Abstract:

Very few teachers step back to make Observational Reflections (ORs) about their own teaching. This paper draws on Kolb (1984)’s Experiential Learning Theory to foreground the role of making ORs in transforming pedagogical practices. One of the ways in which ORs could be done, is through vodcasting. Although many open source and free vodcasting tools are now available, empirical studies aiming at helping teachers to transform their pedagogical practices through making ORs on own instructions via vodcasts, are scarce. The larger PhD study from which this paper emerges explored a semester-long course in which Luganda language teacher-trainees at Makerere University were tasked to view videos of their own instruction on Soundcloud and make observational reflection on them in form of online postings. Trainees’ ORs were analyzed using Discourse Analysis. In many of their ORs, trainees indicated the need to transform their own teaching. Effective pedagogical uses of vodcasts requires that teachers and learners go beyond making descriptive, to making dialogical and critical observational reflections on own teaching practices.

Keywords:

Vodcasting, Reflective Teaching, Experiential Learning.