{"id":7688,"date":"2018-01-18T20:40:05","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T20:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citejournal.org\/\/\/"},"modified":"2018-05-20T14:06:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T14:06:12","slug":"video-in-the-middle-purposeful-design-of-video-based-mathematics-professional-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citejournal.org\/volume-18\/issue-1-18\/mathematics\/video-in-the-middle-purposeful-design-of-video-based-mathematics-professional-development","title":{"rendered":"Video in the Middle: Purposeful Design of Video-Based Mathematics Professional Development"},"content":{"rendered":"
The power of using video in professional development (PD) to elicit critical reflection and to support teachers\u2019 learning of new content and skills has been widely documented (e.g., Borko, Koellner, Jacobs, & Seago, 2011; Brophy, 2004; Harford & MacRuairc, 2008; Rich & Hannafin, 2009; Rosaen, Lundeberg, Cooper, Fritzen, & Terpstra, 2008; Santagata, Zannoni, & Stigler, 2007; Sherin, 2007). Video allows for the complexities of classroom practice to be stopped in time, unpacked, and thoughtfully analyzed, helping to bridge the perpetual theory-to-practice divide and support instructional improvement. Whereas in the classroom teachers must constantly make individual in-the-moment decisions, viewing video during PD allows teachers the opportunity to deconstruct collectively and discuss familiar experiences and to actively generate new understandings about content, pedagogy, and student thinking (Cullen, 1991; Korthagen, Kessels, Koster, Lagerwerf, & Wubbels, 2001).<\/p>\n
Video-based PD typically incorporates selected clips for teachers to discuss and analyze collaboratively. These PD programs can be classified as those that use clips from the teachers\u2019 own or peers\u2019 classrooms (i.e., those participating in the program) or from other teachers\u2019 classrooms (i.e., those not participating in the program). (See Seidel, Sturmer, Blomberg, Kobarg, & Schwindt, 2011; Zhang, Lundeberg, Koehler & Eberhardt, 2011.)<\/p>\n
When teachers view video clips from their own classrooms, video analysis usually takes place within small groups of teachers who are already colleagues, at regular intervals and over an extended period of time (Borko, Jacobs, Koellner & Swackhammer, 2015; van Es & Sherin, 2008). In this type of professional learning group, teachers are generally guided by a facilitator or teacher educator who focuses the viewing on an instructional strategy, new content, or student thinking.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, commercial or specified professional development materials typically incorporate video clips from other teachers\u2019 classrooms, either as exemplars or representations of authentic practice. Facilitators who guide the viewing of these clips are expected to support a focus on the specific objectives highlighted in the materials using approaches recommended by the developers (Jacobs, Seago & Koellner, 2017).<\/p>\n
Interestingly, although many PD models utilize video either as the centerpiece of the program or as a supplementary component, there is dearth of research on the design features and, in particular, the articulation of how video is intended to contribute to teacher learning. This paper articulates and illustrates a purposeful design decision to place video viewing between pre- and postviewing experiences to promote a defined teacher learning trajectory.<\/p>\n
The video in the middle design uses video clips strategically selected as examples (rather than exemplars) from a variety of classrooms to address particular mathematical topics in an authentic manner that supports specific, incremental goals for teacher learning. This design moves beyond having a facilitator set the instructional context prior to video viewing and leading a conversation afterwards. An intentionally designed prevideo experience can motivate teachers to attend and react to particular ideas and activities that unfold within the selected clip. Similarly, an intentionally designed postviewing experience can support movement toward a particular learning goal (or goals) through guided discussion and reflection.<\/p>\n
