Innovator Vol. 38 No. 1 - Fall 07: RE-IMAGINING TEACHER EDUCATION
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Almost everyone understands what the records of a doctor’s
practice are, and almost no one would suggest that a physician
or surgeon could function properly without them.
But what comprises a teacher’s records of practice? And why, and to whom, do they matter?
Some records of teaching practice are completely familiar, like lesson plans and student assessments. But recent advances in digital technology make it possible to create a greater variety of useful records of teaching and learning. The study of such records makes it possible to use the process of teaching itself to the service of its improvement.
At least that’s the idea, one of the big ones of the School of Education’s Teacher Education Initiative.
NEW USES FOR TECHNOLOGIES
“We can capture in high fidelity an entire year’s worth of
classroom lessons on a portable computer’s hard drive,”
says Magdalene Lampert, who directs the TEI’s activities and
settings component. But also available for capture are student
teachers’ interactions with colleagues, mentors and parents, or
master teachers’ performances in settings designed to focus on
particular aspects of teaching.
Technology, in turn, renders such settings vastly more useful for professional training, in ways similar to operating surgical theaters in medical schools or mock trials in law school. As Lampert puts it, “Much of our interest in virtual settings is fueled by the possibility of capturing, storing and accessing artifacts that have been digitized in some fashion.”
But who will use this material, and for what? There are potential benefits from this rich resource for every participant in the educational enterprise – from pre-service teachers to their instructors to veteran practitioners to researchers to teachers at all levels of all disciplines to parents and the public at large.
SYSTEMATIC RECORD-KEEPING
Its effects are already being felt in a pilot program run by the Secondary Master of Arts with Certification program, in which pre-service teachers are equipped with cameras and taught how to analyze recordings of their own performance with as much diligence and precision as they would any other text.
“Novice teachers in their classrooms are thinking about so many different things that when they try to analyze a situation, they miss so much of what’s going on,” says Deanna Birdyshaw, coordinator of secondary education. Her involvement in the technology pilot has already shown her its value for pre-service teachers. 
“This record lets them watch what they’ve done several times and take moments and reflect on them from more than one perspective and over time,” she says. “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of taking a second look at something that happened in a classroom, and maybe even taking a look after you’ve had the benefit of learning a little bit more about particular things.” Birdyshaw makes clear how additional learning can expand what beginning teachers can see and learn from their own practice.
That applies to practicing teachers, too. “Many of the people involved in the TEI see using records of practice, using videos to study their own effectiveness, as something that should be an ongoing part of a teacher’s professional behavior,” says Birdyshaw. “We’re hoping to prepare students to understand how to do this so as they go into their career, they will continue to examine their practice and improve their effectiveness as professionals.”
The more systematically these techniques are used, the more likely they are to yield improvements, so it’s especially important that such records be kept regularly rather than occasionally. “Records of practice need to be studied over time, says Elizabeth Moje, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Literacy, Language and Culture in Educational Studies. “A teacher can’t just look at herself every now and then and evaluate whether she is growing as a teacher. We need to establish routines and systems of analysis for using such records.” That kind of self-monitoring has been routine in the sports world for decades. Coaches review tapes of their teams. Athletes study tapes of themselves. Having a clear idea of what success looks like, they can identify the areas where improvement is needed. It’s the difference between a batter in a slump saying, “I’m just not hitting well,” and determining from his “records of practice” that he has a hitch in his swing or has unwittingly altered his stance.
TRANSFORMING TEACHING OVER TIME
It’s not just the “star” of the movie who benefits from assiduous record-keeping. Online archives of instructional practices would be equally available to educational researchers seeking data against which theories can be tested, tenured history professors who don’t seem to be succeeding very well at getting certain points across, and elementary mathematics teachers with six languages spoken in their classroom.
Similarly, the value of pre-practice teachers’ records transcends the individual who made them. Teacher preparation instructors can use the information they furnish to determine what parts of a course are working in practice, where more or less emphasis or time is needed, and how professional training can be most effectively sequenced.
Ultimately, the mindful use of records of practice can help significantly in better preparing novice teachers, continuously improving practice, and undergirding rigorous and relevant research.
Story by Jeff Mortimer
Photos by Mike Gould
Notebook supplied by Linda Denstaedt
