All 2 entries tagged Mentoring

Coaching using video – developing teachers internationally: challenges and opportunities

by Anna Donnelly and Jonty Leese

What we did:

Whilst there is tremendous value in learning face to face, there are some situations in which online learning is the only viable option: international teacher education is a case in point. With the growth of demand for HEIs in the UK to undertake teacher education and development internationally, the University of Warwick sought some practical solutions to developing teachers, often thousands of miles and many time zones away.

Using video to support teacher learning (Major and Watson, 2017) and reflection (Hamel and Viau-Guay, 2019) is not a new practice, but the teacher values (Centre for Teacher Education, 2022) that thread through our course and the bespoke approach to coaching at the University of Warwick shaped how we approached using this technology.

We wanted to develop some tools so that when video was utilised on platforms that had the capability to time stamp or pause either pre-recorded or live recordings of teachers, then make a variety of learning comments on this. We shaped the responses to encourage supportive, nurturing and developmental feed forward.

Where is it?

We selected a platform which had the capability for key stakeholders to live-record content (trainee teachers teaching, mentor and trainee coaching meetings) and / or examine pre-recorded content with a reflective and intellectually curious lens (Centre for Teacher Education, 2022). Comments from all stakeholders could then be time-stamped to aspects of practice and specific coaching or teaching attributes could be flagged and discussed within the platform comment facility. These were linked to our Professional Practice Units (PPU) which have a specific emphasis relating to their teacher education. This gave the opportunity for focussed, evidence-based reflections from mentor, mentee, and university professional; integrating closely theory and practice, as well as providing the opportunity to relate learner with readings and other content to support strengthening of the theory-practice link for all involved.

How it will be integrated into future practice?

As we develop our international course as well as look to expanding our remote programme into teacher education ‘cold spots’ across the UK, this platform could provide a useful tool for both teacher education and professional mentor development as well as a step change in how HEI colleagues may undertake part of their role as teacher educators.

Lessons Learnt:

Challenges

• When recording involved people under 16, there were significant barriers in terms of negotiating safeguarding concerns and approaches of individual schools across multiple legal jurisdictions. This is a challenge that the company providing the online platform is still developing in terms of support materials for schools.
• The wider issue around ethics for collecting data GDPR policies and CCTV protocols for under 16s proved to be an ongoing challenge and not one that was solved within the scope of this project.

Opportunities

• There were tremendous gains to be had in terms of purposeful and focussed teacher reflection on practice, as video proved a rich source of statistics and evidence on which to base a coaching conversation. It had the potential to give agency to teacher construction of their own learning as well as supporting coaches in their examinations of the ‘reality’ of the impact of the student teaching on the children’s learning (Knight, 2021).

References:

Centre for Teacher Education (2022) Developing an ambitious ITE Curriculum. Available at: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/cte/about/ite-curriculum/ (Accessed: 3 March 2023).

Hamel, C. and Viau-Guay, A. (2019) ‘Using video to support teachers’ reflective practice: A literature review’, Cogent Education. Edited by B. Nkuyubwatsi, 6(1), p. 1673689. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2019.1673689.

Major, L. and Watson, S. (2017) ‘Using video to support in-service teacher professional development: the state of the field, limitations and possibilities’, Technology Pedagogy and Education, 27, p. In Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2017.1361469.

Abigail Ball : 20 Mar 2023 12:02 |  Tags: Anna Donnelly Jonty Leese Mentoring Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Recording and Sharing Mentoring Best Practice

by Jonty Leese and Anna Donnelly

What we did:

In Initial Teacher Education (ITE), the role of coaching a student teacher is crucial. For new and established mentors and trainees, the ability to see good examples of coaching is a powerful tool to see and experience this process. Inspired by Knight’s coaching model (Knight, 2021) and combined with the unique lens of Warwick Teacher Values (Centre for Teacher Education, 2022) we were able to build a framework to support understanding of the equality of role within effective coaching. This process supports university tutors as well as school-based mentors.

To facilitate this, we recorded and edited post lesson mentor meetings from a variety of phases (KS1-KS4) in different contexts to build a clearer understanding of effective mentoring with current all stakeholders.

These were real staff and students, so it was an authentic learning conversation and formed part of their regular weekly meeting.

We processed these to add transcripts for accessibility (W3C, 2018) and used software which created a clickable audio and text of the conversations (otter.ai)

These were then shared on a site builder site here: breaking down into different categories for mentors, whether they were new to it or more experienced. See image below:

How it will be integrated into future practice:

These have been embedded into current practice for our online PGCE and will be shared through mentor training, with these as a support resource going forward for all routes.

These can be utilised as an “on demand” resource for mentors and trainees.

This forms a basis of a growing body of real-world examples which will grow incorporating future recordings ensuring that a range of contexts and examples reflecting the unique role of mentorship is captured.

Lessons Learnt:

It’s very time consuming to record, edit and upload video – even with an organised workflow, it took longer than anticipated.

The use of AI in technology is fallible – proof reading of automated transcripts is necessary to ensure accuracy and appropriateness of what has been transcribed.

It’s our responsibility to build time into training plans, rather than expect that these are additional and extra to core mentor requirements. This could form part of the compulsory 20 hours mentor training that all mentors are mandated to complete for the start of the 2024/25 academic year.

The recording and disseminating of a mentoring video which is intrinsically a private conversation is a powerful window into another person’s world. This can support lifting practitioners out of a silo mindset and can open them up into seeing practical examples of different approaches within the Warwick framework – giving them agency to transform their practice and to reflect upon their own methodologies.

Recording the videos does not require high production values to have value.

Watching a video as a standalone resource without guided reflection and dialogue- may be a missed opportunity; watching, pausing and reflecting as part of a dialogue can stimulate rich conversations (Alexander, 2021). Using the videos alongside pertinent questions to evoke reflection and transformation of practice is the next step.

References:

Alexander, R. (2021) ‘DIALOGIC TEACHING AND THE STUDY OF CLASSROOM TALK’.

Centre for Teacher Education (2022) Developing an ambitious ITE Curriculum. Available at: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/cte/about/ite-curriculum/ (Accessed: 3 March 2023).

Knight, J. (2021) The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching: Seven Factors for Success. Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Definitive-Guide-Instructional-Coaching-Factors/dp/141663066X/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=The+Definitive+Guide+to+Instructional+Coaching%3A+Seven+Factors+for+Success&qid=1646652872&sr=8-3 (Accessed: 7 March 2022).

W3C (2018) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C, Web Accessibility Initiative. Available at: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/ (Accessed: 2 January 2019).

Abigail Ball : 13 Mar 2023 10:32 |  Tags: Anna Donnelly Jonty Leese Mentoring Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem