Individual Video-supported Learning Guidance to Improve the Teaching Quality in Physical Education

Abstract

Video recordings have been used in teacher professional development for many years (Klinzing & Zifreund, 1986) and their use has steadily increased and changed in recent years (Brophy, 2004). Video recordings can be used in professional development as a visual tool to support and accurately explain feedback, as they can depict instructional processes not only in their complexity, but also in their variability (Noltenius, 2012). For the subject of physical education (PE), however, there are comparatively few digital learning opportunities in teacher professional development (Borchert, Seidel, Schneider, & Karapanos, 2017). To promote this area of research, the present project focuses on the further development of an existing video library with best-practice clips for PE teachers and a professional development pro-gram in form of an individual video-based online-coaching in the K-3/UE-level based on the MyTeachingPartner (MTP) Program (Allen et al., 2011). The generic observation instrument Class-room Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) (Pianta, La Paro & Hamre, 2008) served as the basis for both the video library (selection of clips) and the coaching intervention (including assessment of teaching quality). The video library expansion and coaching intervention conducted in this study are derived from the theoretical background and design plan of projects by Richartz (2011, 2015, 2018). In this study, the theoretical considerations and design plans developed in the various projects by Richartz were transferred to another context – PE. They were adapted and reworked with a mixed methods design to link the methods in a new kind of way. In this context, extensive preparatory work includes for example the creation of a video library for PE, the development of a new format for knowledge transfer or additional evaluation steps. In the first study part, 44 video clips were produced and validated in a lengthy and elaborate pro-cess. These video clips are intended to show best practices for daily PE instruction related to a single CLASS dimension. They were embedded in an existing online-learning platform and were used as part of the individual video-based online coaching to improve teaching quality. Clips could be gen-erated from eight different teachers from different schools and external validation was carried out by 29 additional expert teachers. Results concerning the video library are presented on the valida-tion of the video clips and on the usage of this online-learning platform during the coaching inter-vention. Three different types of learners could be identified: those who learn mainly with their own videos, those who imitate other teachers, and those who incorporate the portrayed examples into their lessons in an adapted form. The adapted video-based coaching intervention was conducted with a subsample of five PE teachers (Mage = 37.40, SDage = 8.75). It is an exploratory study that was evaluated using a mixed methods design. In addition to quantitative data (teacher’s questionnaires, the children’s questionnaires, us-age of the video library and the CLASS scores), qualitative data were the focus of the research design (interviews, behavioral data from within the coaching intervention describing the coachee’s prefer-ences with reference to the CLASS dimensions and qualitative data of the video recording describing individual lessons). Triangulations were used to link the different data sets in order to provide a more detailed picture of the teachers' conditions at the beginning of the intervention and to shed light on their individual developments from different perspectives. Overall, participants consistently rated the process quality of the coaching positively in all effective-ness factors (Greif, 2016) and all five teachers seem to have learned aspects regarding their educa-tional beliefs thus being more in line with empirically well-secured quality characteristics of teacher behavior (based on CLASS). However, no distinct and linear changes regarding the motivation of the children of the five teachers could be identified. In addition, contrary to the expected linear positive change in CLASS scores due to the coaching intervention, the different types of teachers showed a divergent picture. The divergent trajectories are partly confirmed by the different data sets, but partly questioned. This underlines the importance of a mixed methods approach in a field as com-plex as teaching quality.