Video, Feedback, and Self-Efficacy: What the Research Reveals

Jessica:

I’m happy to be joined today by our presenter, Dr. Heather Lucas, associate professor at Northwest University School of Education in Washington. Before I hand it over to Dr. Lucas, I just want to run through a few points of housekeeping. Today’s event will last about 45 minutes, that includes 30 minutes of presentation and 10 to 15 minutes for q and a. We are recording today’s presentation, so if you need to hop off or before we finish or you want to share the recording with a colleague, we’ll be emailing that recording directly to you. We do want today’s presentation to be as interactive as possible. So throughout the presentation, please participate in any polls and prepare your questions in the q and a function to submit those. Those are at the bottom. Please use that q and a function. We’ll answer as many questions as we possibly can as time allows.

We also have a chat function. You’ll see that below. Please use this to introduce yourself. I see some people already getting started with that. Tell us what school you’re with and if you have any links or relevant resources to share with other attendees, please use that chat function to build community with your peers today as well. And if you experience any technical difficulties during our webinar today, please use the chat to reach out as well. Without further ado, let’s go ahead and get started. Dr. Lucas, please share a little bit about your background with our audience today.

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Thank you, Jessica. Yeah, thank you all for being here today. I’m Heather Lucas. I’m an associate professor at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, and I lead the master in teaching program there and supervise field experiences before moving into higher ed. I taught in both public and private K 12 settings from pre-K drama to AP Lit, and I try to draw on that classroom experience every day in my work with future teachers, my research specifically focuses on the use of video analysis and teacher prep, especially how it impacts teacher self-efficacy. And I also study teaching presence and the role of humor in learning. So heads up, this will not be an overly serious lecture. My goal is always to make my teaching as practical as possible for pre-service teachers, and I want to do that here today as well.

Jessica:

Thank you so much, Heather. Before we dive into your research, let’s start with a poll question and hear from our audience about how many are already using video in their observation practices. So that poll that just popped up, if you can answer that for us, we’ll use that to get started. All right. It looks like 74% said yes, and 26% said no. Dr. Lucas, based on these poll results, what are one to two things that you hope our attendees will take away from our discussion today?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah, okay. So remember, I’m all about the practical. So for those of you who use video for observations, I’m excited to share some themes I found in the research that might help you structure organizations in a way that better supports meaningful reflection and feedback, but things that you can implement in your system that you already have, not a total re-haul. And actually, for those of you who don’t use video for observations, I am excited to share. I have a really great tool to use as a compliment to in-person observations. And we’re going to talk about how to use it. We use it at Northwest specifically. It’s the final component of our program, which is the reflection and growth analysis, which you are welcome to adapt and use in your program if it’s East Fit.

Jessica:

Perfect. Perfect. And can you give us a big picture, a little bit of a bigger picture of your research when it took place, what you were hoping to learn, those type of things?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah, yeah, sure. So I think a lot of you, I first got started with GoReact during COVID. We weren’t allowed in the schools, but needed a way to conduct observations. I was a field supervisor at the time, and honestly, when I first heard we were moving to video observations, I was not excited. It felt like another COVID stop gap, but when I started using it with my candidates, I found I was able to go deeper with my reflection and the analysis aspects. And kind of like in sports after the Friday night game, you watch the tape on Monday and the tape doesn’t lie, who missed the tackle? We can see it right there on the video. And with candidates, that was happened too. We now had this third thing, my perspective, their perspective and then the evidence in front of us. And it was also super convenient, right?

I didn’t have to drive an hour to do an observations, but I was getting mixed results from candidates. Some of them were putting in minimal effort into their annotations or just didn’t seem excited about the process. And I realized there’s a lot of reasons doing observations make sense for programs and for candidates. But what is the pre-service teacher perspective on video observations? What is happening on their side of the screen? We know that student teaching is fantastic for building self-efficacy. It has all the components, the mastery experience, the vicarious experience, verbal and social persuasion. Do those components transfer when we make that process virtual? And that’s kind of what I wanted to find out. What is the pre-service teacher perspective on video observations? So this was a qualitative study, specifically a hermeneutic phenomenological study explores the lived experience of pre-service teachers using GoReact during student teaching for observations.

