34.3343, Review: Using Video to Support Teacher Reflection and Development in ELT: Baecher, Mann, Nobre (2023)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-34-3343. Tue Nov 07 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.3343, Review: Using Video to Support Teacher Reflection and Development in ELT: Baecher, Mann, Nobre (2023)

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Date: 08-Nov-2023
From: Cathryn Bennett [cabennet at tcd.ie]
Subject: Language Acquisition: Baecher, Mann, Nobre (2023)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/34.1648

AUTHOR: Laura Baecher
AUTHOR: Steve Mann
AUTHOR: Cecilia Nobre
TITLE: Using Video to Support Teacher Reflection and Development in
ELT
SERIES TITLE: Reflective Practice in Language Education
PUBLISHER: Equinox Publishing Ltd
YEAR: 2023

REVIEWER: Cathryn Bennett

 SUMMARY

 “Using video to Support Teacher Reflection and Development in ELT”
provides an overview of the fundamentals in learning why and how to
use videos in teacher education and reflection. In outlining the
essentials steps of integrating video into teacher education
programmes, the book can be categorised as an introduction to the
topic, as opposed to an advanced text on the subject. Indeed, the
authors state the book is mainly intended for “teacher educators,
teacher trainers, teacher leaders, and those with the responsibility
for ensuring high-quality pre-service teacher education and ongoing
continuous professional development options” (p. 4). While not
explicitly named, in-service teachers could also be included in this
group as the book includes them in reflective break questions.

Although certain chapters of the book may read as research-focused,
several speak to the practicalities of the beginning steps of
incorporating video in teacher training programmes. This is no doubt
helped by its editor, Thomas Farrell, who includes vignettes and
reflective breaks within each chapter to relate the content to the
reader.
The book is divided into eight chapters:

Chapter 1: Video and Teacher Development
Chapter 2: The Context of Video Use
Chapter 3: Video as a Process and a Material in Learning about
Teaching
Chapter 4: Learning to Look Descriptively at Teaching through Video
Chapter 5: Reflecting through Video: Self-observation
Chapter 6: Video Observation with Peers
Chapter 7: Role of Video in Supervision
Chapter 8: Video in Research

 Each chapter consists of :
·       Vignettes from teacher educators who have used videos
·       Reflective breaks
·       Websites for integrating and/or utilising video in teacher
education
Each chapter is summarised below.


Chapter 1. Video and Teacher Development
The first chapter begins with stating why video should be a part of
language teacher education. It does this by introducing how video can
benefit these programmes, including funded research by the first
author describing ways in which video has been used in language
education between 2017-2018. It concludes with research which suggest
frameworks for video inclusion in language teaching.

Chapter 2. The Context of Video Use
This chapter explores the different contexts of language teacher
education and teachers who have used video in some form from
pre-service training to master’s programmes in teacher education. The
authors highlight socio-cultural learning perspectives which underpin
using video as student-teachers may watch videos to learn new
techniques or reflect on how they have taught in the classroom.
Vignettes provide the reader with valuable first-hand accounts of how
video was integrated into their teaching contexts for teacher
development.

Chapter 3. Video as a Process and a Material in Learning about
Teaching
This chapter describes four methods of using video for educational
purposes such as videoconferencing, video production, screen casting
and using (and creating) video repositories. It details a list of
video-making tools and platforms, possible video projects for
students, five principles that teacher educators should take into
consideration before selecting a video for teaching purposes as well
as a list of ELT video websites labeled by grade level and context,
materials available and the number of available videos.

Chapter 4. Learning to Look Descriptively at Teaching through Video
This chapter tackles “the often-overlooked fact that teachers are
seldom trained in classroom observation and need guidance in what to
do with video“ (p. 59). It does this by providing a scaffolded 3-step
approach in which teachers are taught first how to look at non-video
artefacts (photos, students’ work) and describe them to slowly learn
to view videos without applying a critical lens. The reader is walked
through the process of watching short clips for description before
concluding with a list of video annotation and tagging platforms for
teachers to use once they have learned the approaches. When suggesting
video websites, the authors note which are free to use.

Chapter 5. Reflecting through Video: Self-Observation
This chapter is devoted to how videos can be used to prompt teachers’
self-reflection. The authors note the viewings can be done
individually or with peers, but not, however, the first time that
teachers watch videos of their teaching.  This should be done
privately to respect teachers’ vulnerability and to provide peers with
a descriptive element to be observed so that criticisms are minimised.
Similar to the previous chapter, the authors suggest a scaffolded
approach wherein teachers initially watch videos of classroom teaching
but the focus is on the learners and then the teacher, before
concentrating on their own teaching and finally allowing others to
observe them. Teachers are trained to look at larger aspects of the
lesson before focusing on smaller parts. ‘Critical incidents’ and
‘Using rubrics/checklists’ are sample self-observation approaches
provided in this chapter.

Chapter 6. Video Observation with Peers
Like Chapters 4 and 5, this chapter also includes approaches to peer
observation via video, beginning with a list of advantages and
disadvantages for integrating video into peer observations. It offers
several peer observation samples such as using group structures and
one-to-one online observation, for which a template is provided
showing what teachers can look for in individual observations. The
chapter concludes with a study in 2014 from a pre-service teacher
education programme which has incorporated the information provided in
the previous three chapters to analyse Teacher Talk Time (TTT). This
study which focused on institutional uses of video in teacher
education helps create a smooth transition for more academic uses of
video in the final two chapters.

Chapter 7. Role of Video Supervision
With the fundamentals of self and peer observation having been
established in earlier chapters, this chapter begins the move towards
a slightly more academic side of videos in teacher development. Though
the chapter title includes ‘supervision’, the authors note that the
chapter includes mentors, coaches and/or senior teachers in teacher
education. The beginning part of the chapter focuses on how
individuals filling these roles can perform observations, with
student-teachers providing questions of how to do so, while the second
part of the chapter focuses on how supervisors, mentors and coaches
can develop themselves via video reflection. One suggestion of a
‘critical friend’ is provided, along with sample feedback and a
protocol of how to engage in peer observation and feedback.

Chapter 8. Video in Research
Although this chapter covers the use of videos in TESOL/AL research,
the studies presented serve a dual purpose of encouraging reflection
in teaching practice for readers who are not interested in
postgraduate research. The use of new technologies such as virtual
reality (VR), 360˚ videos and video annotation tools such as Transana
help researchers and teachers to tag and/or code videos for research
or reflective development. In the final section of the chapter, the
call for open access research is made and the authors suggest that
videos research and websites such as TESOL Academic can help narrow
the gap between research and teacher practice.

 EVALUATION

 “Using Video to Support Teacher Reflection and Development in ELT”
promotes the integration of video into mainstream teacher education by
not only providing numerous studies of how this is already being done
by researchers, but also presents the fundamentals of how teachers and
teacher educators can take their first steps in using videos in
teacher education. It further links the use of videos to prompt
evidence-based reflection and outlines several approaches to ease
teachers into looking at their practice first descriptively, then
critically. It is the first book on the use of videos in teacher
reflection and development and as such carries some responsibility for
being both research led and practical for teachers.

The organisation of chapters leads the reader through the use of
videos and how to do so in a logical way with the first two chapters
focusing on research and different teaching contexts that use video,
the second two chapters outlining the practical aspects for teacher
educators getting started in the adventure; the third two chapters
centring on videos for reflection of oneself and of colleagues and the
final two chapters discussing other avenues of using videos now and in
the future. This progression  also allows the book to be both a
resource for teacher educators and a practical reference material for
in-service teachers.

