Abstract:

Video has been used as a tool for teacher education and professional development (PD) for the past 50 years, however the focus and methods of its uses have considerably changed over time. The various uses of video as a source for teacher learning were the focus of extensive investigations within educational research in general, and specifically within research in mathematics education. The affordances of using videotaped episodes from authentic mathematics lessons in PD for teachers have been pointed out in three main directions:
(a) introducing new curricula, activities, pedagogical strategies, etc., through supplying teachers with video cases that model and demonstrate the enactment of new ideas;
(b) using videotaped lessons as a source for feedback and evaluation, by having teachers watch videotapes from their own classrooms and discuss them with colleagues or instructors, often with the use of a pre-constructed standard-based rubric; and
(c) enhancing teachers' proficiency to notice, understand and discuss students' mathematical thinking.

The VIDEO-LM project (Viewing, Investigating and Discussing Environments of Learning Mathematics), developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, is aimed at a fourth direction: promoting secondary mathematics teachers’ reflection, as well as their mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT, as defined by Ball et al., 2008). The central means to achieve this is by creating a collection of videotaped lessons that serve as learning objects and sources for discussions with groups of teachers. The videos are taken, in a sense, as “vicarious experiences” which allow for indirect exploration of one’s own perceptions on the practice of mathematics teaching, through the observation of unknown peers in action. The discussions take place are in a supportive atmosphere which does not focus on evaluative feedbacks, and are guided by the use of an analytic framework, comprised of six viewing lenses, which directs teachers to explore the videotaped lesson from the following six aspects:
(1) mathematical and meta-mathematical ideas around the lesson’s topic;
(2) explicit and implicit goals that may be ascribed to the teacher;
(3) the tasks selected by the teacher and their enactment in class;
(4) the nature of the teacher-student interactions;
(5) teacher dilemmas and decision-making processes; and
(6) beliefs about mathematics, its learning and its teaching as inferable from the teacher’s actions.

In the research we conducted to assess and characterize the impact of the VIDEO-LM project, data was collected from nearly 20 implementation sites all around the country, where the project’s team facilitated video-based in-service courses. Findings show that using the six-lens framework supports the development of a reflective language, with which teachers can engage in deep discussions about core issues embedded in the mathematics teaching profession. There is also evidence for growth, or crystallization, of the participants’ mathematical knowledge for teaching. Several mechanisms were suggested to explain these outcomes, such as comparing and contrasting; stepping into another person’s shoes; postponing judgment, and more. In the suggested paper and presentation, I will describe the six-lens framework, present the study and selected findings, and discuss the possible mechanisms that can explain the processes of change that teachers undergo.

Keywords:

Mathematics Education, Video-Based Professional Development, Reflection, Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching.