At the 2016 AACTE Annual Meeting, professors from the University of Michigan presented on how they use Edthena in their Elementary Teacher Education program - the best practices they've discovered for using video as a tool of instructional coaching, along with the innovations they're working toward using the technology.

1. EXPANDING HORIZONS:
INNOVATIVE USES OF VIDEO IN
PRACTICE-BASED TEACHER EDUCATION
Timothy Boerst, University of Michigan
Meri Tenney Muirhead, University of Michigan
Meghan Shaughnessy, University of Michigan
Adam Geller, Edthena
AACTE 2015
“Becoming a Program that Uses Video to Support
Teacher Learning”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NODxZjUXAL0

2. OVERVIEW
 Framing:
o The need to use video in a practice-based teacher
education program
o Edthena platform
 Examples of “innovation” in the use of video
 Summarizing: Problems of practice as catalysts for
innovation
 Questions and Discussion
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3. FRAMING: THE NEED TO USE VIDEO IN A
PRACTICE-BASED TEACHER EDUCATION
PROGRAM
Tim Boerst

4. OUR GOAL: WELL-STARTED BEGINNERS
 Teachers who demonstrate beginning proficiency
with the high-leverage practices
 “Subject-matter serious” elementary teachers
who are able to represent the content with integrity
 Ethical teachers who recognize and can act on
their professional obligations
…. with room (and tools!) for further growth and development
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5. TEACHING AS INTERACTION
(Cohen, Raudenbush, and Ball, 2003; Lampert, 2001)
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Teaching relies on practices that
support the interaction of:
 Academic content
 Students
 The teacher
In ways that are sensitive to, and
shaped by teaching and learning
contexts

6. MAKING TEACHING PRACTICES LEARNABLE
Pedagogies of practice support professional learning using
ways of:
 Representing practice that make it visible
 Breaking complex practices into their constituent parts
(decomposition)
 Engaging in the practice in ways that approach full
engagement (approximation)
(Grossman et al., 2009)
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7. THE PROMISE OF VIDEO
Videos are crucial supports for pedagogies of practice:
 Richly represent the interactive practices of teaching
 Support the unpacking of teaching (decomposition)
When there are accessible, efficient, secure, flexible...
ways of:
 Storing video
 Sharing video
 Interacting around video
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8. THE EDTHENA PLATFORM
Adam Geller

9. THREE KEY PROBLEMS
 Reliable Uploads
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14. THREE KEY PROBLEMS
 Reliable Uploads
 Authentic Collaboration
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21. THREE KEY PROBLEMS
 Reliable Uploads
 Authentic Collaboration
 Organization & Process
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25. 24

26. EXAMPLES OF “innovation”

27. MAKING CORE PRACTICE VISIBLE:
VIDEO ENHANCED LESSON PLANNING
Meghan Shaughnessy

28. EXPLAINING CORE CONTENT
A core teaching practice that entails:
 Attending to the integrity of the subject matter and students’
likely interpretation of it
 Strategically choosing and using representations and
examples to build understanding and remediate
misconceptions
 Using language carefully
 Highlighting core ideas while sidelining potentially distracting
other ones
 Making one’s own thinking visible while modeling and
demonstrating
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29. USING VIDEO TO SUPPORT LEARNING TO
EXPLAIN CORE CONTENT
 Mathematics methods with an
assignment that involves giving an
explanation about content to a student
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Sammi is at her school’s ice cream social and she’s feeling the
need for some chocolate! Sammi decides to buy 3/5 of a pan of
brownies that is 2/3 full. Sammi wants to know how much of a total
pan of brownies she will be buying. She wonders, “What is 3/5 of
2/3?”

