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Video-feedback bij Spirit: 'dit is leerzaam voor de hele organisatie!'

Stimulating teachers' professional development using video feedback with reciprocal peer coaching

Our research aims to formulate design guidelines for stimulating teachers' professional development using video feedback in collaborative settings. The study investigates guidelines concerning video feedback in peer coaching settings and focuses on a setting with three roles (of trainee, coach and observer), (c) coach training, (d) ownership of learning goals and (e) focus on outcomes in classroom. A scheme was developed consisting of six coach training sessions and of peer reciprocal coaching in subgroups with video feedback of classroom performances. Within these subgroups three teachers took turns in different roles: as trainee, as coach and as observer of the coaching dialogue. The study explores the coach's roles that are beneficial for the learning process of their peers and seeks to understand how watching video records of own practice supports teachers to examine their own professional behaviour in new ways. Data for this study includes videotaped and transcribed subgroup dialogues and, for triangulation, data from learning reports, audio tapes and observational notes of the training sessions, questionnaires, and in-depth semi-structured interviews with all participants. Coaching in a setting with three well defined roles (trainee, coach, observant) proved valuable. The coach role was very important for the depth of the reflection process. Non-directive coaching skills created necessary safety and space for learning, but more directive coaching skills such as 'Continue to ask questions' were necessary to deepen the reflection process from more descriptive and perceptive reflections to more receptive, interactive and critical reflections. In the dialogues the participants reflect on practice, on context, on values, and on improvements. Working with (peer) observers of the coaching dialogs improved performance and forced the group to take their roles more seriously. Essential for the scheme to work is a high degree of equality between participants.

Teacher Feedback during Active Learning

Feedback is one of the most powerful tools teachers can use to enhance student learning. In 2006, the Dutch Inspectorate of Education concluded from classroom observations that it is difficult for Dutch teachers to give their students good feedback in order to stimulate students' learning process and developmental progress. Similar problems were revealed in other school levels and countries, for example in secondary education and in Finland. Giving feedback during active learning may be even more troublesome for teachers. During active learning, students are working in small groups on different learning goals and undertake different learning activities at the same time. They need to achieve task-related goals as well as to develop the meta-cognitive knowledge and skills that are needed for active learning. Yet, teachers often seem unable to provide the feedback that is needed and they do not know how to support the development of meta-cognitive knowledge and skills.Therefore, this research project focused on ways to improve primary school teachers' feedback giving practices during active learning. The central research question is: How can primary school teachers learn to give optimal feedback to pupils during active learning? To answer this question, five studies have been conducted. In the first study, knowledge regarding teachers' feedback practices was gathered. A category system was developed based on the literature and empirical data. A total of 1465 teacher-student interactions of 32 teachers who practiced active learning in the domain of environmental studies in the sixth, seventh or eighth grade of 13 Dutch primary schools were videotaped and assessed using this system. Results showed that about half of the teacher-student interactions contained feedback. This feedback was usually focused on the tasks that were being performed by the students and on the ways in which these tasks were processed. Only 5% of the feedback was explicitly related to a learning goal. In their feedback, the teachers were directing (rather than facilitating) the learning processes. During active learning, however, feedback on meta-cognition and social learning is important. Feedback should be explicitly related to learning goals. In practice, these kinds of feedback appear to be scarce. In the second study, the problems these 32 primary school teachers perceive and the beliefs they hold regarding the provision of feedback were investigated. A writing task and an interview were conducted. It appeared that teachers believed that conditional teacher skills, especially time management, hindered them most from giving good feedback. The most widely held belief was that 'feedback should be positive'. Teachers also believed that it is important to adopt a facilitative way of giving feedback, but they found this difficult to implement. Only some teachers believed goal-directedness and a focus on student meta-cognition were important during active learning and teachers did not perceive problems regarding these aspects. In the third study, a professional development program (PDP) was developed, implemented and evaluated. The goals and content of the PDP were based on a review of the literature regarding feedback and active learning and on the results of the preceding studies. The design of the PDP was based on the extant literature regarding the features which are considered to be important for PDPs, including structural features, goal setting and characteristics of the professional development activities that are part of the program. Effects of this PDP on 16 primary schoolteachers' knowledge, beliefs, perceived problems and classroom behavior were examined via observations, a writing task and a questionnaire prior and twice after the program was implemented. Results showed that several aspects of feedback during active learning were improved, both in the short and in the long term. For example, teachers learned to believe that feedback must be goal-directed and that learning goals need to be communicated to students. In the classrooms, teachers related their feedback more often explicitly to the learning goals. In the fourth study, the extent to which teachers attributed the success of the PDP to each of the purposefully implemented features of the PDP was examined. The 16 teachers that participated in the PDP completed a questionnaire and four focus group interviews were conducted. Results indicated that teachers value most features quite highly; all features contributed to teachers' professional development according to the teachers themselves. The qualitative data was used to illustrate and specify the theoretical knowledge regarding the features that appeared to be effective in PDP's. Finally, in the fifth study, the learning process of two of the participating teachers was described in detail. Written reflections, as well as videotaped reflections during the video interaction training meetings were analyzed and related to the effects of the PDP on both teachers' knowledge, beliefs, perceived problems and classroom behavior during te course of the PDP. By relating the learning processes of these two teachers to the literature regarding professional development, we aimed for a rich understanding of the impact of the PDP on teachers' professional development.