Next is a review of some of the literature on how video can be effectively incorporated into a PD program \u2014 including ways clips should be purposefully selected and knowledgeably used by facilitators. Because this article\u2019s focus is on video-based mathematics PD, we drew largely on research from mathematics education. We then address some remaining questions, such as precisely what activities should come before and after viewing video clips and how they can support teacher learning and the aligned goals of the PD materials. We also provide ideas and examples from the Learning and Teaching Geometry PD materials.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Mathematics teachers come to PD workshops with varying levels of knowledge, much like the K-12 students who come to their mathematics classrooms. One unique aspect of teachers\u2019 knowledge is their \u201cprofessional vision,\u201d which refers to their ability to notice and analyze features of classroom interactions, make connections to broader principles of teaching and learning, and reason about classroom events (van Es & Sherin, 2002; Sherin, 2007).<\/p>\n Over the years, diverse conceptions of noticing have emerged in the literature, but in general, most considerations of mathematics teacher noticing involve two main processes: (a) Attending to particular events in an instructional setting (i.e., teachers choose where to focus their attention and for how long) and (b) Making sense of events in an instructional setting (i.e., teachers draw on their existing knowledge to interpret what they notice in classrooms). Sherin, Jacobs, and Philipp (2011) argued that these two aspects of noticing are not discrete, but rather interrelated. Teachers attend to events based on their sense-making and the way they interpret classroom interactions influences where they choose to focus their attention.<\/p>\n The conceptual frame of noticing is relevant to the design of video-based PD aimed at providing coherent, incremental learning opportunities. It is well established that teacher education programs incorporating video foster the development of teachers\u2019 noticing skills (Koellner & Jacobs, 2014; Roller 2016; Santagata & Yeh 2013; van Es & Sherin, 2002). As they attend to and make sense of PD focused on cases of instruction, teachers are also likely to consider the implications for their own improvement of practice (Koh, 2015). In other words, what teachers notice appears directly relevant to the way they elect to carry their learning into their classrooms (Sherin & van Es, 2009).<\/p>\n Participants in PD do not all make sense of their experiences in the same way; rather, individuals bring differing knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning, students, content, and curriculum to bear on what they notice (Erickson, 2011; van Es, 2011). This individual diversity impacts what they notice, how they engage in the professional development, and what they take and use in their own practice.\u00a0 It also has implications for the purposeful design of video-based PD and teacher education (Hatch, Shuttleworth, Jaffe, & Marri, 2016).<\/p>\n Video-based PD is premised on the notion of using a concrete, authentic artifact of practice to examine teaching and learning. For the developers of video-based PD materials, the purposeful selection of video clips is central to ensuring that teachers will have a meaningful learning experience. A number of researchers have provided insight and guidance regarding how to select and use video clips for a variety of PD purposes \u2014 including community building, meeting specific learning goals, and promoting noticing and reflection.<\/p>\n For example, at the beginning of a long-term PD effort, clips may be selected with an eye toward building a strong professional community and supporting teachers to learn reflective and analytic skills (Borko, Jacobs, Eiteljorg, & Pittman, 2008, van Es, 2012a; Zhang et al., 2011). Later, clips may be purposefully chosen to guide teachers toward one or more identified learning objectives, such as to understand more deeply student thinking, to become more cognizant of specific instructional moves, or to learn targeted subject matter (Borko et al., 2015; Kersting, Givvin, Sotelo, & Stigler, 2010; Roth et al., 2011).<\/p>\n Several articles provide detailed information regarding the selection of video clips for mathematics PD settings. For example, Sherin, Linsenmeier, and van Es (2009) identified three dimensions of video clips that promote productive discussions of student mathematical thinking: (a) the degree to which the clip offers a window into student thinking, (b) the depth of student thinking shown in the clip, and (d) the clarity of student thinking in the clip.<\/p>\n Seago (2004) offered suggestions with respect to selecting clips based on content (it should be \u201cmathematically important\u201d), reality (\u201cbelievable\u201d to teachers), and length (not more than 6 minutes). This type of information is critical for PD material developers and facilitators who must make choices about what video clips to include in their program or show teachers during workshops. Moreover, this guidance is likely to prove helpful across a variety of PD efforts based on video \u2014 including those that use video from teachers\u2019 own classrooms or from other teachers\u2019 classrooms.