaching?" He states that the answer is likely the complexity of the work. "When we get feedback on technical skills, such as how to position ourselves while playing a sport, we are less inclined to take the feedback personally. However when we get feedback on more complex or artful practices, we are more inclined to be defensive about what we hear...Talking about messy problems usually is messy." His thoughts speak to why educators are more reserved in using video to impact instruction. However, there are some things that we can do in education to help teachers use this powerful learning tool.
In researching the benefits of video in education, Jim Knight received frequent comments in interviews conducted for his book, Focus on Teaching (2014), teachers first need to have an atmosphere of trust. Most often, video will be viewed with an instructional coach, administrator, or video learning team. When viewing complex tasks within a lesson, teachers should have an established trust with others that are viewing the film. Without trust, teachers will be more reluctant to experience professional learning through video. Knight provides the following guidelines that will help coaches, administrators, and video learning teams increase the level of trust:
1.) Make participation a choice
-By forcing teachers to participate in the video learning process, may in turn have a negative impact on instruction, climate, and culture.
-All teachers have to engage in professional learning, but there should be choices in how they can participate. Whether through book studies, observations, or video, choice provides autonomy in how teachers choose to learn.
2.) Focus on Intrinsic Motivation and Safety
-Jim Knight states that for video to be an effective tools, therefore, it must support and enhance teachers' intrinsic motivation to change." (Focus on Teaching, 2014)
-Recent studies have shown that when curiosity increases, it connects with neurons to improve retention of learning. In this case, growth is not any different with students than it is with their educators. Teachers must connect and be curious about their own professional growth, otherwise there will not be a desire to learn.
3.) Establish Boundaries
-The property of the video is placed on the person that is being recorded. Therefore boundaries should be created that allow the person being recorded to feel safe, knowing that they can share at their own desire.
4.) Walk the Talk
Simply stated...leaders should be willing to watch video of themselves before they expect it of others.
5.) Go Slow to Go Fast
Start with a few willing teachers, and then grow the learning as excitement builds.
These guidelines will help teams establish trust; the anchor of video learning development. An interesting aspect of video research shows that it can actually increase trust. While it may take trust to begin the video process, in the end, it is shown to increase trust. This could potentially have a dramatic impact on climate, culture, and learning in a school building. A potential cornucopia of benefits could impact instruction. I strongly believe that video is the key to unlocking student and teacher potential.
The final piece of video learning development is to collaborate in teams. As trust has been established and increased through video, a team can then be formed to collaborate and help each other improve upon best practices using video. For more information on Video Learning Teams, I highly recommend Jim Knight's Focus on Teaching.
In Summary:
1.) Video allows the teacher, coach, or evaluator to identify specific elements of these complex tasks in teaching.
2.) Talking about messy problems is messy, but video can help identify specific elements of instruction.
3.) Establish trust before implementing video learning as a choice.
4.) The following items are guidelines for increasing the level of trust: make participation a choice, focus on intrinsic motivation and safety, establish boundaries, walk the talk, and go slow to go fast.
5.) Video can increase trust.
Knight, J. (2014). Focus on Teaching: Using Video for High-Impact Instruction. Thousand Oaks: Corwin, A SAGE Company
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