PEER VIDEO COACHING AS MEANINGFUL, RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS

In the last decade, the education profession in America has met significant challenges, including increased accountability and decreased or stagnant state and federal funding. As a result, school districts have been forced to make difficult choices regarding professional development for teachers. School districts and teachers have been tasked with doing more with less, leading to teacher reports of isolation, burnout, or leaving the profession altogether. Teachers who remain in the profession find themselves searching for opportunities for growth and a sense of connection and affirmation in their work. Research on effective professional development has burgeoned and is available to school leaders and teachers as they seek to understand the best strategies for building teacher capacity and producing positive student outcomes. Simultaneously, technological innovations have led to decreased costs and increased access and ownership of personal devices. The saturation of technology in daily lives of students and teachers has led to familiarity with devices. With virtually no training, consumers can view, share, and create content using media of all kinds. The intersection of these two forces - shifts in professional development for educators and shifts in technology - has created an opportunity for utilizing unconventional yet increasingly recognized methods of meeting teachers' needs for professional growth and a sense of connectedness in a cost-effective, technologically-enabled way. One example of this unconventional approach of marrying professional development to technological availability is the practice of peer video coaching, a form of instructional coaching with many hallmarks of effective professional development. This presentation will share study findings that explore the perceptions of Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade education practitioners in the United States regarding the value of peer video review as professional development and its impact on teachers' instructional practices and sense of professional belonging. In the study, in-service teachers enrolled in a Curriculum and Instruction graduate program identified an area of instructional focus, video recorded their classroom instruction, formed peer groups, and shared the videos for the purpose of obtaining feedback for professional growth. Post-course, the graduate students were presented with a summary of four benefits of the peer video review process, as identified in a recent professional article titled Record, Replay, Reflect, written by Jim Knight and colleagues (2012). Participants shared their perceptions of the peer video review experience. Analysis revealed evidence of individual and collective benefits at personal and professional levels, and consensus around the value of the experience. Study outcomes note that peer video review offers promising outcomes for professional development that involve teachers meaningfully in their own growth. The researchers will share a description of the study, findings, participants' thoughts on the strengths of the video medium, and suggestions for practical applications of peer video review in the field.