Using Video to Improve Practice

“Each person’s task in life is to become an increasingly better person.” -Leo Tolstoy

CANI, Constant and Never-ending Improvement, is a life approach that focuses on ongoing learning, personal improvement, and growth.  Each day is dedicated to doing tasks with increased skill and determination.  In Japan the approach is call Kaizen which translates as improvement or change for the better.  The concept of CANI or Kaizen,  while a business philosophy, seems to apply to all aspects of education, especially to classroom teaching.  As you know, being a teacher takes tremendous dedication, ongoing growth, extreme flexibility, and grit to refine skills that meet dynamic and changing student needs.  Because you most often work alone,  you may not always receive feedback on your teaching style or the effectiveness of particular strategies.  Due to the complexities of classroom life and the intense give and take relationship between you and your students, you usually only get a glimpse of your real-time practice.  

Video lends a quick peek into the reality of your own classroom and offers a gauge to guide professional growth.  By simply connecting a cell phone or tablet to a tripod and pushing the record button, you are able to observe evidence of your own practice.  It’s hard to change what we can’t see; consequently, by using video recordings you have powerful evidence of what’s working and what needs refining.  During a prep period or at the end of the day, you can scan the recording, make notes, and reflect on what’s working and what needs to be changed.  The ultimate goal of this process is increased self-reflection that can lead to improvement of skills.

At first, you may want to get an overview of what’s happening in the classroom, but as time goes on, specific strategies can become the target.  Observations can be made on the clarity of directions, the effectiveness of group work, the frequency of feedback, or the quality of higher order questions. By starting small and recording one class per week, little changes can be made that will effect overall teaching quality.  It is best to review the video the day of recording while instructional goals are fresh and details relevant.  Video recording is also a powerful preparation for evaluation visits.  Since there are only a few ways to cite evidence of practice besides student work samples or video taping, you may choose to share the fact that you are using video to improve teaching skills with your principal or department chair. 

With the introduction of video recording, your students will be very curious.  At times it might be appropriate to share some of the recordings so together you can reflect on specific aspect of classroom life such as student participation, complexity of responses, or time-on-task.

The ultimate goal for using video capture is to become the best teacher possible.  By developing meta-cognitive skills around instructional practice, you can develop realistic views of your own skills and set goals for personal growth and professional satisfaction. 

“You don't need to change the world; you need to change yourself.”   - Miguel Ruiz