Two particularly helpful features of the book are the vignettes and
the reflective breaks that are contained within each chapter and which
remind the reader of other books written by the editor, Thomas
Farrell. The vignettes enable the reader to hear the voices of
teachers who have used video, how it worked for them enabling the
reader to consider ways of incorporating video into their own context.
Similarly, the reflective breaks contain questions to encourage the
reader to pause and think about the topic and consider how videos were
a part of their own education or will be in future education they may
partake in. They also ask the reader to consider the application of
videos in their context. However, the reader would benefit from a
commentary with possible answers to these questions.
For example, in Chapter 2, (p. 37) the reader is asked to reflect on
the following:
 1. “Video cases can either focus on the teachers talking about their
teaching or clips of classroom practice (or a combination of the two).
What do you think are the main advantages of the use of video cases
for pre-service teachers?
2. To what extent do video cases enhance initial teacher education
programmes?
3. The general view is that video cases from the teacher’s own context
(or a similar one) are preferable. However, can you think of possible
reasons why video cases from further afield might also be helpful?”
Along this line, one reflective break asked a central question that
could have benefited readers – and was only briefly mentioned (p. 34):
“What can be done to make novice teachers feel more comfortable
watching themselves in video? How can teacher educators support them?”
This was an issue raised by another researcher (Quigley, 2018) who
worked with teachers and video reflection.

Other features recommend the book, for example, its readability. The
book is written in prose that is accessible to teacher educators and
EFL/ESL teachers. Each chapter contains numerous studies to maintain
objectivity, making it suitable for readers who are also early career
researchers. Most studies are given only a brief description of a
reference and relevant finding, enabling the reader to investigate in
more depth studies of particular interest to them. The book is
cohesive thanks to its many reflective breaks and vignettes as well as
being coherent, given that each chapter is relatively brief so that
chapters can be read in short sessions for busy teacher
educators/in-service teachers.
The most beneficial part of the book, in this reader’s opinion, is the
feeling that teacher development is central in every chapter. This is
evidenced in the numerous (and often free) websites presented to the
reader for nearly every stage in learning to use video in the
classroom, the stepwise manner/scaffolded approach in training
teachers to reflect with video, and the voices of teachers who have
learned to use video in these contexts. There are some, very small
issues on these points however. For example, it would benefit the
reader if the book is sold as an e-book given the number of links that
are included in the text[A2] . Secondly, Chapter 2 describes how video
can be used in different contexts, with consideration given to pre-
and in-service teacher education programmes, but the latter is
presented mainly from the perspective of masters programmes. The
reader may have benefited from more information about in-service
researchers ‘in the wild’. On the point of practical information for
teacher educators, it was a little surprising that ethics in obtaining
videos was only mentioned very briefly, though perhaps this was
difficult for the authors to anticipate given the different contexts
of readers.
Certain chapters of the book are very practical for teachers, such as
Chapters 3-6, while others are more suited for teacher educators such
as Chapters 1-2, 6-7. This reflects the balance of the target
audiences mentioned by the editor. It should be mentioned that while
the book is squarely focused on convincing the reader to use video in
teacher education programmes and makes a strong case for the use of
videos in reflection, the authors acknowledge challenges in using
video, e.g., at the end of Chapter 3, “While there are good-quality
published video packages that may be purchased…, there is not yet
enough freely accessible video” (p. 58) and again in Chapter 8. These
mentions show objectivity in the main argument presented.
Overall, the book is a valuable reference book for teacher educators
and teachers and highlights the critical need for using videos in
teacher development at different career stages. In its final chapter
it brings into one place research in video use now and in where it is
going, which opens up the reader to potential new empirical research
ideas to come.

REFERENCES

Quigley, D. (2018). Inter-Professional Practice to Support Effective
Language Enrichment in Primary School Classrooms: An Action Research
Inquiry. [Unpublished Doctoral thesis]. Trinity College Dublin.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

ABOUT THE REVIEWER:
Cathryn Bennett obtained her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Trinity
College Dublin in 2023. She has been teaching EAP in Irish higher
education for the past six years. Her Ph.D. focused on training
in-service EFL practitioners online to become corpus literate and
design classroom materials with corpora. Her newly designed training
framework which included teacher reflection was trialled over a 2 year
period using action research and teacher-participants from 11
different countries. She continues to nourish her interest in this
subject by regularly attending international conferences on the
subject, as well as publishing both alone and in collaboration with
other researchers on corpus literacy in English language teaching more
generally.



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