Participants are from a large teaching program at a mid-size public university on the east coast. It took place just as candidates were finishing and graduating. So May and June of 2023, notably, this was after all the CO restrictions were lifted, and three different types of data. First was individual interviews. Then I sat with each of them and we looked at their GoReact videos together. So video elicitation, and finally a letter writing prompt. Each participant was asked to write a letter to a new pre-service teacher who was just starting their program and what they would tell them about video observations. But in general, the data was fascinating. I emerged four themes that reveal both the strengths and also some blind spots in how we implement video and analysis and reflection. Specifically, the themes were streamlined, reflection, digital detachment, the supervisor variable, and how program components affect self-efficacy. And I’m assuming we’re going to dive into those themes as we get going.

Jessica:

Absolutely. Absolutely. So for the first question I want to ask you, many teacher educators are turning to video because of convenience and cost like you talked about, but your study hollered a theme of digital detachment, and let’s talk about that one first. What are the risks of relying too heavily on video and how can programs avoid those risks?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Okay, yeah, I love this question. Video is incredibly appealing for good reason. It’s flexible, it reduces travel time scheduling issues, and it expands access to places we maybe not have been able to do student teaching in the past. And then the participants really liked this. They liked being able to do student teaching close to their home. They didn’t have to coordinate schedules with their field supervisor. But what my research surfaces that, and I think we really need to pause on this, is this idea of digital detachment, which is a phrase that I came up with because I have hearing this again and again from pre-service teacher, the sense that video observations when used in isolation can actually lead to feeling disconnected from their supervisor and the learning process in general. And this was most prevalent when video observations were exclusively used. So no in-person observations and especially when pre-service teacher supervisor interaction was entirely asynchronous.

For example, one participant shared that they didn’t know if their supervisor was actually even watching the video. They didn’t receive many comments or follow up, and eventually they admitted they just stopped caring about the assignment. Another one talked about how the submitted videos felt performative, like just recording to check a box without feedback or conversation. It became less about growth and more about just getting through. And we talked about getting feedbacks. Some people get ’em days or two weeks after they submitted a video, and by then the feedback just wasn’t as meaningful. One participant said that they realized their supervisor wasn’t really checking their comments, so they just used the markers at random, which is not the point. Another something was filtered communication. A number of candidates talked about how they didn’t know how to read their supervisor’s comments like the tone or the intonation.

And one candidate pointed out that they found it difficult to disagree with the supervisor’s comment. He missed that back and forth of a synchronous conversation, and he couldn’t ask for clarification in the moment. So what do you do? How do we use the tool for all its conveniences but not lose that human touch? And my recommendation for the research is that programs pair video with a structured interaction, ideally synchronous interaction. One way is to schedule post video conferences. We both watched the video, we both commented on it, and now we’re going to meet and discuss it in real time. And this can be online or this can be in person. Another idea is just to do weekly or biweekly supervisor, pre-service teacher check-in calls or use a hybrid approach of in-person and video observations. If your program is completely asynchronous, this is more challenging, but you can use the features that GoReact has for video or audio feedback instead of just relying on the written feedback sometimes. Sometimes there’s just to show that there’s a person behind the comments. Even small moves like responding to individual annotations with a question or an affirmation can send the message that I see you, I’m invested in your growth. Ultimately, video is a really powerful tool, but any tool, it only works when it’s used in a relationship. When we reintroduce this presence into the process through conversations, mentorship, reflection, then we can really leverage the tool for teacher growth.

