Video-Stimulated Reflective Dialogues in Second Language Teacher Education Research

Euline Cutrim Schmid

University of Education Heidelberg, Germany

euline.cutrim.schmid@ph-heidelberg.de

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Background and Motivation for the Study

Increasing use of IWB technology in language classrooms

Possible pedagogical benefits Reinforcing traditional pedagogical

approaches? Need for research that focuses on

teacher education

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Socio-Cognitive Approach to CALL

Warschauer (2000) summarizes the central claims of the Socio-Cognitive Approach to CALL:

“For electronic language learning activities to be most purposeful and effective, it would seem that they should (1) be learner-centred, with students having a fair amount of control over their planning and implementation, (2) be based on authentic communication in ways rhetorically appropriate for the medium, (3) be tied to making some real difference in the world or in the students’ place in it, and (4) provide students an opportunity to explore and express their evolving identity” (p.57).

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Research Questions

What are the new competencies that EFL teachers need to acquire in order to be able to use the interactive whiteboard to develop their practice, informed by a socio-cognitive approach to CALL ?

What kind of technical and pedagogical support is mostly needed by them in this process?

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Research Project EFL Teachers integrating IWB technology

into the curriculum in secondary schools in Germany

Key outcomes of the project: competency model of IWB technology-supported

language teaching A model of interactive whiteboard technology professional

development programme A pedagogical framework based on a socio-

cognitive view of communicative language teaching Seven in-depth longitudinal case studies Ethnographic research instruments

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Research Process Research Methodology

Teacher cognition in language teaching (Borg, 2009)

Collaborative research (Burns & Richards, 2009) Research Instruments

Classroom observations and field notes Video recording of lessons and workshops In-depth interviews with teachers In-depth interviews with students involved in small-

scale research projects Video-stimulated reflective dialogues

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Research Context

Case Study – English Teacher Secondary School in Germany Age: 40 Teaching Experience: 14 years ICT Expertise: Middle Investigation: October 2007 – August

2008

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Data Analysis

Pedagogical and technical competencies Exploring the multimodal resources provided

by the IWB Managing interaction mediated by IWB

technology Managing stress related to the introduction of

the technology

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Data Analysis

Exploring the multimodal resources provided by the IWB technology

“I do it the classical way, just using the whiteboard as a blackboard, drawing everything that I usually draw on the blackboard on the whiteboard. But here again… I could just put the words and pictures and let them match them together to figure out: what does the English word mean? Or which picture fits to the word ‘knight’ or ‘sword’? Or whatever… the words they don't know... Everything I do with lots of talking, I could easily show with pictures and you could use the whiteboard ."

“I do it the classical way, just using the whiteboard as a blackboard, drawing everything that I usually draw on the blackboard on the whiteboard. But here again… I could just put the words and pictures and let them match them together to figure out: what does the English word mean? Or which picture fits to the word ‘knight’ or ‘sword’? Or whatever… the words they don't know... Everything I do with lots of talking, I could easily show with pictures and you could use the whiteboard ."

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Data Analysis

Managing interaction mediated by IWB technology Changing the patterns of classroom

interaction Designing activities that engage all

pupils at once and not just the one at the board

“Actually I feel like a pupil right now, because I'm watching this class and I'm just a pupil. I'm already bored. It's too much time. And I have the idea that they could have also followed all these movements if I had given them a piece of paper on which they could have drawn the lines and written onto the dates and the keywords like the people that move from one place to the other.”

“Actually I feel like a pupil right now, because I'm watching this class and I'm just a pupil. I'm already bored. It's too much time. And I have the idea that they could have also followed all these movements if I had given them a piece of paper on which they could have drawn the lines and written onto the dates and the keywords like the people that move from one place to the other.”

“And it's... a little bit sad, I have to say to see myself teaching this way, because when I planned the lesson I thought there is a lot of change in it, but when I watch it, it's not, it's just that I feel: ok it's teacher-centred and ... there is a change of media but not a change of social form. So every communication is teacher-pupil and pupil-teacher, ok there were some sequences some small ones with pupils between pupils but it's just too little”.

