Deconstructing ‘good practice’ teaching videos: An analysis of pre-service teachers’ reflections

Abstract

Video clips of mathematics lessons are used extensively in pre-service teacher education and continuing professional development activities. Given course time constraints, an opportunity to critique these videos is not always possible. Because of this, and because pre-service teachers make extensive use of material found during internet searches, much of it purporting to exemplify ‘good’ practice, we were interested to know what sense they make of such material. By encouraging pre-service teachers to reflect and comment on the practices being promoted in this way, we wanted to hear what they focused on, their initial views of the teaching and learning shown in the video, and how their views were formed and affected by engaging in discussion. Findings indicate that pre-service teachers’ responses to the material were dominated by their beliefs about mathematics, and that engaging in discussion enabled them to appreciate the interpretations of others.