<\/p>\n Video clips, by themselves, are unlikely to foster teacher learning without being intentionally integrated into a PD program or course (Blomberg, Sherin, Renkl, Glogger, & Seidel, 2014). Along with the purposeful selection of video clips, a central component of designing effective PD materials is determining how to embed the video within the broader curriculum. It is essential to situate the video in a framework that supports detailed analysis and interpretation, thereby providing access and opportunities for teacher learning across the totality of the PD experience. Both the video and the activities around the video should be designed to target predetermined learning goals for the PD curriculum as a whole and each individual workshop or class session (Blomberg Renkl, Sherin, Borko, & Seidel, 2013).<\/p>\n Many, but not all, video-based mathematics PD programs are structured such that teachers engage in specific activities before and after watching the focal video (e.g. Borko et al., 2015; LeFevre, 2004; Santagata 2009). For example, prior to watching a clip, PD facilitators may ask teachers to solve and discuss the math problem shown in the video in order to develop content knowledge, motivate teachers to notice particular elements of the content contained within the clip, and attend to specified activities, such as a unique solution method or teacher questions that prompt extended student reasoning. After viewing the video, there may be a facilitator-led discussion and, perhaps, follow-up activities in which the teachers relate what they have seen on the video to their own classroom practice. The discussion and follow-up activities extend teachers\u2019 thinking and analysis by probing more deeply into topics or issues presented within the video.<\/p>\n We label this type of intentional sequencing of video viewing that occurs between designated activities with specified learning goals a \u201cvideo in the middle\u201d design. In video-based mathematics PD that incorporates this design feature, video is located in the middle of the learning experience, sandwiched between activities such as mathematical problem-solving and pedagogical reflection.<\/p>\n Our use of this sequence as part of a larger set of curricular materials will be described in more detail in the discussion of the Learning and Teaching Geometry project, which is the focus of this paper. An illustrative vignette will be included from a workshop in which teachers were engaged with the Learning and Teaching Geometry PD materials to depict how a specific sequence looks in action. This design feature is not new to PD, but our goal is to highlight and label it and discuss how the design is likely to support teachers\u2019 learning.<\/p>\n Even in a carefully designed PD program that includes purposefully selected video and intentionally sequenced pre- and postvideo activities, knowledgeable facilitation is essential to foster a productive learning environment. Although viewing video is, by nature, a self-directed exercise, in which teachers attend to topics of their own interest and construct personally relevant knowledge (Ebsworth, Feknous, Loyet & Zimmerman, 2004), the importance of a facilitator who asks guided questions, uses observation protocols, and provides targeted viewing tasks is consistently emphasized in the research literature (Baecher, Rorimer, & Smith, 2012; Borko, Koellner & Jacobs, 2011; Groschner, Seidel, Pehmer, & Kiemer, 2014). \u00a0Skillful facilitation helps to focus teachers\u2019 attention in order to identify, interpret, and reason about what they see in the video (Gaudin & Chali\u00e8s, 2015; van Es & Sherin, 2008). Without such guidance, research indicates that teachers may focus on more superficial features of the video clip and neglect to make meaningful insights into practice (Calandra, Gurvitch & Lund, 2008; Harford, MacRuairc & McCartan, 2010; Laycock & Bunnag, 1991).<\/p>\n Attending carefully to student thinking as seen in video clips, in particular, has been identified as challenging for mathematics teachers (van Es, 2012a). Van Es (2012b) argued, \u201cIt is important to note that it is not natural for teachers to attend to the particulars of student ideas\u2026. Thus, teachers need to learn how to problematize student thinking and develop discourse practices for engaging in this work\u201d (p.\u00a0104).<\/p>\n Pressing teachers to incorporate details from the video into their discussion has been identified as a facilitation move during video-based PD that encourages teachers to reason about student thinking, promotes an inquiry stance, and deepens mathematical thinking (van Es, Tunney, Goldsmith, & Seago, 2014; Zhang et al., 2011). At the same time, video enables a shared space within which teachers and PD facilitators can work with \u201cinterpretive flexibility\u201d (Star, 2010), enabling multiple viewpoints and ideologies to surface from multiple parties (Miller & Zhou, 2007). The main point here is that a video in the middle design does not stand on its own to support teacher learning; it depends heavily on the application of appropriate and effective facilitation moves.