“From Her Eyes”: On the Affordances of Video Resources in Supporting Teacher Reflection

Abstract

The contribution presents data and findings from a teacher education intervention, which aimed at supporting (student) teachers’ professional vision in order to improve their (dialogic) reflective practices. In order to facilitate meaningful dialogue, video-recorded English lessons were used as bases of discussion. The 19 participants were early career teachers (with about two to four years teaching experience) from diverse geographical and educational backgrounds. Overall, interactions amounting to 349 minutes were recorded. Data show interesting interactions between participants describing and noticing specific teaching events on the video material, the challenges of suspending evaluation and the crucial role of dialogue in deepening the reflective process. Findings also show the affordances of video materials on fostering professional vision, such as the means of re-watching episodes and of several participants having seen the same teaching event. Although the participants had teaching experience, the facilitators were crucial in guiding towards both specific moments in the teaching events observed and to theory-based knowledge available to the participants. This raises implication for both pre- and in-service teaching aimed at reflective practice.