Jessica:

Absolutely. So some pre-service teachers in your research curated their video submissions to only show their best teaching moments. How do programs address this challenge of authenticity in their video-based assessments?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

So this is a real issue, and honestly, it’s human nature and it’s not just a video issue. We all invited our supervisors to observe our best class, but when you’re being evaluated, of course you want to put your best foot forward. Several participants in the study talked about this. One admitted, they treated it like a performance, and he would record the whole day and then he would just submit his best period. I call this cherry picking, and that is a difference with video, right? If I’m observing a candidate in person and things go seriously off the rails, I get to see it and help him process it. In video, often the candidates would simply record a different lesson. Or in one interview, a candidate talked about how the video couldn’t see it was rolling, and there was a kid rolling on the floor right off the camera, and she told me she ignored the behavior because she knew the camera couldn’t see it, which was interesting.

So most of the participants talked about this. The video doesn’t show the whole picture of what’s going on in the classroom. So the challenge is how do we move from curated highlight reel to meaningful window window practice? I think that the solution is to kind of make this more of an experience and not just so much of an evaluation. Some ideas are to set a specific time or period that the candidate must record. So I want to see Wednesday sixth period at this time. It also helps to have tight deadlines. You have to record this on Tuesday, must be uploaded with annotations by Wednesday night. Don’t give them time to work too hard to make this perfect. And then this is an interesting one is make them mentor your ally. We run into the limited perspective issue when we just set the camera and forget it.

I really loved watching the video where the mentor teacher was recording for the pre-service teacher. Two reasons. They were more often to show student engagement and not just the teacher’s action. And the second reason is they were also more likely to notice what else was going on in the room. So in that example, I said before about the kid rolling on the side, you can bet that if the mentor had been recording, she would’ve been right on that, watching it and making sure that we saw it and we’re going to talk about it later. So I think it’s helpful to kind of make them your co-conspirator here. Another helpful shift is to reframe the purpose of video, but if we clearly communicate the video is for reflection and learning tool, not a gotcha or a final exam, then candidates are less likely to try to do this performative and take risks and be willing to be more honest. And we can design prompts that ask them what’s not seen in the video, what didn’t go as planned, and what would they do differently next time? Ultimately, it’s just about the culture you’re creating around the video. When people feel psychologically safe and supported, they’re more likely to show the real teaching, and that’s where the real growth will begin.

Jessica:

Absolutely. Creating that culture means everything. So next question is, if a teacher educator is considering integrating more video into their program, what are the top two to three things that they should really get and focus on at the start to meaningful and effective?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah, I think the first one, and this one really came out, was to be very intentional with your structure. So it’s easy for video assignments to feel passive. You record, you upload, you’re done. But what matters most is what the student does after they upload the video. So we need to build in that. They have to do the timestamped annotations. There should be maybe reflective prompts or follow up conversation that helps ’em actually see their own teaching and make sense of it when reflection is paired with the guided feedback. That’s the secret sauce for pre-service teacher development. Reflection is good, feedback is good. When we can combine them, that’s when you’re getting the most bang for your buck. I think that’s another one would be clarify the purpose. I just kind of talked about this, but making it formative, not just evaluative. So if video is framed purely as an assessment tool, students will curate and they will perform.

But if we position it as a growth tool, as a way to make them more self-aware, more confident, more skilled, they tend to be more honest, more open, and more willing to learn. And that purpose should be clearly communicated and consistent throughout the process. I think another one is training supervisors in digital presence and feedback. So this one came through strongly in the research. Pre-service teacher were deeply affected by how much or how little their supervisor engaged with their videos. If they want meaningful use of video, we have to support supervisors in giving timely, specific, constructive feedback. Even short check-ins can make a huge difference in how valued and guided the students feel. And just like we need to train our candidates how to be reflective of what does reflective comments look like. We also need to be training our supervisors on giving feedback and video observation because in-person observations looked different than video observations.

I felt when I was doing in-person observations, my notes were a lot more descriptive. I was describing what I was seeing, but that’s not necessary and not as necessary, I suppose, in video observations because the evidence is right there. So maybe walking through with your supervisors what feedback looks like in video and giving examples or exemplars of videos with great guided feedback. It can be incredible helpful for setting expectations of what’s expected here. So ultimately it’s not about using more video, it’s about using it better with clear structure, aligned purpose, and really an engaged supervisor. It can be really powerful.

Jessica:

Absolutely. So we’re going to shift a little bit to talk more about reflection and that learning experience as well. How did pre-service teachers describe the impact of video annotation on their reflection and growth as developing educators? And what surprised you the most about that?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Okay, so this is my favorite thing to talk about. This was the most fun. One of the most consistent things I heard from participants was how much they noticed about their own teaching after watching their video, they talked about seeing things they missed in the moment, whether it was a student who was checked out or transitioned that they knew kind of dragged on too long, whatever it was, or even just their own body language or their volume. One of the candidates, I think everybody’s here is the feedback I got from my supervisor was helpful, but I noticed more when I watched myself teach, and that one really stuck with me. It wasn’t just that it was Aries improvement, they were noticing when they were doing well. Two candidates actually talked about the surprise that they felt like that they looked like real teachers and they were delighted to watch the students in the video because they could see the impact that their instruction was having.

And that was a lot of fun. And while I was trying to isolate what was this, and I think it’s the ability to pause and rewind and really think about specific moments, and then it moves from the vague impression of yeah, I think that went okay to specific observations and said, oh, I need to give more wait time here, or I never went checked back to see if they understood. And a number of participants talked about a form of teacher amnesia. They would teach and then kind of black out. They wouldn’t really remember how it went afterwards. And I thought this was funny at first, but then it kept coming up. A number of people would mention that they just kind of didn’t remember how it went when they were talking about it. So as a memory aid video is phenomenal. It can help to evaluate things that are going on in the moment that you weren’t able to kind of process and the perspective switch that pause.

It’s really a game changer. As for what surprised me, honestly, how many participants said that the reflection process was more valuable than the feedback they got from their supervisor. That’s not to say that supervisor input isn’t important, it absolutely is. But it highlights how powerful self-directed reflection can be when it’s scaffolded with tools like video annotation. It gave them agency, it helped them feel like they were growing, not because someone told them they were, but because they could see it for themselves right there. And that’s kind of what we want as educators for our students to own their growth and it kind of gives them a mirror. And the power of that mirror was really surprising to me.

Jessica:

Absolutely, absolutely. Giving the students just the ability to kind of see themselves objectively and dive into looking at their teaching that way too, but also building that confidence. I think it gets back to that as well. As you noted. So the term streamlined reflection came up in your findings as well. Can you walk us through what that looked like in practice for your participants and why it matters?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah, so streamlined reflection is one of the more affirming study findings, and for many pre-service teachers, video annotation helped them move from that general surface level reflection to more specific targeted and most importantly, action oriented kind of reflection. In practice, it would look like the first, they would upload a video to GoReact, they’d watch it and they’d add their timestamp comments. First reactions were universally across the board, I hate how I sound or what’s up with my hair. But after we were able to move past that, then they were actually analyzing their teacher moves, how long they talked for it, when they lost student engagement, where they could have asked better question, and it made their reflection more efficient but also deeper at that point. Another participant quote is, it’s a more in-depth reflection because I’m able to stop at those specific points and it kind of recapitulates that idea that streamline reflection is not faster because it’s rushed, it’s faster, because it’s focused, because of get to start at reflection 2.0. They weren’t spending time trying to remember what happened or how a lesson felt. They were interacting with concrete evidence and drawing conclusions in real time. And that matters because when reflection is more focused, it’s more teachable. It becomes something we can scaffold build on and connect to goals and feedback.

Jessica:

Absolutely. What did you learn about the relationship between video reflection and self-efficacy in your participants? How did watching themselves influence their confidence? And I know we touched on this a little bit, but if you can elaborate a little bit more on those aspects, that would be helpful.

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah, so another part about today is it really confirmed that connection between self-reflection and self-efficacy. So Bend’s theory outlines the four main sources of self-efficacy, mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and physiological factors. And video, when it’s used well, touches on all four. So watching them on video gave candidates a concrete sense of growth. They could literally see how their skills had improved over time. One participant said, I feel like I’m the teacher now instead of just pretending to be one. I mentioned that one before because it kept coming up. And that’s a real powerful shift. It wasn’t just that someone told them they were doing better, they had evidence from their own classroom to support it. And for some that process was initially uncomfortable. They noticed their mistakes or heard their nervous tone. But over time that discomfort turned into motivation. They started to focus less on how they looked and more on how they could improve.

