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Using YouTube to Develop & Assess Pre-service Teachers’ Expertise in Instruction & to Help Develop Peer Networks – within an Online Course
Empire State CollegeMaster of Arts in Teaching Program Eileen O’Connor, Ph.D.
Agenda
Background on the course & the needs of the course ; research questions
Findings from the YouTube pilot Conclusions, improvements, and
next steps – within teacher education
Some general findings for all instructors
Course Particulars
Pre-service teachers who are learning to become science teachers; career changing adults
An associated course is face-to-face and allows these teachers to practice but content-pedagogy experts are not always
available Purpose of YouTube pilot—to have students:
develop a microteaching that they share with peers & the instructor that can aid in their development as K12 teachers, that can serve as a course assessment , and that can encourage peer networks
Course particulars: the nature of the course interactions
The online course itself is highly interactive and tech-enabled online course: Second Life for meetings and discussions Talk-aloud discussion boards for planning Networking students in an expressed
instructional objective
Demographics: Career-changing adults
Content area:
Physics Earth Science
Chemistry
4 2 4
Gender: Female Male5 5
Approx. age:
Under 30 30 – 45 45+
3 3 4
Research questions
Can the use of readily-available video-recording and sharing applications, such as YouTube, provide more opportunities for pre-service teachers working in a largely online environment to practice teaching before they enter the classroom? How can having more opportunities for content-expert faculty review help these students grow as research-based science teachers? Can students in online courses develop more collegial relationships through YouTube sharing?
What areas appear as problematic when students self-created and posted these videos – from a technical perspective and from a presentation perspective?
How did the YouTube serve as an assessment tool within the course? How has the use of student-developed videos improved the course effectiveness?
What can be gathered from this study that could inform online courses in general? How self-videotaping and posting be used to improve future courses with pre-service teachers?
You & your online students get to know
each other
Findings: students get to know each other
More personal interactions were apparent: Peer help with creating and posting the
YouTubes Students discuss their presentation style▪ Do I look shifty eyes?
Students comment about themselves personally▪ Not happy with the beard it was shaved
Personalities become apparent From show-off-y to competent to quiet
Findings: learning the technology
Some technology struggles in the beginning; but quickly overcome – issues at the beginning: Uploading problems – timing out / too long Embedding the right links No Helpdesk – students helped each other Initial handout from the instructor with some
“basics” The icebreaker to test the process was very
helpful - and students enjoyed their presentations
Ways students worked
1st microteaching 2nd microteaching
Used attached webcam 2 of 10 students 2 of 10 (same students)
Used detached video camera 8 of 10 students 8 of 10 (same students)
Created some video-editing 3 of 10 students 4 of 10 (one new)
Sophisticated video-editing was clearly stated as NOT being required; this was not per se a technology course
View students’ actual work
Findings: now you can analyze performance characteristics
1st YouTube 2nd YouTube
Addressing a K12 audience 3 of 10 (30%) 8 of 9 (89%)
Challenging K12 student with questions
3 of 10 (30%) / 3 partially (30%)
2 of 9 (22%) /3 (33%) partially
Asking K12 students to make predictions
3 of 10 (30%) 0 / less relevant
Most of lesson tells K12 students what to observe
7 of 10 (70%) 6 of 9 (67%)
Such as the style of teaching that was evident:
Students were creative in displaying data & its use
A “performance based” assessment
Brings in a vital aspect of instruction and review: The process of creating the microteaching is
instructive in-and-of itself▪ As evident in the scientific quality within the productions
even without specific coaching on how & what to present Kindly but pointed review▪ Mastery of many areas but still not student centered or
interesting▪ More similar to actual classroom observations
The content-pedagogy instructor can now observe technique, technology integration, & aspects of comfort in front of an audience ▪ Difficult qualities to assess in online environment
Findings
Good science & tech . . . however: Too much to an adult audience – their
colleagues▪ Despite criteria, notes, rubrics, and
comments▪ But improvement by the second
microteaching Too much “this is what you show know
about science” and not enough engendering of the questions that science addresses
Too little evidence of why K12 students would be interested or engaged in the science
Benefits
Good way for online instructors to get to know students – in an asynchronous manner
Easy to use: The learning curve for the technology is small Network students for peer support
Important communication skills that teachers need: Good modeling for their own classroom; K12
students work well in this environment
Value to the students
Practice with the technology and with the teaching; learning how to assemble materials needed, how to address the standards
Getting to know their peers better Using 21st century skills
Value in teacher prep
Practicing with assembly of all the materials and ideas needed when teaching: Requires the integration of many areas: the
science; the lessons; the technology; and the videotaping goes beyond what is evident in a lesson plan
Provides practice in speaking and later critiquing ▪ The natural concern about speaking with colleagues as
evident in comments to the audience and introductions Also, these students may soon have to do a
demo lesson on a job interview
Value to using YouTube, in general
•Accessible to most students
•Useful especially with online; improves student & teacher communication
Easily implemented
•Many facets can be studied
•Richer assessments possible since live materials can be readily reviewed
“Performance” can now be observed
•New questions arise about what is evidence of learning in the content area
New ways of teaching &
learning emerge
Lessons learned for teacher ed: more research & development needed
Very valuable techniques – show the good and the bad of teaching As we were taught – but movement towards best practice VERY difficult to change practice – we teach how we were taught
Requirements for improvement – in the outcomes and the instruction (the technology itself was mostly supportive) A more realistic conception of pre-classroom teaching needs and
how they are assessed must be developed More YouTube models of best practice – they should be analyzed
and discussed by students before they create their microteachings; more scaffolding and assignments on the student-centeredness aspects
Criteria & rubrics should better alignment with desired outcomes within the video format – need to highlight the new expectations
Address ways to bring in the unseen audience Consider creating more specific peer review – anonymous, perhaps
Pilot outcome
Very worthy – providing a whole new face for pre-service teacher education Closer to the classroom – than written lesson plans;
much better assessment of preparation for teaching However, lack of “real” students may have skewed
this towards a performance for other scientist Performance-based assessment – heralds our adult
students: good concrete experience Need to bring the course itself into better
alignment with this performance approach areas in need of improvement were highlighted
Notes to prospective implementers
Valuable way to assess performance but we need to improve the evaluation of live performances and not simply “papers”
Particularly useful in clinical programs and/or where performances are required
Model the techniques you want Easier said then done In teacher education, you need a new mental model
of teaching; the YouTube gives evidence to the deeper thinking of students
The instructor will have students continue to use these videos in the fall semester’s course