Teachscape Reflect System: Encouraging Reflective Practice

Teachscape Reflect System SVC 2012 2013

Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is a powerful process that can help to improve teaching and learning across a school. Today, you will learn about reflective practice with classroom video and will begin to explore the ways that Teachscape Reflect Video can support this process.

Teachscape Reflect Video enables:

Self-reflection and self-evaluation for individual improvement

Lesson study and peer mentoring to strengthen professional learning communities

Coaching to promote effective practices Teacher induction, mentoring and recruitment Standardized, evidence-based observation

Reflective Practice and Video Reflection

Reflection is key to improving one's practice in any domain, and teaching is no exception. To make substantive and long-lasting changes in instruction, teachers need sustained opportunities to explore teaching and learning.

Plan-Do-Study-Act

Plan-Do-Study-Act

You can use the Instructional Practice Analysis Record to document your work on each step. Click on the link below to download a blank Instructional Practice Analysis Record. Instructional Practice Analysis Record
(Requires the Adobe Reader Plug-in. Get Adobe Reader.)

Reflect on the following independently or discuss with colleagues.

What opportunities have you had to engage in a process of planning, action, and reflection? What are the benefits of participating in an ongoing cycle of action and reflection? Why might the Plan-Do-Study-Act process be recommended for use by a learning community? What might be challenging about implementing this process individually? Identify three ways that teachers can use Teachscape Reflect to support a process of reflective practice.
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Establishing a focal "lens" for analyzing instruction

Multiple events at every moment Focus reflective conversations Focused analysis

Establishing a focal "lens" for analyzing instruction

When reflecting on teaching, it's essential for teachers to have a clear focus in minda lens for analysis. A clear focus helps teachers know the kind of lesson to select for filming. A clear focus also helps members of a professional learning community know where to direct their attention during viewingwhat specifically they are "looking for" in the video.

Why Establish a Lens?

Where to focus attention? Develop a shared understanding of what a particular concept or strategy looks like in a classroom. Establish the reflective lens prior to capturing a lesson.

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Selecting a Reflective Lens

The following factors should inform your focus for video viewing: Issues or questions drawn from analysis of student data Instructional improvement initiatives at your school Instructional frameworks or rubrics used at your school Interests, needs, and experience levels of participating teachers Content and focus of the lesson to be analyzed
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Using Instructional Frameworks: TEM 2.0

Target and structure reflections on practice.

Analyze and refine teaching practices.

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Reflective Lenses

Teacher Questioning Student Thinking Cooperative Learning Other Examples of Lenses for Video Reflection

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Other Examples of Lenses for Video Reflection

Lesson structure and organization Use of specific instructional strategies Quality of verbal and nonverbal feedback Rigor and relevance of assigned tasks Student engagement in tasks Variety of learning experiences/learning modalities Equity of teacher-student interactions Clarity of teacher-student communication Teacher/student use of academic vocabulary Efficiency of classroom procedures Effectiveness of behavior management approaches Depth and focus of student-student discussions Effectiveness of support for English language learners Use of multiple representations in mathematics Explicit modeling of strategies in language arts Student use of scientific language during lab work

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Consider the following questions

How can selecting different lenses described focus the viewers attention when viewing video? Why is it valuable to focus on both teachers and students when exploring any lens? What other lenses might be valuable for teachers to explore when viewing video? Why? What factors should teachers consider when selecting a lens for video viewing? How can instructional frameworks (TEM 2.0) focus and scaffold reflective practice with video?

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Questions to consider when planning for video capture include:

What lens do I plan to explore when analyzing my lesson? What insight do research and/or my school's instructional framework (TEM 2.0) provide with regard to this lens? What types of activities will provide opportunities to explore this lens? How can I capture teacher and student interactions that will help me to learn from exploration of this lens? What other learning opportunities might this lesson provide?

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Ready to Record?

After establishing a reflective lens and preparing the lesson, the teacher should implement the lesson and capture it on video. Keep in mind that the goal is to capture both teacher and student actions.

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Reflect on the following questions independently or discuss them with colleagues.

How does having a specific lens in mind influence the way in which you analyze classroom practice? What lenses might you select for reflecting on practice? What factors might determine the lens you select for a particular lesson analysis experience? What are the advantages of sharing a common lens when viewing video together? What are the challenges?
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