And that’s a huge confidence builder when you stop guessing and start seeing. And I said before that video analysis really adds to personal agency and candidates can see what they’re doing and are more likely to take action on it when they see it for themselves. So in terms of self-efficacy, video gave them mastery experiences. I did that and it gave them insight into what effective teaching looks like and when it’s paired with meaningful feedback from a supervisor, so that’s a social persuasion, you’re on the right track, all that builds to a stronger, more resilient sense of self-efficacy. So the takeaway video isn’t just about accountability. It’s a tool when paired with structure and support that actually helps candidates believe they can do the job. And belief is one of the biggest predictors of long-term success. And these findings are what really prompted me to try to create a structure that really tried to capitalize on this strength.

This reflective agency really stuck with me. And so a model that can be used in tandem with video observations, or for those of you who don’t use video observations but want to use video meaningfully, it can be a component to a compliment to in person observations. So I call it the Reflection and growth analysis. And Abby, if you wouldn’t mind if you could, I put a link to it if you want to pull it up and you’re welcome to use this, adapt it however you want, but it’s a three-part model and it’s created to make reflection more meaningful for our teacher candidates. Instead of just asking them to submit a single video and reflect on it, it’s a sequence to help them see their own growth and set actionable goals. And here’s how it works. So segment one is establishing awareness early in the semester, beginning of their student teaching experience, candidates record a short teaching video.

We keep it to eight to 10 minutes, no need to do, they’ll give me the whole 50 minutes because video is so rich and we can stop at every moment. We don’t need a whole 50 minutes. And then add timestamp comments as they watch. Then they focus on what they noticed about their own teaching. We gave them reflection questions to guide this, and then it helps them kind of see their current habits and their blind spots. But it’s not an evaluation. It is purely a reflective exercise. Then the second end of the book ends over here is at the end of student teaching, they record a second video. They go through the same process, annotations, reflection questions, but then we make them go back to their first video that they didn’t at the beginning of the semester and annotate it again this time, noticing what they would’ve done differently or how their practice has evolved.

So it’s that side-by-side reflection that really deepens their awareness. And that’s what I realized when I was doing my research is what was great is when they would go back and look at that first video. They’re like, oh, I didn’t even notice this. Or, oh, I don’t do that anymore. And that’s really where they started to feel. You can almost see it in their posture. They’re like, oh, I still have stuff to do, but look at how much I’ve grown and what have they noticed now and what have they grown? Step three, supervisor feedback and goal setting. Flexion is great, but we got to pair it with that guided feedback for again, that secret sauce. So the final is an exit interview with our field supervisor in my program. This is the very last thing they do. It’s our little end cap and reflection paired with guided feedback.

The supervisor has a set list of questions related to the video. Things like, show me a clip that really shows growth. Does what you’re seeing in the videos yourself match the feedback you’re getting from me and your mentor together? We talk about the process and then try to agree on an area where they need to continually grow. And from that they create a post-program professional development goal. So moving into your first year of teaching, what do you still need to work on? And then they can talk together about how they can keep working on that goal. So the goal of the RGA Reflection and growth analysis, of course, we had to give it an acronym in education, and it doesn’t exist if it doesn’t have an acronym to make the reflection visible, comparative, and future focused. It encourages candidates to take ownership of their development, not just because someone told them what to improve, but they can actually see their own growth and articulate what comes next. And we just finished our exited reviews last week, and it’s a great way to end student teaching and reading through their second set of reflection questions was pretty life giving, I dunno about you, but the end of the semester is bananas for me and I get really grumpy when all these little things going. But it was nice to read those and remember how transformational this work really is.

Jessica:

Absolutely. So we’re going to shift a little bit to understand a little bit more about the supervisor role.

