For years, video has been used in classrooms to impart knowledge to students. But only recently has the idea of video as a tool to impact teacher growth started gaining ground. We know that ways of teaching that lead to strong student outcomes can be measured, taught, and mastered by educators in your district, but how can video help?

Capturing teaching practices on video as a part of the professional learning program for teachers in your district provides many benefits. With video, you can:

• Watch a lesson any time, not just at the moment it’s being taught
• Pause a lesson to discuss the teacher’s thinking and explore “what-if” scenarios
• Get peer feedback about a lesson

Getting Comfortable With Video

It can be a little bit awkward to get started if you’ve never used video as a growth support tool before. Teachers can feel overly watched, get camera shy, and administrators can feel nervous about using the technology. These tips for first-timers can help you both jump in easily:

• Talk about the awkwardness: It’s normal and okay to feel weird about being on video while teaching. Share with teachers that it’s simply a tool for growth — not a recording that will be shared or saved forever.
• Use it for self-reflection first: Encourage teachers to try videoing a lesson themselves first, and using for self-reflection. Just one use might help them shake off any nerves.
• Start with a clip that went really well: As with any other type of evaluation, discussing positives first is a great way to enter the conversation.
• Focus on only one aspect of the lesson: Reduce overwhelm by only pausing to discuss a single aspect, say, student engagement so that it doesn’t feel like every move a teacher makes is on display.
• Ensure teachers share control of the videos: Since video is a media that can be easily stored and shared, make sure that teachers have access and control (with administrators) of the digital files.
• Focus on professional growth, not formal evaluations: To begin, use video as a tool for learning and growth. If introduced as a formal evaluation technique, video will likely make everyone more nervous.

Once everyone is feeling more comfortable with idea of video as a form of evaluation, consider these nine strategies to jumpstart professional growth among teachers in your district using video.

9 Strategies to Help Teachers Improve Instruction Using Video

1. Offer video as a chance for self-reflection

In such a busy role, teachers rarely have the chance to step back and reflect. Offer the use of video as a moment in teacher’s day for well-deserved self-reflection. Encourage teachers to watch videos over time to see how they work differently with groups of varying abilities and interests. Developing awareness, for example, of which students are engaged during a lesson and which seem distracted or uninterested can help teachers hone in on the specifics of the classroom dynamics — where the students are located, what visual aids are being used, the learning styles of different students, and their own presentation style. Empower them to make supported changes as they need to.

2. Facilitate peer learning with virtual video-sharing

Using video as a tool to facilitate peer mentoring can enhance the convenience, accessibility, and applicability of peer mentoring sessions [v]. Working in pairs or small teams, peer mentor teachers can use video to record their classes and review them with a focus on one area, together. Participating teachers can avoid nitpicking and concentrate on producing specific takeaways about how to improve in that area, resulting in a more constructive and positive session.

3. Establish a continuous improvement process, virtually

Video opens up possibilities for coaching beyond the typical “observe and reflect” between a teacher and a coach. Coaches can set up a continuous improvement process for the teacher using video as an integral part of trying out new strategies, getting feedback, and — here’s the important part — trying again.

Video can also create opportunities for virtual coaching. According to a meta-analysis of sixty studies on the causal effect of teacher coaching, there is no evidence that suggests a statistically significant difference between in-person and virtual coaching models [vi].

4. Familiarize new teachers with expectations

New teachers often find themselves in a situation in which they are unaware of the norms and expectations unique to the school. Video can be used to demonstrate these expectations and how they are displayed in the classroom. For example, if a principal or a curriculum director expects certain practices or behaviors to be evident in every classroom, video clips can exhibit how experienced teachers successfully use these practices in their classrooms. If a particular practice can be executed in multiple ways, examples of each acceptable method can be compiled and shown, giving new teachers flexibility as they incorporate these behaviors into their individual teaching styles.

5. Build video libraries of best practices and professional development workshops

Video allows districts to develop local libraries of best practices based on their definition of teaching effectiveness featuring teachers they know and respect (and who are willing to have video sand students and classrooms that seem familiar.

• Teaching strategy
• Class content
• Grade level
• Any other pedagogically relevant criteria in your district

6. Expand professional development resources with video learning communities

School districts across the United States are discovering the power of sharing video among teachers for professional development as an enhancement to professional learning communities (PLCs). During the 2012-2013 school year, 12 schools in Hillsborough County, Florida, took part in a pilot program to create a video learning community (VLC). The VLC allows teachers to reflect on their practices, share videotaped lessons with their colleagues, and receive feedback and coaching in a non-evaluative way. According to teachers who took part in the program, “using video in this way is very powerful.” Those teachers used video as a basis for ongoing professional conversations focused on increasing their proficiency and for reflection on their own instructional practices.

7. Provide motivation for new and experienced teachers

Teaching is demanding enough on its own, and with the intense focus on teaching from the government and media, it can be difficult for teachers to stay inspired and motivated. Video can be a catalyst for promoting and holding collective discussions about all the positive work teachers do, and the success stories they are seeing with their students. Reviewing video of oneself can also increase teacher motivation and autonomy in self-reflection [ii].

8. Encourage fresh perspectives and awareness in the classroom

“Habituation” — the tendency for people to stop noticing or responding to what they are repeatedly exposed to — can be an issue in the classroom, as Jim Knight, president of the Instructional Coaching Group, explains. As teachers get used to teaching the same material and seeing the same students every day, it is not unusual for, say, a disengaged student to go unnoticed or student behavioral problems to go unaddressed. On the flip side, a teacher who suffers from habituation can, sometimes without realizing it, lose their motivation and forget the importance of their job. Watching their teaching on video can help teachers gain a fresh perspective on and new awareness of their practice and how (or whether) they are engaging their students.

9. Bridge time and distance constraints between administrators and educators

The day of a school-based administrator has never been more complex and busy. For this reason, many principals use video so they can observe more teachers more often over the course of the school year. As an added benefit, principals can review video observations at times when urgent issues are less likely to be a distraction, and they can provide feedback to teachers more frequently. In this way, video can increase scalability of teacher observation and professional growth.

A focus on teaching

Research consistently shows that the most important factor in student learning is the presence of a quality teacher. Improving teacher quality has a direct impact on student success. By implementing the use of video to promote greater teacher effectiveness, teachers can learn and improve in ways never before possible.

Explore more on using video in the classroom with Frontline’s “Field Trip” podcast with Dr. Jim Knight.

More resources

• Podcast: See Reality, Get Better: One of the best things teachers can do to improve their practice is to videotape themselves teaching and then replay and reflect. Dr. Jim Knight discusses how teachers and administrators can best use video to enhance teaching, mentoring, and coaching.
• Podcast: The Camera Doesn’t Lie: Videotaping yourself teaching is scary. But here’s one teacher who fell in love with it, and she thinks you should, too.