Abstract:

This practice-oriented presentation examines the impact of incorporating video models of key course principles in an online TEFL certificate program with onsite student teaching. The presentation will first explain the methods of incorporating video, the pre- and post-video teaching methods, and then present methods of analysis for comparing the pre- and post-video teaching results.

Throughout the 19 weeks of online coursework, teacher candidates in the experimental groups supplemented reading, blogging, and applied coursework with videos of successful ESL/EFL teachers illustrating key points from that week’s instructional objectives, and reflected and reacted to the videos in their coursework products. Data analysis focused on the impact of the video on the eventual student teaching of the teacher candidates, and compared the relative success of those who undertook student teaching in sections of the course which included the video models with the student teaching outcomes of teacher candidates who undertook student teaching without the models. The researcher’s hypothesis was that student teachers who had experienced the benefit of watching others in action would exhibit quantitatively significant improvements over those who had not. In addition to examining student teaching outcomes, the researcher also examined the impact on course projects, with a focus on weekly assignments and lesson planning. The researcher also reviewed, qualitatively, the way that the videos impacted ideas about theory and practice throughout the 19 weeks of the online course component. Finally, due to previous research on other variables, researcher examined the impact on classroom community that the videos seemed to impart.

Keywords:

Online education, teacher education, language teaching, performance assessment of instructional effectiveness, outcomes-based education.