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Your

Jessica:

Study shows that the supervisor’s role was critical. What qualities or practices separated the effective supervisors from the less effective ones in a video-based model?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah, so this again, one of the clearer findings. Supervisor doesn’t just influence the quality of the feedback. They influence whether students see value in the entire video reflection process, which is bold, but I stand by it. Participants who have effective supervisors describe them as engage, responsive and present. And this could be done even in asynchronous settings. There were supervisors who were considered very effective even in asynchronous settings, but those supervisors who provided feedback, it had to be specific, timely and connected to prior conversations. If they could call back to things that they’d talked about earliest to make sure they were paying attention and making connections, responding to candidates comments, linking to outside materials was big. Oh, you did here, here’s a resource for that. That was really helpful.

The supervisor didn’t just comment on what went wrong, but asking reflective questions and affirming the process, they kept the conversation going. It felt more like a conversation than just again, an evaluation. And then one participant in general said, my supervisor didn’t evaluate the video. She helped me see what I couldn’t see on my own. I thought that was pretty, what can we do to add to this process that kind of pull out a little bit more that they wouldn’t have gotten without you? In contrast, less effective supervisors were often just passive or inconsistent. Some students received just little or not much feedback or just a couple of lines at the end of the whole video or just a score. One told me after a while, I stopped self-analyzing because I just wasn’t getting anything back. And I figured if he’s not going to find it, yeah, if I figured if he’s not going to engage, then why should I?

And that kind of disengagement doesn’t just affect motivation, it limits the growth potential of the entire assignment. So what separates the effective from the ineffective? Three key things came through. One timeliness, feedback delivered close to the video experience, made it relevant and actionable. If it can’t be synchronous, let’s make it as close to it as possible. Specificity rather than just vague praise a sentence or just a sentence or two at the end of the video, effective supervisors responded directly at specific points in the video and interestingly responded to the candidate’s annotations as well. Again, keeping that conversation going. And then this was big presence, just even a short check-in or goal setting conversation signaled to the candidate that the supervisor cared and that their development mattered. And that was huge. And that can be on platform or off platform, but just having those different check-ins was great for Candace, feeling supported. So bottom line, video tools don’t replace relationships. They really rely on them.

Jessica:

Absolutely. And how much impact, what I’m hearing from you too is their feedback on the culture and the value that the students derive from the process as well. Several participants expressed frustration with the feedback they’d received or didn’t receive. What does that tell us about the role of timely, specific feedback and more of that digital observation model?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah. Well, it tells us a lot actually. So for many participants in the study, the absence of vagueness of feedback was more discouraging than any actual content. They weren’t just looking for praise or correction. They were just looking for engagement. When you upload a video and get silence or some generic comment, it just lets leaves you wondering, did you even watch this? And then, yeah, so one candidate actually said, if I didn’t get anything back, I just don’t see the point. And it’s not about laziness, it’s about meaning without responsive feedback, the whole process just feels hollow. And that goes back to that digital detachment issue. So what does this tell us? Video annotation platforms like GoReact just aren’t delivery systems, they’re communication tools. And for them to be effective, we have to treat feedback not as a task to complete, but as part of an ongoing instructional relationship. But video feedback is all forms of feedback. So these things I’m telling you are not new to anything just video. It’s all feedback if it’s good, is timely, specific and responsive. So we need to, what we think feedback looks like in a synchronous relationship needs to transfer over to video as well. And it validates that candidate’s effort and deepens their learning. But if it’s delayed, it’s vague, it’s absent, it just undermines the entire reflection process. So not just that feedback process, but the reflection process gets pulled down as well.