Impact of feedback request forms and verbal feedback on higher education students’ feedback perception, self-efficacy, and motivation

In higher education, students often misunderstand teachers’ written feedback. This is worrisome, since written feedback is the main form of feedback in higher education. Organising feedback conversations, in which feedback request forms and verbal feedback are used, is a promising intervention to prevent misunderstanding of written feedback. In this study a 2 × 2 factorial experiment (N = 128) was conducted to examine the effects of a feedback request form (with vs. without) and feedback mode (written vs. verbal feedback). Results showed that verbal feedback had a significantly higher impact on students’ feedback perception than written feedback; it did not improve students’ self-efficacy, or motivation. Feedback request forms did not improve students’ perceptions, self-efficacy, or motivation. Based on these results, we can conclude that students have positive feedback perceptions when teachers communicate their feedback verbally and more research is needed to investigate the use of feedback request forms.

Self-controlled video feedback on tactical skills in soccer teams results in more active involvement of players.

Many studies have shown that self-controlled feedback is beneficial for learning motor tasks, andthat learners prefer to receive feedback after supposedly good trials. However, to date all studiesconducted on self-controlled learning have used individual tasks and mainly relatively simpleskills. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine self-controlled feedback on tactical skills insmall-sided soccer games. Highly talented youth soccer players were assigned to a self-control oryoked group and received video feedback on their o ffensive performance in 3 vs. 2 small-sidedgames. The results showed that the self-control group requested feedback mostly after good trials,that is, after they scored a goal. In addition, the perceived performance of the self-control groupwas higher on feedback than on no-feedback trials. Analyses of the conversations around thevideo feedback revealed that the players and coach discussed good and poor elements of per-formance and how to improve it. Although the coach had a major role in these conversations, theplayers of the self-control group spoke more and showed more initiative compared to the yokedgroup. The results revealed no significant beneficial effect of self-controlled feedback on per-formance as judged by the coach. Overall, the findings suggest that in such a complex situation assmall-sided soccer games, self-controlled feedback is used both to confirm correct performanceelements and to determine and correct errors, and that self-controlled learning stimulates theinvolvement of the learner in the learning process.

Learning to notice

Uit onderzoek blijkt de kwaliteit van de leraar voor de klas de meest belangrijke factor is op het leerresultaat van leerlingen.Leraarschap is een professie en net als andere professionals moeten leraren hun vak bijhouden en constant hun eigen handelen evalueren en verbeteren. Soms gaat dat vanzelf, bijvoorbeeld bij beginnende leraren. Om te overleven, zijn zij gedwongen heel snel te leren en zich verder te ontwikkelen. Maar meer ervaren leraren hebben inmiddels allerlei routines opgebouwd en missen vaak wat Koffeman (2011) noemt de 'noodzaak tot leren'. Het proefschrift beschrijft mogelijkheden om de professionalisering van leraren te stimuleren door middel van reflectiegesprekken met collega's en het gebruik van videofeedback. Het proefschrift betreft een ontwerponderzoek met als doel: op onderzoek gebaseerde oplossingen te ontwikkelen voor complexe problemen uit de onderwijspraktijk en tevens bij te dragen aan wetenschappelijke theorievorming, door het bestuderen van de onderliggende ontwerpprincipes. Samen met een school voor voortgezet onderwijs is een concreet programma ontworpen dat meer informele vormen van leren op de werkplek tussen leraren stimuleert. Door het ontwerpproces en de uitkomsten stap voor stap te beschrijven, levert dit onderzoek niet alleen een kant-en-klaar professionaliseringsprogramma dat andere scholen kunnen gaan gebruiken, maar levert het vooral ook bouwstenen op in de vorm van ontwerpprincipes en kennis over hoe en onder welke voorwaarden deze in de school kunnen werken. Met deze bouwstenen worden ook andere scholen in staat gesteld om het programma aan te passen aan de context van de eigen school.