Evaluation for Excellence Toolkit: Video Self-Reflection

Background

Most people hate listening or watching themselves on a recording, but getting over this initial feeling, can allow us to be far more productive through watching ourselves at distance and observing our teaching objectively to plan for future enhancements. The tools and papers below explore practically how to make the most of this process.

Recipe Card Detail

Watching yourself teach can give you new insights to improve your practice. It is good for: – Understanding how your students learn and the best ways to teach them – Picking up on both good elements and areas for improvement in your teaching PREPARATION: Set up your phone or use Encore to record. TIMING: In-class time plus 30-60 minutes afterwards;best to review within a couple of days of teaching. EQUIPMENT: Video facilities.

1. INTRODUCTION You’ve just done some teaching: how do you feel it went? How do you know what the students think? Even the best teachers never stop learning how to improve and continuously work through an ever-evolving cycle of activities that can be broadly summarised into ‘plan, do, reflect and conceptualise’.	2. CREATE  Use either Encore, a mobile phone/tablet, laptop or inbuilt camera to make a recording of all or part of a lecture/seminar.If students are present make sure to get written permission, otherwise try this out in an empty classroom. Note that the lecture recording system (Encore) works well but is somewhat limited for this activity as it doesn’t capture a video feed of you (just your slides and an audio feed).	3. REFLECT  Reflection is the most critical part of this process, but something many of us struggle with. As a starter why not use the questions below to help: How clearly do I communicate the big ideas in a lesson? Am I interacting with students effectively? How much time do I spend talking about things that don’t	4. ANALYSE  To analyse these effectively use the framework  Think–Look for patterns in your reflections. Talk–Talk to colleagues or mentors about what you’ve noticed. Read–Read about potential solutions in the DCAD resource bank. Ask–Join a learning and teaching community.
5. ACT  Develop an action plan to tackle issues raised. An example plan should address: What am I going to do? What will I do to make this happen? What obstacles exist? How will I know I’ve done it? When will I review my progress?	6. REPEAT AGAIN  Enhancing your practice is an ongoing process so repeat steps 2-5 as part of your continuous professional development. Keep in mind anongoing cycle of ‘plan, do, reflect and conceptualise’.	7. EVIDENCE  You can evidence your reflection by describing the teaching session, the structured approach used, what you learned from the reflection, actions taken, and the impact of these actions on your practice and students’ learning.	Download a full colour version of the recipe cards.Recipe Card (PDF)

Links to Online Resources

1. Teacher Video Selfie: A self-guided module for analyzing videos of your own instruction, Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, Available online here, last accessed October 2019

Links to Papers/Books (Login to Library First)

1. Tripp, T, and Rich, P. (2012) “Using video to analyze one’s own teaching.” British Journal of Educational Technology 43.4 (2012): 678-704, Available via DU library access online here, last accessed October 2019
2. Kleinknecht, M.and Schneider, J. (2013). “What do teachers think and feel when analyzing videos of themselves and other teachers teaching?.” Teaching and Teacher Education 33 (2013): 13-23, Available via DU library access online here, last accessed October 2019
3. Gröschner, A., et al. (2018). “How systematic video reflection in teacher professional development regarding classroom discourse contributes to teacher and student self-efficacy.” International Journal of Educational Research 90 (2018): 223-233, Available via DU library access online here, last accessed October 2019