<\/p>\n The Learning and Teaching Geometry (LTG) materials (Seago et al, 2017) use video as a centerpiece in PD workshops. The LTG materials are designed to improve the teaching and learning of mathematical similarity based on a robust understanding of geometric transformations through engagement in a series of five modules (18 three-hour sessions). The sessions follow a specified learning trajectory and offer access to specific and increasingly complex mathematical concepts that are presented within the dynamics of classroom practice (Seago, Driscoll & Jacobs, 2010).<\/p>\n Each session contains at least one videocase, constructed using a video in the middle design. This use of this design was based on our conjecture that viewing and discussing the video footage required a highly intentional surrounding framework in order to meet the goals specified within the LTG materials\u2019 learning trajectory. These videocases form the backbone of the materials and serve as a holistic basis for supporting learning from representations of practice (Seago et al., 2017).<\/p>\n All of the video clips in the LTG materials are unedited segments selected from real classroom footage of 15 teachers\u2019 unstaged mathematics lessons, representing a range of grade levels, geographic locations, and student populations across the United States. The clips offer a window into a variety of issues related to content, student thinking, and pedagogical moves. By focusing on classroom video from across multiple and varied contexts, the materials provide insight into what an emerging understanding of similarity looks like as well as specific instructional strategies that can foster this understanding.<\/p>\n A field test of the LTG materials was conducted in 8 sites throughout the United States in order to generate both formative and summative data.\u00a0 The field test took place over the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years and involved 126 participants (87 treatment teachers and 39 comparison teachers), including in-service and preservice teachers, teacher leaders, and mathematics coaches.<\/p>\n Three pre\/post instruments were used to examine impacts of the LTG Foundation Module on teachers\u2019 mathematical knowledge for teaching related to geometric similarity: a content assessment and two sets of embedded assessments. On each instrument, the teachers who take part on LTG workshops demonstrated significant knowledge gains, whereas the comparison teachers did not. In addition, students of the treatment teachers demonstrated larger gains on a content knowledge assessment compared to students of the comparison teachers (Borko, Jacobs, Seago & Mangram, 2014; Seago et al., 2013). These field test results offer evidence of the promise of the LTG materials for achieving the intended learning outcomes for both teachers and their students.<\/p>\n The LTG materials purposefully utilized a video in the middle design. The larger materials development process actually began well before the collection of video (Seago et al., 2010). The first stage of this larger process included determining the content to be covered and generating a mathematics learning trajectory to ensure the materials would support a vetted sequence of learning goals for teachers. This initial stage was followed by developing a set of mathematical tasks that aligned with the targeted topic areas. The teachers who were selected for videotaping either used one of these project-generated tasks or a task from their curriculum that was determined by the developers to be an appropriate fit for the materials.<\/p>\n After filming the lessons, the LTG materials development team selected video clips that highlighted critical math content within the context of authentic instructional practices and students\u2019 ideas about the content. Once clips were selected, activities were generated and sequenced to frame the viewing to support the trajectory of teacher learning goals.<\/p>\n Each video clip, combined with the framing of pre- and postvideo activities, constitutes a videocase. Last, the videocases were organized into 3-hour PD sessions. After this process was completed for each module (or set of sequenced sessions), the module went through multiple rounds of piloting and revision.<\/p>\n Although it is situated in the middle of the user experience, the video clip is, in fact, the primary ingredient from a design perspective, serving as a focal point of the videocase. Once the video clip has been selected, activities can be designed around it to ensure that teachers will engage deeply with the targeted mathematics content, instructional components, or student thinking depicted in the clip. The activities surrounding the video also serve as transitions to and from other activities (or videocases) within a given PD experience to ensure an appropriate flow and integration across the learning trajectory.