30. PRE-INNOVATION PRACTICE: WRITTEN PLANS
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Purpose:
 To support preparation for
engagement in a core teaching
practice
Representation of practice:
 Interns wrote their
explanations in a lesson plan
 Instructors read the plans and
commented
The challenges:
 Time-consuming for interns
(good use of time?)
 Limited for evaluating
preparation and providing
feedback

31. USE OF EDTHENA
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32. BENEFITS OF INNOVATION
Including a video component in
planning allows for:
 Feedback that can be focused on
more core aspects of the practice
 More efficient use of time for
instructors
 More productive intern practice
and preparation (i.e.,
walkthroughs)
Explaining core content entails:
• Attending to the integrity of the
subject matter and students’ likely
interpretation of it
• Strategically choosing and using
representations and examples to
build understanding and remediate
misconceptions
• Using language carefully
• Highlighting core ideas while
sidelining potentially distracting
other ones
• Making one’s own thinking visible
while modeling and demonstrating
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33. MARSHALING FEEDBACK:
INTENSIVE SUPPORT OF STUDENT
TEACHERS
Meri Tenney Muirhead

34. PRE-INNOVATION PRACTICE: SITE VISITS TO
STUDENT TEACHERS
Purpose:
 Provide feedback to Student Teachers focused on
honing teaching practices that already have a solid
start
 Ensuring that Student Teachers are ready to assume
responsibility for classrooms of their own
Representation of practice:
 Live observation of teaching (1 time per week)
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 Providing feedback through written comments or, when possible, engaging in triad
discussions of the teaching
The challenges:
 Being there  Teaching is ephemeral  Access to one’s own teaching
 Inadequate “space” for dialog about teaching

35. USE OF EDTHENA
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36. USE OF EDTHENA
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Field instructor
Preservice Teacher

37. USE OF EDTHENA
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Field Experiences
Coordinator
Mentor Teacher
her

38. USE OF EDTHENA
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Preservice Teacher

39. BENEFITS OF INNOVATION
Routine “presence”
 As long as videos are uploaded, all members of the instructional
support team are “there”, even when schedules are demanding
Capturing teaching
 Tangible records serve as residue of the improvement of practice
Access to one’s own teaching
 Interns can replay their teaching and formulate questions it raises
Flexible “spaces” for coordinated dialog
 Shared space for asynchronous dialog that accommodates
availability of participants and coordination of feedback
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40. SUPPORTING THE LEARNING OF THOSE
SUPPORTING LEARNING:
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF
INSTRUCTORS
Meri Tenney Muirhead & Meghan Shaunghnessy

41. PRE-INNOVATION PRACTICE: PRESENTING
INFORMATION & SHARING STORIES
Purpose:
 To support growth in the knowledge and skills of
Teacher Education instructors
 To launch and “drive” program change
Representation of practice:
 Sharing documents such as descriptions of the
program and field evaluation forms
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 Experienced field instructors, course instructors, and program leaders sharing stories of
intern’s teaching and their work in relation to the teaching
The challenges:
 Inadequate portrayal of practice  Recipients of information (not owning changes)
 Lack of common experiences, images, and language

42. USE OF EDTHENA
4. Leading whole class discussions of content*
Builds collective knowledge in relation to
specific goals by orchestrating the speaking and
listening of many students, and making
contributions of their own.

43. BENEFITS OF INNOVATION
Rich portrayal of practice
 Of interns’ teaching
 Of the work of an instructor
Common “text”
 Shared experiences watching teaching
 Opportunities to connect interpretation with evidence
Collectively forging change
 Groups are positioned to determine the meaning of changes
Providing leaders with resources
 Searchable “libraries” of records of practice that can be used for
professional development purposes42

44. SUMMARIZING:
PROBLEMS OF PRACTICE AS CATALYSTS
FOR INNOVATION
Tim Boerst

45. PROBLEMS OF PRACTICE DRIVE
INNOVATION WITH VIDEO
Problem-innovation
 Invisibility/complexity of teaching practice video enhanced lesson plans
 Marshaling support for student teachers video feedback group
 Professional development for instructors video supported tuning discussions
in a changing program
Snapshots of other problem-innovation situations
 Building community among interns self-generated colleague groups
 Multimedia program level performance layered groups for submission
assessments and scorer training
 Need to track program level data custom rating scales and data
(for formative and summative uses) aggregation in Edthena
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46. Capture skill level aligned to performance standards.

47. Spot trends in performance and see teacher growth through interactive data visualizations.

48. QUESTIONS

49. THANK YOU!
FURTHER QUESTIONS? PLEASE CONTACT US:
Tim Boerst tboerst@umich.edu
Meri Tenney Muirhead merimuir@umich.edu
Meghan Shaunghessy mshaugh@umich.edu
Adam Geller adam@edthena.com
AACTE 2015
“Becoming a program that uses video to support teacher learning”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NODxZjUXAL0