Professional development focusing on specific content related to instruction can help deepen teachers’ subject matter knowledge and have the most long-term impact, as documented by Cohen and Hill (1998, 2001) and Gearhart et al. (1999). Video clips can be very effective professional development tools. Use of the TIMSS 1999 mathematics videos can open a unique window onto teaching and learning and prompt teachers to reevaluate their own practice while seeing what grade eight mathematics students can learn and do.
Use of the TIMSS mathematics videos can open a unique window onto teaching and learning.To maximize the potential of the clips for teaching, knowledgeable facilitators should plan activities specifically for each clip (e.g., Arcavi & Schoenfeld, April 2003; Ball & Findell, 2001; Lampert & Ball, 1998; Seago, 2000). Carefully planned activities may enhance use of the curriculum materials that accompany the videos (Lloyd & Behm, 2005).
Without skillful facilitation, teachers unfamiliar with classroom observation or curricula may focus on features that are less relevant to teaching, such as the fact that students wear uniforms or bow to the teacher. In addition, teachers with experience limited to U.S. classrooms or curricula may find it difficult to observe events in classrooms or to read curriculum materials from outside the United States.
Sherin and van Es (2005) have proposed three key components of teachers’ ability to notice classroom interactions:
- identification of what is important in teaching situations
- connection of specific classroom interactions with the broader concepts and principles of teaching (e.g., equity, classroom norms, mathematical topics)
- use of knowledge about the teaching context (e.g., public school, grade eight mathematics) to reason about the situation.
Experience that is restricted to the U.S. may interfere with reasoning about interactions in classrooms outside the United States. The organization of schools may be different; for example, instead of having students go to different rooms for different subjects, as is common in the United States, students may stay in the same rooms while the teachers go from room to room. Mathematical topics and classroom norms may also differ.
Sherin and van Es (2005) found that teachers’ abilities to notice classroom interactions improved after a year of monthly discussions in “video clubs.” This process appears to be accelerated by using software that prompts teachers to consider categories such as student thinking, the teacher’s roles, and classroom discourse. Inexperienced observers may tend to evaluate the teaching in the video. For example, in the video clubs, it was common for teachers to ask, “What should I have done?”, mention what “worked” or “did not work,” or suggest a different pedagogical approach (Sherin & van Es, 2005, p. 485). Sherin and van Es found that later in the year teachers focused more on interpreting what occurred in the video rather than simply evaluating the pedagogy. When evaluation did occur, it was based on careful interpretation of the events in the lesson.
References
Arcavi, A. & Schoenfeld, A. H. (April 2003). Using the unfamiliar to problematize the familiar. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
Ball, D. & Findell, B. (2001). Video as a delivery mechanism. In G. Burrill (Ed.), Knowing and learning mathematics for teaching (pp. 98–103). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school: Expanded Edition: Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Available as an "open book."
Cohen, D. and Hill, H. (1998). State policy and classroom performance mathematics reform in California, CPRE Brief (RB23-1-16).
Cohen, D.K. & Hill, H.C. (2001) Learning policy: When state education reform works. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Gearhart, M., Saxe, G., Seltzer, M., Schlackman, J., Ching, C., Nasir, N. et al. (1999). Opportunities to learn fractions in elementary mathematics classrooms. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 30, 286–315.
Lampert, M. & Ball, D.L. (1998). Mathematics, teaching, and multimedia: Investigations of real practice. New York: Teachers College Press.
Lloyd, G. M. & Behm, S. (2005). Preservice elementary teachers’ analysis of mathematics instructional materials. Action in Teacher Education 26(4), 48–62.
Seago, Nanette M. (2000). Using video of classroom practice as a tool to study and improve teaching. In Mathematics education in the middle grades. Teaching to meet the needs of middle grades learners and to maintain high expectations (pp. 63–74). Proceedings of a National Convocation and Action Conference. Mathematical Sciences Education Board, National Research Council. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Sherin, M. G. & van Es, E. A. (2005). Using video to support teachers’ ability to notice classroom interactions. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education 13 (3), 475–491.