<\/p>\n In the LTG materials, the activity that most commonly comes before watching a video clip is working on and then discussing a mathematical task that is relevant to the clip. Solving the same task as the students in the video allows teachers to develop an adequate understanding of the mathematical demands faced by the students and helps them to better engage with and then interpret the student thinking and the pedagogical moves captured by the video clip. In some videocases, the pre-activity may prompt teachers to make predictions about how students will solve the problem or consider the types of mistakes they think students might make. The assumption behind this type of activity is that teachers need a period of time to become sufficiently immersed in and familiar with the mathematics content they are about to see, so that they can readily follow the pertinent (and perhaps subtle) issues that arise in the video episodes.<\/p>\n Video clips were selected for inclusion in the LTG materials based on the expectation that they would provoke extended and productive discussion within a PD setting. Some clips contain challenging mathematics content, a conceptual hurdle, student misunderstanding, or interesting pedagogical moves.<\/p>\n As they move into postvideo activities, facilitators of the LTG materials are encouraged to promote a culture of inquiry and reflection, and support teachers to offer alternative and dissenting viewpoints (as in Little, 1993). For example, the materials suggest that facilitators use a language of tentativeness, soften teachers\u2019 definitive statements, and model a stance of wondering, questioning, and inquiry (LeFevre, 2004; Seago, 2004). Facilitators can probe teachers for evidence of their claims, seeking multiple perspectives, and refraining from judgment, as appropriate. In addition, the materials urge facilitators to model language use and instructional behaviors that are respectful of the teachers and students shown in the video clips.<\/p>\n Postvideo viewing activities in the LTG materials include careful analysis of the ideas presented in the video clip, considering how those ideas apply in different mathematical contexts, discussing the pedagogical strategies that were contained within the video clip, and reflecting on how teachers can apply their emerging insights to make improvements to their own lessons. Certainly not all of these topics are discussed during each videocase, but they are generally part of each session. The materials contain guiding discussion questions for facilitators, but they are also free to improvise based on their understanding of the teachers\u2019 needs and interests (Jacobs, Seago, & Koellner, 2017).<\/p>\n In order to illustrate what the video in the middle design looks in practice, we created a vignette based on one group of teachers who participated in the LTG in-service PD. These teachers were part of a study seeking to demonstrate the efficacy of the LTG materials. Twenty-four teachers attended the workshop from which the vignette is drawn, which was conducted in August 2016. All of the teachers were practicing secondary mathematics teachers in a large, urban school district on the East Coast of the United States. The workshop was videotaped, and the vignette is based on our repeated viewing of this videotape along with our field notes. Although some license has been taken with the dialogue (e.g., some utterances are written verbatim while others are summarized or edited for clarity), all of the teachers\u2019 activities and conversations are described as literally and accurately as possible.<\/p>\n The facilitator of the workshop, Hannah, was an experienced mathematics teacher, PD facilitator, curriculum developer, and university professor. Hannah took part in an extensive training led by the LTG materials developers and demonstrated fidelity in her use of the materials (Jacobs, Seago & Koellner, in press). In addition, Hannah\u2019s eighth-grade mathematics class was videotaped as part of the LTG project, and video clips from her class were incorporated into the materials. One of these video clips is the focus of the vignette.<\/p>\n The vignette is set in the beginning portion of Session 3 of the LTG materials, which for these teachers was the second morning of a 5-day (10 session) PD workshop (see Figure 1). During the prior two sessions, the teachers explored geometric transformations based on rigid motions (rotation, reflection, and translation).<\/p>\nConceptual Framework: Teaching Noticing in Professional Development<\/h2>\n
Purposeful Selection of Video Clips<\/h3>\n
Embedding Video Within the Broader PD Program<\/h3>\n
The Importance of Knowledgeable Facilitation<\/h3>\n
Learning and Teaching Geometry PD Materials<\/h2>\n
Video in the Middle Design Within the LTG Materials<\/h3>\n
The Randy Videocase: A Vignette<\/h2>\n