Jessica:

So we’re going to shift to some of the questions that were asked, and I saw this one pop up. I think it relates a little bit to our last question. On the opposite side of that timely feedback that’s given. How much feedback is too much feedback thinking about overwhelming teacher candidates, and what is your best advice there?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Okay, with I’m double checking myself with no exceptions. No one felt like they got too much feedback. Everybody really wanted to get as much feedback as they could. And I did know one who would talk about the in-person where she would get pages. But when we’re talking about video, again, we have that pause button so we don’t get as overwhelmed by the in-person things. We can kind of go through it and I think that error on the side of too much or rather than too little, but also be paying attention to if you’re seeing sign that the candidate is overwhelmed, maybe take a step back. But I think that they really would prefer more as opposed to less or a time to kind of chat through it as opposed to too many comments. I do think that there was some mixed results with the markers using those. Some candidates really liked using ’em, some of ’em thought that they were just like an assignment they had to do. So if you’re using the markers, making sure that you’re not just using them as one more thing that they have to do. So any feedback should be meaningful and useful, not just something that we’re checking off. But in general, I found that most candidates, all candidates really wanted as much feedback we got, which is great about pre-service teachers that they’re ready to get that feedback from us.

Jessica:

Absolutely. Another question that came in was, when is ideal to add supervisor comments? And I know you said timely, but when do you think that perfect time is

Dr. Heather Lucas:

If we can condense the video observations to roughly about the same as we would do an in-person? So in my program, at least, if we do an in-person observation, they teach for 50 minutes. We like to try to debrief immediately after that. If we can’t, we do it towards the end of the day. That’s not going to be possible with video, but as we can get as close to that as possible, so if we say this is an observation week, that means you’re recording Monday, you’re doing your comments on Tuesday, the supervisors doing their comment on Wednesday, we’re meeting Thursday. So really condensing it to an area that’s not possible. I recognize that, but I would say if that’s your expectation and you set it in the beginning, they will handle it. And that’s what was interesting is whatever they’re told in the beginning of this is the timeline that they’re more willing to go for it. So there were some candidates who were two weeks and that became the norm and somebody was like the next day and that became the norm. So just being really specific about how quickly you want this done and explaining to them, I don’t want you to forget what happened here. I want us to be able to talk about it. And so you can use it in your teaching before I see you next time.

Jessica:

Absolutely. This I believe is related more to your research. How did you do the analysis of your GoReact transcripts?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah, so coding, just general qualitative coding. And so I was looking for different specific themes that came up from the different individual moments of the meeting. So either words or different phrases and then kind of put them into the different categories and what I was seeing over and over again. And that became really interesting to kind of see what kept coming up. And that’s where I started to get those different phrases is I’m like, this just keeps showing up across all these things. And the hard point was that there were some candidates that had a combination of in-person and video. There were some candidates who had only video. And so those are different experiences. So I had to be very careful that I wasn’t pulling from everybody. This one experience when I had those two. I would say that is a limitation of my research is not to focus on one or the other. If I do this again, I would try to also see people who were just asynchronous people had the combination and how that changes the experience and their perception of their supervisor.

Jessica:

Absolutely. Absolutely. This one you touched on a little bit, but if you can expand on it, how long should the video recording be? The times 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah. So this is not for my research. This is just from my being a master in teaching person. In the beginning I would say I want the whole recording, I want the whole 50 minute unit. And I found that really to be overwhelming because again, it’s so dense when you’re actually, if you’re going to make the feedback with the comments, it’s really dense. And I found I made less comments. This is going to sound weird when I did a 50 minute video because I’m just kind of half watching, but if I made shorter videos, then I could be really intentional about making comments every 10 seconds, every five seconds, really making sure that I’m hitting all those points. So I would argue to do shorter rather than longer, but again, you have to be really clear with those expectations is you’re not choosing your best 10. We decide ahead of time what you’re recording, I’m going to record your anticipatory set, or I’m going to record when you do the direct instruction, but I’m not going to record when they go and do pair share work, make sure that it’s a meaningful eight to 10 minutes. But I think the problem is supervisors get fatigued at watching a 15 minute video and instead of requiring them to slog through it, that feels like a lot, really, really focusing on this slice of the pie. Just maybe 10 minutes.

Jessica:

Absolutely. Have you done this research with in-service teachers? Any differences there that are of note?