“And it's... a little bit sad, I have to say to see myself teaching this way, because when I planned the lesson I thought there is a lot of change in it, but when I watch it, it's not, it's just that I feel: ok it's teacher-centred and ... there is a change of media but not a change of social form. So every communication is teacher-pupil and pupil-teacher, ok there were some sequences some small ones with pupils between pupils but it's just too little”.

Data Analysis

Managing stress – gradual introduction of the technology

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“Teacher: Actually it's stone-age use of whiteboard. It's the beginning.

Researcher: Why do you say it's stone age?Teacher: Because in the beginning you are... I was

just happy that I was able to use it and without being very nervous you know I said ok, I just do little pieces instead of doing everything with the Whiteboard or accelerate and in the end the lesson is blown because I cannot cope with the technology. So I thought, ok the first step is to use the Whiteboard as a substitute to the blackboard, which gave me more security.”

“Teacher: Actually it's stone-age use of whiteboard. It's the beginning.

Researcher: Why do you say it's stone age?Teacher: Because in the beginning you are... I was

just happy that I was able to use it and without being very nervous you know I said ok, I just do little pieces instead of doing everything with the Whiteboard or accelerate and in the end the lesson is blown because I cannot cope with the technology. So I thought, ok the first step is to use the Whiteboard as a substitute to the blackboard, which gave me more security.”

Data Analysis

Teacher’s view on the role of VSRS in her professional development

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“I love to jump into the topic or the thing and try out and do mistakes of course and watch myself, reflecting about myself, analyzing myself, and as I told you before, learning from watching myself that I'm different to what I think I am […] I watch myself very critically because I focus on the pupils”. (in-depth interview).

“I love to jump into the topic or the thing and try out and do mistakes of course and watch myself, reflecting about myself, analyzing myself, and as I told you before, learning from watching myself that I'm different to what I think I am […] I watch myself very critically because I focus on the pupils”. (in-depth interview).

“The video sessions were the best thing in the whiteboard project”. (in-depth interview)

“The video sessions were the best thing in the whiteboard project”. (in-depth interview)

Conclusions Video-stimulated reflective dialogues

professional development tool reflection self-evaluation pedagogical development

research method in the study of teacher cognition beliefs thoughts interpretations

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Further Work Issues and challenges in the use of

video-stimulated reflective dialogues researcher control X teacher control whole lessons X specific teaching

episodes amount and nature of researcher prompts

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Questions?

Thank you for your attention!

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References

Borg, S. (2009). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and practice. London: Continuum

Cutrim Schmid, E. (2009) Interactive Whiteboard Technology in the Language Classroom: exploring new pedagogical opportunities. VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller, Germany.

Cutrim Schmid, Euline (2010). Developing Competencies for Using the Interactive Whiteboard to Implement Communicative Language in the English as a Foreign Language Classroom. Technology, Pedagogy and Education 19(2). Routledge.

Cutrim Schmid, Euline (2008). "Potential pedagogical benefits and drawbacks of multimedia use in the English language classroom equipped with interactive whiteboard technology" Computers and Education. Vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 1553-1568.

Gray, G., Hagger-Vaughan, L., Pilkington, R. & Tomkins, S. (2007) Integrating ICT into classroom practice in modern foreign language teaching in England: making room for teachers' voices. European Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 30 (4), 407 – 429

Gray, G., Hagger-Vaughan, L., Pilkington, R. & Tomkins, S. (2007) Integrating ICT into classroom practice in modern foreign language teaching in England: making room for teachers' voices. European Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 30 (4), 407 – 429.

Thomas, M. & Cutrim Schmid, E (2010) Interactive Whiteboard for Education: Theory, Research and Practice. Hershey, PA, USA:IGI Global.

Warschauer, M. (2000). On-line learning in second language classrooms: An ethnographic study. In M. Warschauer, & R. Kern (Eds), Network-based language teaching: Concepts and practice (pp.41-58). Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press.

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Definition of Competencies

“Competencies can be referred to as categories of the individual. They can only be developed by the subject himself and include skills, knowledge, qualifications as well as values. Their development spans the whole lifetime. Competencies are to be understood in terms of the ability to act, and are bound to the subject, his/her ability and his/her willingness to act on his/her own responsibility.”

(Translated from Gillen, 2006, S.77)