Video-recording: Enhancing pre-service teachers self-reflection and teaching skills

1. Video-recording: Enhancing pre-service teachers’ self-reflection and teaching skills Phan Quynh Nhu & Ton Nu Thanh Thuy College of Foreign Languages Hue University 1

2. Outline and Aims Outline 1. Background to the study 2. Methodology 3. Findings and Discussion 4. Conclusions and Implications Aims: Seeking answers to the questions: Could video-recording be used to record the pre-service teachers’ microteachings? To what extent could the technique enhance their teaching skills and self-reflection? 2

3. Background to the study Slagoski (2007) Microteaching: a procedure through which pre-service teachers - practice their instructional methods with peers, build confidence, receive support and get feedback from trainer and peers. Kong, Shroff & Hung (2009) : Self refection Pre-service teachers should seriously consider and thoughtfully judge their own prior experience => self-reflection 3

4. Two stages of self-reflection In action: T makes immediate decisions based on observation in actions. On action: T reflects back on the actions and refines upon the actions in the following classes; to identify strengths and weaknesses. 4

5. Why Video recording ? English teachers should be autonomous learners in their life-long career. => Video recording provides: a reliable and durable means a tool for reflection an objective, permanent source a tool for observing various aspects of classroom practice a tool for reflecting on nonverbal aspects of teaching 5

6.  Kong, Shroff and Hung (2009): web-enabled video system to encourage pre-service teachers to reflect on their teaching performance to assist the teachers to self-produce a real time record of teaching work to manage the record without being constrained by time and location. 6

7. However,… Wright (2008): several logistical and organizational challenges: barriers to the use of video supported reflection. videos: too cluttered for teachers (especially novices) to focus on particulars. 7

8. Methodology Participants - 35 pre-service EFL teachers (third year students) - two 7-10 minute microteachings per teacher Instruments Video-recording: a personal camera, videos uploaded onto a forum for class members (http://phuongphap1k5.hnsv.com/) Reflection forms: filled after viewing videos 8

9. Methodology Questionnaire: Reliable 25 close and open-ended questions 28 copies collected from pre-service teachers reliability coefficient of 25 scale items: ? = 0.775 Data analysis - by qualitative and quantitative methods - using the Statistics Package for Social Studies version 19.0. 9

10. Findings - Attitudes 1. Attitudes towards video-recording the teachers’ microteachings a. Table 1: Viewing recordings for reflections b. Viewing peers’ lessons: 96.4% (Mode: 10, Min: 3; Max: 30) 10

11. Attitudes - 78.6% had difficulties in viewing own or peers’ lessons Table 2: Difficulties upon viewing 11

12. Attitudes - 78.6% had difficulties in viewing own or peers’ lessons Table 3: How convenient their viewings were 12

13. Attitudes Table 4: Specific focuses upon viewing 13

14. Effectiveness Table 5: Improvement after viewing 14

15. Effectiveness Table 6: Overall improvement after viewing 15

16. Possibility of using video-recordings - Figure 1: Comparison of variables’ means 16

17. Conclusion 17 The pre-service teachers: were aware of and highly appreciated video-recording, experienced some difficulties: low quality of videos, time consumption. more use of video-recording in other ELT methodology courses.

18. Conclusion 18 The pre-service teachers: improved skills of classroom management and sub-skills of teaching English, believed their overall teaching performance would be improved, were able to recognize their strengths and weakness, did not improve much between 1st and 2nd reflections (short interval + limited number of the reflections).

19. Implications 19 Teacher trainers should realize the significance of video-recording, widely apply video-recording, integrate technology into ELT syllabuses’, be more competent in applying advanced technology in their training.

20. Implications Pre-service teachers should: take advantage of video-recording to facilitate their self-directed learning, be aware of the significance of self-reflecting in their professional progress. The leading board of HUCFL should: facilitate the use of video-recording equip teacher training classrooms with high quality camera and microphones. 20

21. References 21 - Blasco, M., Fenollosa, M. L., Fuster, L., Garcia, E., Sanchis, P., Tortajada, L. A., Lloret, J. (2008). Video recordings in university teachers training: benefits and limitations. International Journal of Education and information technologies, 1(2), 1-6. - Gower, R., Phillips, D., Walters, S. (1995). Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillian Heinemann English Language Teaching. - Kong, S. C., Shroff, R.H. & Hung, H.K. (2009). A web based video system for self reflection by student teachers using a guiding framework. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 25(4), 544-558. - Orlova, N. (2009). Video recording as a stimulus for reflection in pre-service EFL teacher training. English Teaching Forum, 2, 30-35. - Slagoski, J. D. (2007) Practicum: microteaching for non-native speaking teacher trainees. English Teaching Forum, 4, 32-37. - Ur, P. (1996). A course in language teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. - Wright, G. A. (2008). How does video analysis impact teacher reflection-for-action? PhD thesis. Brigham Young University.

22. Thank you! 22