Dr. Heather Lucas:

I haven’t. This is purely with pre-service. That’s my world. Those are my people. I love working with pre-service teachers. I anticipate though this would look very different with in-service teachers. I’ve been an instructional coach before with in-service teachers and it is different. I find one of the most fabulous characteristics about most pre-service teachers is that they come like this, they’re ready. They want your feedback, they want you to be in the classroom, they want to be involved. I don’t know if that translates necessarily into in-service teachers. I think there has to be a buy-in. And so if there’s buy-in from the in-service teachers, I think this process could work really well, but I think it would have to be structured a little bit differently. Also, we’re dealing with professionals who are working in the field, so I think that their reflection would look different and their need for guided feedback might not be the same.

Jessica:

Absolutely. Another question that came in generally, what did supervisors or pre-service teachers use to record their lessons,

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Their phones, their iPads, their laptops, whatever device. And one thing, this is not from the research and then this is just from my job, have a class where you explain all the ins and outs and technical things about GoReact and how it works and make them practice. Put a example video in their course and make them try to do it because things like uploading don’t have to be a slog if you can just change the settings on your phone. The uploading speed can change by five times. And so I think those things can make it a lot easier. And then they can talk about their phones or what they’re using, but I think the device that they’re most familiar with is the device I’d tell ’em to go with. Also, again, using the mentor to help record if they’re recording with a giant iPad, that’s way more disruptive to the learning process than if it’s just to the side right here. But they used what they could get for the most part. And that’s true in my program and also with the research.

Jessica:

Perfect. Perfect. We’ll pause just to see if there’s any other questions that the attendees have for today. Okay. Another question did come in a 15 week semester, how many recorded observations do you recommend? We use three, but I’m wondering if more is optimal.

Dr. Heather Lucas:

I would ask how many in-person observations you’re doing with that. So if it’s just video observations and no in-person observations, I would want to do more so once a month or whatever kind of timeline makes sense. If you are pairing these with in-person observations, then it can be every other kind of thing. At Northwest, we actually do in-person observations, but we bookend it with those reflection growth analysis at the beginning and the end. Then we use video for the checkups. So there’s four formal observations, but sometimes I’ll go in and they’re doing a literacy unit. I’m like, oh man, we got to work on this. And so we’ll talk through it. I’ll be like, now I’d like you over the next week. Can you just record just a five minute of how you did Haggerty this week? And then it’s their kind of accountability that they’re going to be using this in the future.

So I like to use a number of formal observations, but then just using it again as a tool for a check-in just to show me how it goes. And sometimes it’s fun because I can’t make when you finally do your Othello skits, right? But I really want to be there, so throw ’em and GoReact. I want to see, I want to see how it’s going. And as now the lead for the supervisors, it’s really fun when we need to talk about a candidate and how they’re going and be like, well, let me jump onto their gore. Lemme see what I can see in that things. And you can learn a lot just from watching just a couple minutes. And I again like to use their beginning candidate saying, have they made enough growth? Let’s look at their beginning one. Let’s look at their and rga and see and see what we’ve done.

Jessica:

I love that you do those smaller check-ins too. Those sound so impactful. Just to follow up on that feedback we’re receiving too.

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah, and we tell ’em these don’t require a lesson plan. These don’t require the same level of work, but they’re just, there’s quick check-ins as if I was in the building and I was walking by.

Jessica:

Absolutely. Someone did ask about your research that you have done. If they could receive a copy of that, as long as you approve Dr. Lucas, we’ll make sure that that’s sent out with the recording.

Dr. Heather Lucas:

Yeah, I’m authorized to give it to people who, so yeah, it’s an international journal of Learning in Higher Education, and there’s an article. You can have the whole dissertation if you want it, but the article is probably an easier read.

Jessica:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, that’s it for today. Dr. Lucas, thank you so much for sharing your research findings with us today, and thank you to all of our attendees for joining us and contributing to this conversation. If there are any outstanding questions that you have about GoReact or any of the other tools in the Echo 360 Learning transformation platform, please feel free to email your representative or your client success manager. We hope that this discussion sparked new ideas as you continue the very important job of preparing future teachers. Have a great summer and we’ll see you soon.